The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-19
TUBERCULOSIS '.'REMEDIES" THAT
 ARE WORTHLESS
No Real Cure Possible From Any of the Patent Prep arations Investigated By Government Scientist.

Washington, April 19-After inves- tigating under the Food and Drugs Act, alarge number of preparations advertised as consumption cures, the Department of Agriculture has not been able to discover any that can in any sense be regarded as cures for tuberculosis. Some contain drugs that may at times afford some tenn porary relief from the distressing symptoms of the disease, but this is all, Since the passage of federal leg is1ation prohibiting the shipment in interstate commerce of medicinal pre- parations for which false and fraud u1ent claims are made, there has been a marked tendency to label these preparations tsremedies'' instead of 'tcures" or 'infa1Iible cures as they used to be called. In many eases, garded as remedies.
 A tscherry balsarn,'' for example, for the tscure'' of "consumption and tthernorrhage of the lungs, which 1t was represented would strike at the very root of the disease was found on
 analysis to be nothing but a solution in water and alcohol of opium, sug- ar, benzaIdehyde, inorganic salts and co1oring matter. It contained no
 cherry bark extract or balsam.
 A more elaborate cure consisted of five different preparations which the creduIous patient was to take se-
 parateIy. These were first, the medi-
 cine proper the essential ingredients of which were found to be morphine, cinnanic acid and arsenic-not a very safe mixture to take habitualIy; sec ond, a tonic which was supposed to contain iron but did not; third, a. cough mixture made up of alcohol, chloroforna, and codeine which is a derivative of opium or morphine; fourth, a mixture which contained of a.
 ter and alcohol; and fifth, eodeine tablets. Even the strongest consti- tuition could hardly stand 8 prolonged course of such a treatment.
 In the marketing of such prepara- l tions considerable ingenuity is fre- quentIy shown. One of the main ob- Jects is to persuade the patient that
 he is receiving, at a comparatively low price, the individual attention of a trained specialist. For this pur- pose. symptom blanks are employed
 These contain a number of questions about the patients symptoms, the
 number varying from a, dozen or so to as many as 70 or 80. The patient l is led to believe that the information which he furnishes in reply to these questions will be carefully considered before any medicine is prescribed for him, though every physician knows that an accurate diagnosis cannot possibly be made in this way. As a matter of fact none is attempted and
 the degree of attention which these l individual reports receive can be
 measured by the fact that eases have come under the observation of the i departmen in which mail order con ] ceTns doing a business of this kind i have received as many as 4,00O let 1 ters a day.
 After the patient has submitted his diagnosis report he is urged to pur- I chase a. supply. of the medicine If he does so, he is then urged to pur- chase more. If he states that he has l experienced no beneficial effects he I is. told that he has not taken enough. and this process is likely to continue l until the limits of his credu1ity have l been reached. If, on the other hand I he decides at the beginning not tc I purchase the medicine it is likely te
 be offered to him at successively low I CT prices until he is at last induced | to believe that he cannot afford tc .I ignore such a. bargain This is car ried to such an extent that treat Il rnent,'' the original price of whict T is $25, may be offered at the end
 of six months for s2.5o
 AS a matter of fact the successful 1 treatment of tuberculosis requires
 much more than the mere giving o1
 medicine and, moreover what vii help one case will not necessarily help another. Claims that are abso
 lutely unwarranted are no longer permitted on the labels of medicine shipped in interstate commerce. bu the wording may be such as to con vey a, misleading impression wtthou the use of absolute statements. Thu these preparations continue to find { ; sale despite the fact that a. little trou : ble on the part of the prospectiv' Fl purchaser will reveal their worthless u ness.
 It cost Chicago $6,ss5, sos to arres : 116.es5 persons during the year of 1914