The Washington herald., 1912-09-18

| BEFORE the opening session of the lee
ture course in connection with the
health exhibit of the Fifteenth An
nual Congress of the International
Congress of Hygiene and Demogra-
ply yesterday DR.. L. F. Kebler. chief
of the Division of Drugs of the United
| States Department of Agriculture told
his audience that among the numerous
victims of the patent medicine takers
were to be counted many physicians
| whose carelessness led them from time
| to time to accept without personal in
vestigation or reference to 4 competent
analyst, many of the worst nostrums
| that the inventive minds of the quacks
have placed upon the market as a lure
for the ignorant.
DR.. Keblers lecture was illustrated
with lantern slides showing the labels
and cartons of many of the patent drugs
now sold throughout the United States
| and abroad. In the list were many for
eign preparations. The most striking in
stance cited by DR.. Kebler was from a
physician who had, through his own un-
| thinking use of a preparation become
| addicted to the use of morphine Of which
| Heron" is a derivative. A letter
from this doctor was shown. It said:
Il am ashamed to say that I am a
graduate OF Johns Hopkins University
yet here l am writing you from the
psychopathic ward of a public institu-
ton. l was graduated from Johns Hop
kins. l am living in H l."
Scores Fake Cures.
Harmless fake cures for wasting dis
eases of all sorts. particularly tubercu-
losis were roundly scored by DR.. kebler.
He said:
THE precious time that is wasted be-
tween the inceptive stage OF a disease
like tuberculosis by people who are eX
rerimenting with only the most HARM
less OF the nostrums is the greatest
source of danger. Pure brands of whis-
ky, TO which no exception can be taken
on the ground that they are either i'm
pure or deletarious, work inCalculab bic
damage. The fault is not in the medi-
cament. but in the false doctrine tina:
whisky. or anything like whisky. can
hinder the progress of tuberculosis"
Anti-fat and all forms of obesity cures
and the reverse of proposition. correc-
tives for attenuation. were declared to
he fakes Of the worst character.
The harmfuIness of the analyne and
lead poisons contained in the so-calIed
walnut stain hair dyes was described.
Beauty cures as a class and in particu-
lar were dragged before the public by
the lecturer. a complexion cream, the
name of which is to be found in prac-
ICailN every udlly newspaper Oh lnt
Northwest and the Pacific Coast was de-
scribed as a compound of a mercurial
salt which, If used in too great quanti-
ties, produced malignant facial blem-
ishes. The case of a woman-user of the
preparation in Butte. Mont. was cited.
She went to her physician for treatment
fer the facial disorder He promptly
prescribed an iodine composition which,
through its action upon the mercurial
rha h.ar ynTI. oFNla aNrfn
to that of a freshly boiled lobster. In
dignant at the condition. but still un-
willing TO tell that she had been using
the beauty cure, the woman sought an
other physician, who prescribed a sui
phurous preparation. The action of the
sulphur upon the mercury was to turn
the skin of the patient black. The IL
lUstration was cited as proof of the
unwisdom of making use of a nostrum
and then, on top of the initial mistake.
falling TO relate the circumstances or to
discontinue the use of the predisposing
cause of the trouble.
Exhibition of Nostrums.
The American Medical Association has
established in connection with the con-
gress an exhibit of the principle patent
nostrUm with explanatory analysis of
the composition. Approached by a re-
porter for The Washington Herald at the
conclusion of his lecture, DR.. Kebler was
asked:
IF you continue to talk in this strain.
what do you think the quacks will do to
you?"
Il am here to invite just that sort of q
fight" replied DIR. Kebler.
A technical description OF Washing
toms filtration plant by ]. E. Curtis.
preceded the Kebler lecture. The after
noon was further consumed in moving
pictures on various nygienic subjects.
Tomorrow the lecture programme will
be consumed almost entirely with moving
pictures of settlement and social work,
after which the lecture course will in
clude a number of illustrated talks on
subjects touched by the exhibits i'll the
big building.
The establishment of a psychopathic
clinic in Washington and a local mental
hygiene society were advocated by DIR.
Stewart Patton. of Princeton University,
in a lecture before a large audience last
night. DR. Patton, who spoke Of the
campaign of the National Mental Hygiene
Society, also told Washington people that
they ought to take an intelligent interest
in the scientific work being done at the
Government Hospital for the Insane
Prevent Publicity Details.
DS lhe e'saoiiShiiicht VI d psSSHopdtHlc
clinic here" said Dr. Patton. you would
get rid of much OF the disgusting details
which the newspapers contain whenever
a criminal insane case is being tried in
the courts" To such clinic, as is the
case in Germany, a judge would refer
a case of insanity for examination and
determination, he showed, and the re-
suit would be more satisfactory than
through the present system of calling in
alienists to testify in open court
BY the formation Of d mental hygiene