Secret remedies : what they cost and what they contain / based on analyses made for the British Medical Association.

  • British Medical Association.
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Secret remedies : what they cost and what they contain / based on analyses made for the British Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    14/212 (page 2)
    which it deserves. Most practitioners have given it merely a passing thought, or poohed at it as a mere cold which would soon pass off, and perhaps give some light tonic to tone up the stomach.” Another of the “ remedies ” described well illustrates the way in which the public is deluded by such ‘‘ specialists ” ; camphor, quinine and ipecacuanha are frequently employed as domestic remedies in the early stages of a cold in the head, and persons who believe in their usefulness can no doubt be induced to buy a “ cold cure ” which professes to contain them in com- bination with other drugs, presented in a form convenient and agreeable to be taken; but in the tablets which are represented as consisting of cascara, bromide, quinine, ipecacuanha, camphor and bryonia, analysis did not reveal any appreciable traces of cascara, bromide, quinine, ipecacuanha, or camphor. The principal ingredients actually present were cinchonine, an alkaloid found in the bark from which quinine is prepared but cheaper than quinine, and acetanilide, a chemical better known under the name antifebrin, both in very small doses. Many proprietary medicines of varied kinds are recom- mended for colds among a host of other complaints for which they are stated to possess curative powers. Apart, however, from such inclusive recommendations, a considerable number are put forward expressly and primarily .for cold and catarrh, and it is a selection of these which is here described. Dk. LANE’S CATARRH CURE. This is prepared and sold by a Company giving an address in London. The price is Is. a bottle, containing 2| fluid ounces. Much printed matter is supplied with this preparation, and a few extracts are here given : CataiTh, in its chronic form (and the complaints arising from it), is a malady which has not, up to the present time, received that attention and research from the medical faculty which it deserves. Most practitioners have given it merely a passing thought, or poohed at it as a mere cold which would soon pass off, and perhaps give some light tonic to tone up the stomach. And therein lies the fatal error, for Catarrh is a disease that cannot be trifled with, as millions can only too surely testify.