New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1914-12-20
DR.. q. M. KOber Asserts
Law as Planned by Trib-
une Would End Evil.
BAR MAILS TO
QUACKS, SUGGESTED
Commission to Study Way
to Efface Exploitation of
Secret Drugs Proposed.

lfrom STAFF Correspondent Of The Tribune
Washington, Dec. 19.-Dr George NJ.
kober, president of the National As
sociation for the Study and Preven-
ton of tuberculosis, in an interview
to-day said that federal commission
should be appointed to investigate the
Patent medicine traffic. He would have
the commission composed of repre-
sentatives of the Postal Department,
the Bureau Of Chemistry and the Pub
lie Health Service.
National legislation. as urged by
The Tribune, DR.. Kober said, would
alone end the evil in this country.
"The crusade of The Tribune against
the nostrum evil and fake cures" said
DR.. Kober, will be hailed with delight
by every person who has made study
Of the baneful effects of this nefarious
business upon the health and general
welfare of the community.
"Some idea of the enormity Of the
rostrum evil may be formed by a
perusal Of the Report of Commission
er Octavius C. Beale to the Parlia-
ment of the Commonwealth Of Austria
la, and an inspection of the store
re oms of the Division of Drugs Of the
Bureau of Chemistry, Department of
Agriculture, where thousands of prep
arations may be found.
Many Patents Issued.
tine Commissioner of Patents in
formed me in 1908 that, up to October
81, 1908, the Office had issued 2,140
patents and 1898 trade marks on
drugs, chemicals and medical COM
pounds
"Dr. Lyman j. Kebler, Chief of the
Division of Drugs of the Bureau of
Chemistry, writes me that there are
about 10000 proprietary medicines on
the market in this country, not one
tenth of which have been analyzed by
his Office for lack of laboratory force.
Reputable physicians DO not traffic
in secret drugs, as the ethics of the
American Medical Association consider
it derogatory TO professional character
for physicians to hold patents for
medicines or to dispense or promote
the use of secret medicines, for if
such nostrums are of real efficacy
any concealment regarding them is
inconsistent with beneficence and pro-
fessional liberality, and If mystery
alone can give them public notoriety
it,,n N
ignorance or fraudulent avarice.
"My interest in the subject Of the
nostrum evil began in 1896, when, as a
member of the committee of the Medi-
cal and Surgical Society of the Dis
trict of Columbia to investigate the
extent of the opium hibit. | had occa-
sion to witness the physical and moral
mpoverishment which results from
the use Of drugs which enslave.
Investigation into the causes of the
opium habit led to the decision that
one class of subjects contracted the
habit by the use Of the milder prepara-
tions of opium and various proprietary
remedies, commonly known as pain
killers, soothing syrups and cough and
consumption cures
How Habits Are Formed.
"Another class evidently acquired
the habit by the constant use of pre-
scriptions containing opium or its
preparations for the relief of pain, the
individuals being at first quite uncon-
scious of the enslaving nature of the
drug.
"The third class of persons belonged
Continued on page Z. column 3