PATENT MEDICINE ADVERTISEMENTS
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
Sra,—Writing from the point of view of a psychotherapist I feel that there should be some form of censorship of advertise- ments for patent medicines. The power of destructive suggestions is very great, and in these sufficiently difficult days becomes an insidious evil with possibilities of doing untold harm to many of the less robust minds.
Fortunately orthodox doctors and dentists of the first rank recognize the futility of treating effects only, and whole- sale extractions of • teeth, experimental operations and prescription of drugs is giving way to a deeper search for the fundamental cause of the disturbance in the metabolic balance of which disease is the effect. But more and more this dis- turbance is being traced to the state of mind of the patient ; the effect of inharmonious or destructive thoughts and emotions such as fear, worry, &c. The disturbance being traced through the effect of such states of mind on the secretions of the endocrine glands and the resulting upset in the harmonious working of the body.
To instil fear through the medium of advertisements is a process which is definitely against the interests of the public and differs only in the means of application from the methods of Dick Turpin.—I am, Sir, &c.,
33 Devonshire Place, London, W. 1. G. H. HADLEY.
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