The funny side of physic, or, The mysteries of medicine, presenting the humorous and serious sides of medical practice. An exposé of medical humbugs, quacks, and charlatans in all ages and all countries / by A. D. Crabtre, M. D.

  • Crabtre, Addison Darre.
Date:
1874
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The funny side of physic, or, The mysteries of medicine, presenting the humorous and serious sides of medical practice. An exposé of medical humbugs, quacks, and charlatans in all ages and all countries / by A. D. Crabtre, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    This is the secret of the fortunes made in advertised med- icines. When we know the complete worthlessness of the majority of the articles that are placed before the public,—yea, their more than worthlessness, for they are, many of them, highly injurious to the user, — the fact of their enormous consump- tion is truly astonishing. The drug-swallowing public has grown lean and poor in proportion as the manufacturers and venders of these villanous compounds have grown fat and wealthy. Said the proprietor of Coe's Cough Balsam and Dys- pepsia Cure to the author, If you have got a good med- icine, one of value, don't put it before the public. I can advertise dish water, and sell it, just as well as an article of merit. It is all in the advertising. As the above prep- arations were advertised on every board fence, and in every newspaper in New England at least, did his assertion imply that those articles were mere dish water? Spalding's Glue. I was informed by a Mr. Johnston, who engineered the advertising of the preparation, that it cost but one eighth of a cent per bottle. If you want to make a liquid glue, dis- solve a quantity of common glue in water at nearly boiling point, say one pound of glue to a gallon of water'; add an ounce or less of nitric acid to hold it in solution, and bottle. The more glue, the stronger the preparation. The pain-killers and liniments are the most costly, on ac- count of the alcohol necessary to their manufacture; and, in fact, the principal item of expense in all liquid medical articles put up for public sale, is in the alcohol essential to their preservation against the extremes of heat and cold to which they may be subjected.