More secret remedies : what they cost & what they contain : secret remedies--second series / based on analyses made for the British Medical Association.

  • British Medical Association
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: More secret remedies : what they cost & what they contain : secret remedies--second series / based on analyses made for the British Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    On mixing a doee of the liquid with one powder, the resulting draught would be alkaline even with the heaviest powder; the alkalinity would of course be greater when the lighter powders were used. Estimated cost of ingredients for mixture and powders, 2M. MAGIC FOOT DRAFTS. This is the name by which plasters, to be applied to the soles of the feet for the cure of rheumatism, are supplied by the Magic Foot Draft Company, London, the price being 46. 6d. per pair. In addition to the numerous advertisements of the article by name, others have appeared recently, offering in the name of R. A. Oliver to send my Celebrated External Treatment [for Rheumatism] . . . to try free to anyone sending his name and address. On sending a name and address a pair of the Foot Drafts was received (differing from those sold in the ordinary way by bearing no revenue stamp), together with a long letter and a printed sheet of ttstimonials. The letter states: the Drafts cannot be purchased for less than 4s. 6d. per pair anywhere, and you can see that we could not afford to send them on approval if they did not really cure. To introduce our great discovery most favourably to you, and through you to your friends, we are going to make this extraordinary inducement : Give this pair of Drafts a careful trial; if the results give you faith in our wonderful absorption method, as they must, we shall be pleased to send you three more pairs of our Foot Drafts on receipt of lis., and as we make no charge for the first pair to all those who accept this offer, this will make four pairs (18s. worth) of Magic Foot Drafts for only lis. . . . We have found by careful study of this disease, based on years of experience, that this number of Drafts will effect a cure in nine out of ten patients, because it nearly always takes all the power of the first two pairs to open up the clogged pores and start the removal of all poisonous acid urates. It is the third and fourth pair that invariably bring that sense of relief and freedom from pain that every poor sufferer is looking for. This was followed at short intervals by other letters pressing for money to be sent. In the second it is stated: We take a sincere interest in your case [no case had been even mentioned in sending for the cure ], and we are going to cure you. Now that the cure has been started, every day's delay makes it more difficult for the Drafts to do their work, and we trust that we shall hear from you by return post.
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