The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1915-05-01
WORTHLESS CURES
NENDERS OF NOSTRUMS SMOOTH
AND CUNNING IN THEIR
BUSINESS.

Washington. May 1.-The depart
ment of agriculture has Issued the fol
lowing statement:
After investigating under the food
and drugs act a large number of pre-
parations advertised as consumption
cures, the department has not been
able to discover any that can in any
sense be regarded as cures" for tub
erculosis. Some contain drugs that
may at times afford some temporary
relief from the distressing symptoms
of the disease, but this is all. Since
the passage of federal legislation pro-
hibiting the shipment in interstate
commerce of medicinal preparations
for which false and fraudulent
claims are made there has been a
marked tendency to label these prep
arations remedies" instead of
cures" or "infallible cures" as they
used to be called. In many cases,
however, they can not ven be re-
garded as remedies.
A cherry balsam," for example,
for the cure" of consumption" and
"hemorrhage 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 So
luton i'm water and alcohol of opium,
sugar, benzaldehyde, inorganic salts,
and coloring matter. 1t contained no
cherry bark extract of balsam.
A more elaborate cure" consisted
of FIVE different preparations which
the credulous patient was to take
separately. These were first, the
medicine proper, the essential ingre-
dents of which were found to be
morphine, cinnamic acid and arsenic
not a very safe mixture to take ha-
bitually; second, a tonic which was
supposed to contain iron, but did
not; third, a cough mixture" made
up of alcohol, ~chloroform, and CO
define, which is a d~erivative of opium
or morphine; fourth. a mixture which
contained some quinine and a solu-
ton of water and alcohol; and, fifth,
codeine tablets. Even the strongest
constitution could hardly stand a pro-
longed course of such a treatment.
In the marketing of such prepare
tions considerable engenuity is fire.
quently shown. One of the main OBJ
iects 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 seventy or eighty. The
patient is led to believe that the in
formation which he furnishes in re-
ply to these questions will be careful
ly considered before any medicine is
prescribed for him, though every ply
stefan knows that IN accurate dag
nosis can not possibly be made in
this way. AS a matter of fact none is
attempted and the degree of atten-
ton which these individual reports
receive can be measured by the fact
that cases have come under the OBJ
servation of the department in which
mail order concerns doing a business
of this kind have received as many
as 1000 letters a day.
After the patient has submitted his
diagnosis report" he is urged to pur-
chase a supply of the medicine. III
he does so, he is then urged to pur-
chase more. If he states that he has
experienced no beneficial effects, he Is
told that he has not taken enough.
and that process is likely to continue
until the limits of his ~creulity have
been reached. II, on the other hand,
he decides at the beginning not to
purchase the medicine, 1t Is likely to
be offered to him at successfully
lower prices until he is at last in