SECRET REMEDIES.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIR,—The harm done by the use of proprietary or " secret " remedies is incalculable. Your correspondent, Dr. Henry Sewill, who has long been fighting this evil, quoted in his letter of the 15th inst. some forcible instances of the wrong thereby inflicted upon the public. Personally I think he might with advantage have laid more stress upon the harmful drugs of all kinds, such as narcotic and irritant poisons, that are distributed broadcast under the protection of a patent- medicine stamp. In the case of scheduled poisons, the vendor is compelled to print the word " poison " on the label, which he naturally does in as small and inconspicuous letters as be can contrive. Calomel is not scheduled, and can therefore be sold without any such warning. It is a deadly irritant poison to infants, but is nevertheless sold to an enormous extent as " teething-powders." Any one who has had much hospital experience gets to know the look of the infant who has been dosed with calomel " teething-powders." There can be not a shadow of doubt that many unfortunate children are killed annually by acute mercurial poisoning arising in this way. This fact would be laid before the public by means of a Royal Com- mission, but probably in no other way. The remedy, of course, would be to induce the Pharmaceutical Society to add calomel to the list of scheduled poisons, at any rate when administered' to children. As a final detail, it may be added that analysis has shown that " teething-powders " are sometimes so care- lessly dispensed that one powder contains double the dose of another ! As regards " indigestion," your correspondent has very properly pointed out that it is a symptom that may be due either to mere fu ictional disturbance or to a number of more or less serious diseases of organs. Every case of the kind demands careful and systematic investigation of heart, lungs, stomach, liver, and so on. Not infrequently it heralds the early stages of consumption or of heart-failure. When the sufferer from any such complaint trusts to some advertised nostrum to cure his " indigestion," the time for cure may be thrown away. In my opinion, for any person to advertise any given compound as a cure for all forms of indigestion is to endeavour to gain money by false pretences. Such a cure is scientifically impossible, and such a preposterous and fraudulent claim would be permitted in no other trade. By all means, Sir, let us have a Royal Commission, your powerful advocacy of which will be welcome indeed to the medical profession. To insist that the formula of every proprietary medicine should be printed on the label seems to be a precaution of quite an elementary nature for the protection of the unwary public against the wiles of the nostrum vendor.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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