Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh].

  • Walsh, David
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    as an example. The following extract from an adver- tisement is quoted in the Association book (p. 174) :— “THE DR. WILLIAMS’ WAY. “When the muscles and nerves are tortured by poisons in the blood as the result of rheumatism, sciatica, or lumbago, the only way to a cure is to enrich and purify the blood. Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills, in this way alone, have cured not only rheumatism, but anzmia, indigestion, palpita- tions, influenza’s after-effects, eczema, sciatica, St. Vitus’ dance, spinal weakness, the many forms of nervous disorders dreaded by men; also the special ailments of women.” The drug that effects these marvels is shown by the British Medical Association analysis to be “ prac- tically the ordinary iron-carbonate commonly called Blaud’s pill, which ought to be freshly made.’”? The pills are sold at 2s. od. per box of 30, or a penny apiece, whereas Blaud’s can be bought wholesale for about 1s. or 1s. 3d. per gross, or in bulk at a much lower price. The Pink Pills were originally made by George Taylor Fulford, a small country chemist in Ontario, Canada. The “Australian Report’ (p. 199) says that Charles Fulford, nephew and Australian representa- tive, admitted upon oath in a Melbourne court, “There is no such person as Dr. Williams.” Paragraph 741 states that Fulford became a Senator of Canada, died in the odour of sanctity, received a public funeral, and left five millions of dollars.” “This fortune was amassed by selling a well-known cheap and ordinary drug under a fictitious name at scores of times its actual money value by means of claims absolutely unsupportable.” The Pink Pills may be dismissed with the simple addition of the Australian official com- ment (§740) :-—“ New blood can be made from foods only, and not from arsenic, potash, or sulphate or carbonate of iron. The business is plunder from first to last, mendacity, audacity, and altogether heart- less exploitation of the poor and suffering, with the indispensable assistance of newspapers.” The genius of the Fulford family evolved two other patent medicines that have gained enormous publicity, namely, Zam-buk and Bile Beans. In the Court of Session, Edinburgh, July 2oth, 1906, an action was brought by the proprietors of Bile Beans to prevent a chemist from selling, under the name of “Bile Beans,” any pills not supplied by the com- plainers. “Lord Ardwell, in the Outer House, had refused the note, and found the respondent entitled to expenses, on