The Falls City tribune., 1910-06-03
ABOUT PATENT medicines
DR.. MoRSMAN pISCouRSES OF
TWO VARIETIES.
Some Cure Disease. others Empty
the Pockets Some Have
Merit, Many Have Not.

The term Patent Medicines is
n misnomer. None OF the so-ealled
patent medicines are patented. Such
preparations have been patented at
various times and the name sticks
10 all that class of proprietary pre-
perations. The original makers of
Bateman's Drops claimed letters pat
ent from King George III, and God
frey's Cordial was also "A patented
article according TO the claims of its
makers. a few patents were is
sued in this country in an early day
and the patent Office is still authorized
10 issue patents on Compositions OF
Natter provided they be new and
valuable. Makers of medicine do not
ask for patents because il involves
to the public, in the patent office and
because they Are not new. owners
of THESE goods protect themselves by
copyrighting their label. their name
or their trade mark. These cannot
be infringed upon without liability un-
der the copyright or trademark laws,
but anyone can make a duplicate, If
he knows how of any medicine on the
market, without liability if he does
not infringe on the name or trade
mark. According to the advertise
ments of the patent medicine men,
they are all New Discoveries
Wonders of Science Original Com
binations, Remarkable Products Of
Years of Research" etc. etc. These
terms are merely advertising VERDI
age. They are not to be taken ser
iously. They are not new discov-
cries. They are not wonderful nor
remarkable. Few of them are wen
original and many of them are en-
tirely mnscientifie.
Some absolutely worthless nostrums
have been big sellers. The people
FN ~ iAieiiIh lilNf AilNii
the medicine. II wasn't mo cure
no pay it was nc cure and big
pay"
Thirty years ago a patent could
be put on the market and by judi
eious use of a modest advertising APP
preparation ii could be brought into
npnfntnAffA nnI Tho noAp1a o1annarAI
for It, 1t quickly relieved them too
of their loose change. II is much
more difficult now because advertis-
ing has become so common il has
lost some of its power and it takes
much more and of a more expensive
kind to do the work. Also because
the people are better educated and
not quite as easily humbugged. How
ever. there are still some very not
able examples of nostrum ingenuity
that do wonders in transferring the
coin from many pockets into one.
OF course there are differences in
patent medicines, Some of them
nav hN'h SUN hl1utbu iulAtuI6S,
that W. are forced to the conclusion
that they emanated from ignorance
rather than c%harlatanny and that has
been true of quite a number. In
several instances persons with no
medical knowledge have acquired re
ceipts' in which they had the con.
fidence born of ignorance" The
faith of the owner of the receipt"
induced others to believe. Then the
owner began putting up his medicine
for sale and his advertising became
more and more blatant until he was
Doctor and his medicine could
only be described by using all the
superlatiyes of the circus poster.
: Taere have been plenty of others
that didn't nave as honest an origin
as this. They were fakes. pure
and simple. Deliberately put out
by fakirs, who had the money to pay
expert advertisers. Some of them
proved to be gold mines and some
of them didn't. But merit didn't mine