The Great American Fraud: The Patent Medicine EvilAdams, Samuel Hopkins
Science
The Great American Fraud: The Patent Medicine Evil
Adams, Samuel Hopkins
Patent medicines; Quacks and quackery
"'Why, for some time, six months, I should say, father has often
complained of feeling unusually tired. A few months ago a friend of
his recommended Peruna to him, assuring him that it would build him up.
Since then he has taken many bottles of it, and I am quite sure that he
has taken nothing else.'"
From its very name one would naturally absolve Duffy's Malt Whiskey
from fraudulent pretence. But Duffy's Malt Whiskey is a fraud, for
it pretends to be a medicine and to cure all kinds of lung and
throat diseases. It is especially favored by temperance folk. "A
dessertspoonful four to six times a day in water and a tablespoonful on
going to bed" (personal prescription for consumptive), makes a fair grog
allowance for an abstainer.
[IMAGE ==>] {018}
A SALOON WINDOW DISPLAY AT AUBURN. N. Y.
This bar-room advertises Duffy's Malt Whiskey, the beverage "indorsed"
by the "distinguished divines and temperance workers" pictured below,
and displays it with other well-known brands of Bourbon and rye--not
as a medicine, but purely as a liquor, to be served, like others, in
15-cent drinks across the bar.
Medicine or Liquor?
[IMAGE ==>] {019}
THREE "DISTINGUISHED TEMPERANCE WORKERS" WHO ADVOCATE THE USE OF
WHISKEY.
Of these three "distinguished divines and temperance workers," the Rev.
Dunham runs a Get-Married-Quick Matrimonial Bureau, while the "Rev."
Houghton derives his income from his salary as Deputy Internal Revenue
Collector, his business being to collect Uncle Sam's liquor tax. The
printed portrait of Houghton is entirely Imaginary; a genuine photograph
of the "temperance worker" and whiskey Indorser is shown above. The
Rev. McLeod lives in Greenleaf, Mich.--a township of 893 inhabitants, in
Salina County, north of Port Huron, and off the railway line. Mr. McLeod
was called to trial by his presbytery for Indorsing Duffy's whiskey and
was allowed to "resign" from the fellowship. {020}It has testimonials
ranging from consumption to malaria, and indorsements of the clergy.
On the opposite page we reproduce a Duffy advertisement showing the
"portraits" of three "clergymen" who consider Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey
a gift of God, and on page 18 [IMAGE ==>] {018}a saloon-window display
of this product. For the whisky has its recognized place behind the bar,
being sold by the manufacturers to the wholesale liquor trade and by
them to the saloons, where it may be purchased over the counter for
85 cents a quart. This is cheap, but Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey, is not
regarded as a high-class article.
[IMAGE ==>] {020}
REV. W. N. DUNHAM.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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