+----------------------------------------------------------+ | | | Miss X---- Y----, | | Z----. | | | | Dear Madam: As requested, we are mailing you sample of | | our Papayans (Bell) for Indigestion. | | | | If a sufferer from Indigestion, we want you to give it a | | thorough trial as directed and note remarkable results | | that we believe you will get from its use. | | | | Kindly write us if you are unable to obtain it from your | | local druggist, as it is stocked by nearly every good | | drugstore in the United States. Yours truly, | | Bell & Co. | | | +----------------------------------------------------------+ Evidently Bell & Co., while admitting that their financial success is largely due to the kindly, though misguided, efforts of physicians, are not going to let a little thing like loyalty to the medical profession interfere with a possible sale of their tablets. THE L. D. JOHNS COMPANY A discussion of the methods of Bell & Company would not be complete without reference to a concern which seems to be closely connected with it: the L. D. Johns Company, whose “only product” is a sugar-coated laxative tablet. Regarding the “sugar coated” tablet, a visitor at the place of business of Bell & Company and the L. D. Johns Company wrote: “These companies apparently are not in possession of any tablet coating machines and in questioning on this point stated that some of their tablets were sent out to be coated.” There is a sameness regarding the claims for the laxative tablets of the two companies that might lead one to suspect that the same individual prepared both circulars. For instance: CASCARANS (BELL) “Taken as directed, it permanently removes the great majority of cases of habitual constipation.” “... a harmless vegetable preparation.” “... for the removal of pimples, yellowness and greasiness of the skin ...” “... one tablet at night, one night and morning, or, in severe cases, one three time a day, gradually decreasing the frequency of the dose as improvement permits.” DR. JOHNS’ TABLETS “Taken as directed ... permanently remove the great majority of cases of habitual constipation, torpid liver and sick headache.” “A harmless vegetable remedy.” “... removes pimples, blotches, sallowness and greasiness of the skin ...”