534 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



thousand, or a million — it makes no difference, since it is never paid — 

 ' for a case which can not be cured/ etc. As an example of the sincerity 

 of these offers an illuminating correspondence is quoted from the 

 Journal of the American Medical Association, as follows: 



April 21st, 1906. 

 Drs. Brown and Lenox, Rogers, Ark., send us an account of a case of 

 catarrh which was not cured by Hall's Catarrh Cure. The patient, Mr. Robert 

 Parks, consulted these physicians for catarrh and stated that he had just fin- 

 ished his twenty-sixth bottle of Hall's Catarrh Cure, but that instead of being 

 benefited he was worse. Mr. Parks wrote to the Cheney Medicine Company, 

 the maker of Hall's Catarrh Cure, giving his experience, and asking the firm 

 to pay $100.00 in accordance with the advertisements: "$100.00 for any case 

 of catarrh which it will not cure " or to refund the money he had paid. 



The following is a copy of a letter which he received in reply : 



Toledo, Ohio, March 30th, 1906. 

 Robert Park, Rogers, Ark. 



Dear Sir: Yours of recent date received and in reply will say, as we have 

 already said, that many cases require much more than you have taken for a 

 cure, and as this is the case and Hall's Catarrh Cure is not placed on the market 

 on the ' No cure, no pay ' plan, we would not feel at all justified in refunding 

 the money paid for this trial of the medicine. Will further say that you have 

 failed to state much regarding your disease, symptoms of same, of how long 

 standing, symptoms of the action of the medicine, etc. Had we more informa- 

 tion concerning your case, we might have been able to make some helpful sug- 

 gestions regarding the treatment." 



Yours very truly, 



F. J. Cheney & Co. 

 A. G. A. 

 The second type of falsehood which is used by these manufacturers 



is the testimonial lie. Some obscure citizen who has been rescued from 

 some imaginary complaint spills his gratitude to the nostrum manu- 

 facturer in a lurid if ungrammatical epistle. Sometimes, however, it 

 is not an obscure citizen, but a prominent one, a senator, or an admiral 

 of the United States Navy or some one equally before the public eye. 

 Some of these testimonials are absolute fabrications. The boldness 

 with which nostrum venders manufacture evidence is astonishing, and 

 only comprehensible in view of the fact that there is usually no legal 

 punishment. Some years ago, Duffy's Malt Whiskey Company stated 

 in their advertisements that it was recommended in consumption by 



Dr. , one of the most prominent physicians of Philadelphia, 



when as a matter of fact he had never tasted it nor prescribed it ; but 

 the courts offered no redress and the only means of cleansing his 

 reputation was an advertisement in the daily papers. Some of the 

 testimonials are bought. (There is a firm in this country which is 

 engaged in the sale of testimonials to nostrum manufacturers.) The 

 following circular speaks for itself. 



As you are aware, we have your testimonial to our remedy. It has been 

 some time since we have heard from you, and so we thought best to make 



