The firm of Hance Bros. & White poses as a reputable pharmaceutical manufacturing house, but how it can reconcile this position with their method of exploiting this product passes all understanding. In the original package of Phenol Sodique (the latest was purchased on June 20, 1907), there are little booklets and a folder describing the marvelous properties of the nostrum. The booklets do not refer to Phenol Sodique, but they are very instructive. They are entitled: “Dyspepsia,” “Worm News,” and “Catarrh,” advertising “Dyspepsia Stop”--some form of dyspepsia tablets, a remedy for round worms, and “Catarrh Stop,” apparently some mild antiseptic tablets. These booklets are addressed frankly to the laity, although recourse to a physician is, generously, advised if the patient does not respond to treatment! The folly of prescribing “original packages” which contain popular literature has been so often emphasized that further comment seems superfluous. The following from “Catarrh,” however, throws an interesting sidelight on the scientific status of Hance Bros. & White: +--------------------------------------------------------+ | “Catarrh is due to a minute insect in the inner lining | | membrane of the nose. This insect multiplies rapidly, | | and, unless checked, and destroyed, will produce the | | worst results.” | +--------------------------------------------------------+ To return, however, to Phenol Sodique: The folder is also evidently intended for the lay public rather than for physicians; at least, if we are to credit Hance Bros. & White with any intelligence whatsoever. It is headed: “Montyon Prize of Encouragement, Awarded by the Institute of France, 1861.” This is rather ancient, but what follows indicates that a little restraint would have been better than encouragement. The circular is a compact treatise on self-medication--apparently all that is necessary to retain or regain health is the use of Phenol Sodique, externally and internally. The following conditions are among those specifically named as amenable to this remedy. Smallpox, measles, scarlatina, erysipelas, puerperal fever, typhoid fever, cholera, diarrhea, cramps, burns and scalds, bites, cuts and wounds, excoriations, chilblains, chaps, sore throat, scratches, catarrh, tetter, sunburn, swollen veins, ulcers, hemorrhages, bruises, piles, gangrene, carbuncle, itching, insect stings, ivy poison, cold in the head, bunions, inflamed eyes, eczema, ringworm, rheumatism, pains, toothache, seat worms, etc.--besides numerous diseases of animals.