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.

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    MORE SECRET REMEDIES. WHAT THEY COST AND WHAT THEY CONTAIN. CHAPTER I. REMEDIES FOE GOUT, RHEUMATISM, AND NEURALGIA. The medicines described in this chapter include some of those most widely advertised for the treatment of these complaints. They show a great variety in the methods of treating them, including as they do powders, pills, tablets, drops, and mixtures to be taken; liniments to be applied externally (one of these being also taken internally), paint, ointment, and plasters to be stuck on to the soles of the feet. The medicaments employed also vary much, but for the most part consist of articles in common use. The adver- tisements are in several respects instructive; for example, there is undoubtedly a prejudice among the more ignorant section of the public in favour of drugs coming from other and less civilised countries where they have been discovered by “ natives,” or introduced in some other way than through careful experimenting, and some of the statements made are clearly intended to turn such jnejudices to account. Thus in one case it is stated that the discoverer ” w^ent back to the heart of Nature in an endeavour to wrest from it the secret of an ideal liniment. In the course of his searches he was favourably impressed with the healing properties of many herbs used by native tribes,” etc. ; in another, ” this wonderful preparation is the discovery of a Hindu doctor in the Elimalayan Mountains.” In their varied forms of appeals to ” Nature ” some of the advertisers do not hesi- tate to ascribe high intelligence to the medicines or to parts of the body other than the brain. Thus one states that