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
I could, if space permitted, quote many other telegrams and letters from
the Kilmer's Swamp Root makers, from the Piso's Cure people, from all
the large patent-medicine manufacturers. The same thing that happened
in Massachusetts happened last year in New Hampshire, in Wisconsin,
in Utah, in more than fifteen states. In Wisconsin the response by the
newspapers to the command of the patent-medicine people was even more
humiliating than in Massachusetts. Not only did individual newspapers
work against the formula bill; there is a "Wisconsin Press
Association," which includes the owners and editors of most of the
newspapers of the state. That association held a meeting and passed
resolutions, "that we are opposed to said bill... providing that
hereafter all patent medicine sold in this state shall have the formula
thereof printed on their labels," and "Resolved, That the association
appoint a committee of five publishers to oppose the passage of the
measure." And in this same state the larger dailies in the cities took
it on themselves to drum up the smaller country papers and get them
to write editorials opposed to the formula bill. Nor was even this
the measure of their activity in response to the command of the patent
medicine association. I am able to give the letter which is here
reproduced [see page 86]. {086} It was sent by the publisher
of one of the largest daily papers in Wisconsin to the state senator
who {091}introduced the bill. In one western state, a board of health
officer made a number of analyses of patent medicines, and tried to have
the analyses made public, that the people of his state might be warned.
"Only one newspaper in the state," he says in a personal letter, "was
willing to print results of these analyses, and this paper refused them
after two publications in which a list of about ten was published.
In New Hampshire--but space forbids. Happily there Is a little silver in
the situation. The legislature of North Dakota last year passed, and the
governor signed a bill requiring that patent-medicine bottles shall
have printed on their labels the percentage of alcohol or of morphin or
various other poisons which the medicine contains. That was the first
success in a fight which the public health authorities have waged
in twenty states each year for twenty years. In North Dakota the
patent-medicine people conducted the fight with their usual weapons,
the ones described above. But the newspapers, be it said to their
everlasting credit, refused to fall in line to the threats of the
patent-medicine association. And I account for that fact in this way:
North Dakota is wholly a "country" community.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account