A Sequel to "Secret Remedies." (In Search of Truth.) By
Frederick Phillips. (F. Phillips, Southampton. 6d. net.) -This pamphlet is in the nature of a reply to Secret Remedies, which was issued last year by the British Medical Association, and noticed at length in these columns on Decem- ber 18th, 1909. Mr. Phillips does not set out to defend all patent medicines, but suggests that there may be some that are of value. He prints disclaimers from the proprietors of various drugs, stating that the analyses given in Secret Remedies are incorrect. In his conclusion Mr. Phillips remarks that the public would not be adequately protected from fraud by a law requiring the ingredients to be named upon the label, for "there seems too large a loophole here for the employment of unintelligible terms." He suggests, finally, that some kind of Council of medical men should be set up, to which "the honest vendor would have no hesitation in submitti Era in strict confidence, the composition of his remedy." We must confess that we find both Mr. Phillips's premisses and his deductions unconvincing. The patent medicine problem is not likely to be solved by the erection of a secret tribunal.
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