SECRET REMEDIES.
[To TRY EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—The question put by your correspondent "Blue Pill " in your last issue sufficiently indicates his frame of mind. He asks : "Did you ever hear of a doctor administering to himself the drugs he prescribes for his patients?" "Blue Pill" evidently does not believe in medical and therapeutical science, but his scepticism does not affect the demonstrable fact that the traffic in quack medicines is not only in great part grossly fraudulent, but also cruel and deadly. Since my attention was forcibly drawn to this subject at the outset of my career nearly forty years ago, I have been engaged more or less constantly in inquiring into it. Latterly I have been work- ing, mainly through the British Medical Association, towards the promotion of a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole question. The matter has lately been taken up by the General Medical Council and by the Privy Council; the Home Secretary during last Session expressed his opinion that inquiry was necessary ; and there seems at last a hope that before long the whole sordid tale will be publicly unfolded. The case for legislation is overwhelming ; it needs only authoritative state- ment to compel the attention of Parliament. There exists, in fact, no such thing as a "secret" remedy. Chemical analysis easily discloses the constituents. It proves that the majority of nostrums, when not entirely worthless, inert trash, rarely contain anything more potent than a small dose of a cheap purgative. The harm is done by advertise- ments which lead sufferers from serious maladies amenable to scientific treatment to pin their faith upon a worth- less cure. Cases of this kind are always to be dis- covered in numbers among hospital patients. It was one of such that first opened my eyes to the main facts. This was the case of a woman who presented herself at a hospital suffering from cancer of the breast. The disease bad passed far beyond the help of surgery. Asked why she had not applied earlier, the woman stated that she had relied throughout on a much-advertised heal-all ointment. This was merely a preparation of coloured lard exactly similar to compounds upon the advertising of which thousands of pounds are still expended. They sell mostly among the poor and ignorant, and are responsible for much preventable misery and death. It would be easy to illustrate this subject by reference to every class of quack medicine. Perhaps you will allow me to refer to one, the class of indigestion cures. Indigestion, pain or discomfort at some part of the alimentary canal, is merely a symptom, not a distinct disease. It may indicate merely slight functional disturbance, or may be a sign of organic or malignant disease. Cases of the more serious kind are always to be found in hospitals, and inquiry always discloses the fact that many of them have been dosing themselves with quack medicines until, their malady having assumed a serious or mortal phase, they have been compelled to seek relief in hospital. Within the past few years in our local cottage hospital I, as a visiting member of the Committee, have come across a number of cases of gastric ulcer in young women, and in most instances have elicited the fact that they had been dosing themselves with one or other of the most advertised indigestion cures, the sole potent ingredient of which is aloes. One case ended fatally; the life might have been saved by an early diagnosis and scientific treatment. I could fill pages of your space with similar illustrations, and more pages with reports of inquests fully establishing my statements.—I am, Sir, &c.,
HENRY SEWILL.
The Old Rosery, Earlswood Common., Surrey.
We desire to express our agreement with the suggestion that an inquiry should be held. In our opinion, the French solution of the problem is the sound one. Every patent medicine has to bear upon it a statement as to the drugs it contains. People then know what they are taking.—En Spectator.]
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