The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1915-04-23


and fraudulent claims are made,
there has been marked tendency
to label these preparations rene
dies" instead of cures" or "infalli-
Bile cures as they used 10 be called.
In many cases, however. they can not
even be regarded as remedies.
A cherry balsam." for example,
for the cure of "consumpion" and
"hemorrhage Of the lungs" which II
was represented would strike at the
very root of the disease" was found
on analysis to be nothing but sol,i-
ton i'm water and alcohol OF opium.
sugar. benzaldehyde. inorganic salts
and coloring matter. II contained no
cherry bark extract or balsam.
More Elaborate Cure.
A more elaborate "clre" consisted
or five different preparations which
the credulous patient was 20 take
separately. These were first, the
medicine proper. the essential in
gredients of which were found to
be morphine. cinnamic acid and arse
nic-not a very safe mixture to take
habitually: second. tonic which was
supposed 10 contain iron but did not;
third, ;cough mixture" made, up of
alcohol. chloroform. and, codeine
which is a derivative of opium or
morphine: fourth, a mixture which
contained some quinine. and a solu
ton of water and alcohol; and nth.
codeine tablets. Even the strongest
constitution could hardly stand a
prolonged course OF such a treatment.
In. hn mn rlra ~ t.sr f,f nfa ra
tons considerable ingenuity is fire.,
uuently shown. One of the main OBJ
jects Is to persuade the patient that
he is receiving. at comparatively
low price, the individual attention OF
a trained specialist. For this purpose.
symptom blanks are employed. These
contain a number of questions about
the patients symptoms. the number
varying from dozen or so TO as
many as seventy or eighty. The pa
tient is led to believe that the in
formation which he furnishes i'm re-
ply to these questions. will be care
fully considered before any medicine,
Is prescribed for him. though every
physician knows that an accurate
diagnosis cannot possibly be made in
attempted and the degree OF attention
which these individual reports re-.
ceive can be measured by the fact
that cases have come under the OBJ
servation OF the department I'm which
mail order concerns doing business
of this kind have received as many
as 1000 letters a day.
Urged to Purchase Dope.
After the patient has submitted his
diagnosis report" he Is urged to
purchase supply of the medicine. II
he does. so, lie is then urged to pur-
chase more. III he states that he has
experienced no beneficial effects he
is told that he has not taken enough.
and this process is likely to continue
until the limits of his crcdulity have
been reached. If, on the other hand
he decides at the beginning not to
purchase the medicine il is likely to
be offered to him at successfully
lower prices until he is at last Undue
ed to believe that he cannot afford to
ignore such a bargain. This is carried
to such an extent that treatment"
the original price OF which is SIS,
may be offered at the end of six
months for $3.50.
As a matter OF fact the successful
treatment, of tuberculosis requires
much more than the mere giving of
medicine and, moreover what will
help one case will not necessarily
help another. Claims that are abso-
lutely unwarranted are no longer per
mitted on the labels of medicines
shipped i'm interstate commerce. but
the wording may be such as TO
convey a misleading impression
without the use of absolute state
ments. Thus these preparations con
tinue to find sale despite the fact
that little trouble on the part of the
prospective purchaser will reveal
their worthlessness.