Duplicity and misrepresentation are not confined to patent medicines. Even the mineral waters are misrepresented and lied about. A much-advertised lithia water, before the passage of the pure food and drugs act, was highly vaunted as a uric acid eliminant because of the lithia it was said to contain. Thousands, probably millions of gallons of it have been sold during the past twenty years, to people who could not very well afford to pay for it, because of this claim, despite the fact that it is well known that lithia is not a uric acid eliminant, and despite the additional important fact that the government analysis of this lithia water proved that it practically contained no lithia whatsoever. It is now being sold as an "alkaline diuretic." This claim is no better supported by facts than the former claim that it was a lithia water. Of course it is a diuretic, because water is the best diuretic we possess, but any ordinary pure water, which costs nothing, will just as effectually accomplish all that this lithia water could as a diuretic. It is a fact that the judgment of a sick person is not reliable. For this reason a physician never tries to treat himself when sick, nor will a physician treat any member of his family for much the same reason. His sentiment overrules his judgment and he cannot depend upon his decisions. An individual who is not well may be influenced by an irresponsible person, or by a clever, subtly worded advertisement, to use remedies that are not only dangerous in themselves, but which are wholly unsuited to the condition for which they are taken.