Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-05
OUACK REMEDY MAKERS HIT
SNAG IN USE OF u. S. MAILS
Post Office Is vigiIant in
Guarding Public From
Fake Hope "Ads.'
Sellers Often Ignorant of
Elemental Medicinal Facts,
Official Finds.

"Quack, qylack, quack."

QudCk, QudCk, QuACh.
The SNAKE" oil vender, the col
ored water merchant and the astro-
logical diagnostician are reaping a
rich harvest from the gullibie Ameri-
can public.
But no longer with the connivance
and aid Of the United States mails
IL Solicitor. General Donnelly Of the
Post Office Department knows any
thing about it. Gradually but surely
they are being eliminated from the
mail order business-for those who
prey upon the sick in fear Of death
are considered among the most con-
temptible types Of criminals by the
department. -.
The record of fraud orders issued
during the past few months by Post
! master General Harry S. New after
Investigations by Donnelly forms in
teresting reading. and reveals what
! absurd means sick people will resort
to when they are slow to respond to
the treatment of the family physician.
Often Harmless Compounds.
In most cases the fraud" medicines
are harmless In themselves. Some Of
tIIcIIl IAny IIdtO Slight tuACtANO pAOP
critics. But they arouse false hopes.
They lead invalids to distrust repu-
table doctors and to delay proper treat
ment until, in many cases, 1t can do
no good.
Take, for instance, a group OF young
business men with an itch for easy
money who operated from a. Midwest.
fern city. First they started with an
advertising agency and solicited pat
ent medicine accounts. They built
up a good business, but the profits
didn't come in fast enough. and grad
/ ually some OF the clients began to
drop off In their payments. Investi'
| CATION showed that they were not
| successful.
So the advertising men took over
| ferent remedies on their list when the
Post Office Department stepped in. and
| cut short their activities with a fraud
| order, which effectively bars them
from using the mails.
None Of the group had any medical
experience. They didn't know the
| commonest chemical ingredients of
| medicines, substances familiar to
every pharmacists clerk. One of
| them did profess to have studied
| chemistry at the University of Mis-
| souri,. But on investigation it was
found that he never had been regis
| tered in chemistry class there.
Had Course-in Botany.
The records showed. however, that
| botany" He claimed that this con-
tanned enough chemistry to At him
as a preparer of patent medicines
to be ordered in treatment of symp-
tons described by mail.
| Among the choice preparations Of
| this company in which they did a
rushing business was "rattlesnake
OIL" described as an infallible cure
| for deafness of any degree. 1t was
to be rubbed on the palms of the
hands, which then were to be placed
over the cars, so that the vapors
could penetrate.
value as family remedy for ear
ache and probably originated in this
| way.
Magazine readers were assured
that total deafness Of long standing
| could be cured almost instantly by
his remedy-"the only truly scientific
cure on the market
obstinate cases cured in a day.,
read the ads.
| A post Office inspector wrote ask
! ing for a sample if it was guaranteed
\ to cure a case such as his own-both
ear drums completely gone for sew
| eral years
He was sold the preparation with
! the guarantee of an absolute cure.
Form Letter to COmplainants.
Quite often the company got kick.
| backs. 1t was learned. When some
| patient demanded to know why the
advertised cure had not taken effect
| a Stenogra would send him a
form letter saying that his was one
of the most desperate cases which
| ever had come to the attention of
| the doctors. but that a cure was cer-
| tain II he would continue to use the
| medicine.
The constituents of this rattle
| snake oir' (the name afterward was
changed were as follows: Methv]
| salicylate, oil eucalyptus, oil camphor
neatsfoot oil, mustard oil and zenZol
The same doctors" had some mar
Vicious tablets guaranteed to stop
asthma attacks as if by magic. They
.. were a mixture of potassium and
iodfde, possibly OF some very slight
value as an asthma palliative.
! Another remedy was advertised as
killing the germs that cause pimples
Within week or 10 days 1t makes the
complexion as clear as a baby's."
The ingredients of this marvellous
| preparation were wintergreen oil, cor.
| rosive sublinlate. boric acid, salicylic
acid. alcohol, witch hazel and some
purple coloring matter.
| 1t might have some slight cleansing
| effect.
~
| Eitamin tablets which contained