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
The Baptist Watchman of Oct. 12, 1905, prints an editorial defending the
principle of patent medicines. It would be interesting to know whether
the back page of the number has any connection with the editorial. This
page is given up to an illustrated advertisement of Vito-Ore, one of
the boldest fakes in the whole Frauds' Gallery. Vitæ-Ore claims to be
a mineral mined from "an extinct mineral spring," and to contain free
iron, free sulphur and free magnesium. It contains no free iron, no free
sulphur, and no free magnesium. It announces itself as "a certain and
never-failing cure" for rheumatism and Bright's disease, dropsy,
blood poisoning, nervous prostration and general debility, among other
maladies. Whether it is, as asserted, mined from an extinct spring
or bucketed from a sewer has no bearing on its utterly fraudulent
character. There is no "certain and never-failing cure" for the diseases
in its list, and when the _Baptist Watchman_ sells itself to such an
exploitation it becomes partner to a swindle not only on the pockets
of its readers, but on their health as well. In the same issue I find
"Piso's Cure for Consumption,"
"Bye's Cancer Cure,"
"Mrs. M. Summer's Female Remedy,"
"Winslow's Soothing Syrup," and "Juven Pills," somewhat disguised here,
but in other mediums openly a sexual weakness "remedy."
A correspondent sends me clippings from _The Christian Century_, leading
off with an interesting editorial entitled "Our Advertisers," from which
I quote in part:
"We take pleasure in calling the attention of our readers to the high
grade of advertising which _The Christian Century_ commands. We shall
continue to advertise only such companies as we know to be thoroughly
reliable. During the past year we have refused thousands of dollars'
{060}worth of advertising which other religious journals are running,
but which is rated 'objectionable' by the better class of periodicals.
Compare our advertising columns with the columns of any other purely
religious journal, and let us know what you think of the character of
our advertising patrons."
Whether the opinion of a non-subscriber will interest _The Christian
Century_ I have no means of knowing, but I will venture it. My opinion
is that a considerable proportion of its advertisements are such as any
right-minded and intelligent publisher should be ashamed to print, and
that if its readers accept its endorsement of the advertising columns
they will have a very heavy indictment to bring against it. Three
"cancer cures," a dangerous "heart cure," a charlatan eye doctor, Piso's
Consumption Cure, Dr. Shoop's Rheumatism Cure and Liquozone make up
a pretty fair "Frauds' Gallery" for the delectation of _The Christian
Century's_ readers.
[IMAGE ==>] {060}
As a convincing argument, many nostrums guarantee, not a cure, as they
would have the public believe, but a reimbursement if the medicine is
unsatisfactory.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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