The Bulletin. 45 



A TALK ON PATENT MEDICINES. 



By Mrs. W. N. IIutt. 



Ladies. I am ffoins to talk to yon to-day about a subject which many of you 

 may have considered very seriously or may not have thought of at all — that 

 is. ratent Medicines. Tractically all of them are, according to the American 

 Me<lical Association and the United States Government Bulletins, harmful, 

 and are deceptions, frauds, fakes. 



Patent medicines are mixtures of various flavors, drugs, and simple sub- 

 stances, their object being to so beguile the public into thinking they will 

 cure, that it will buy them, and thus dollars will be transferred from the 

 pockets of the purchaser to that of the manufacturer. 



Why ^0 we buy them? Goodness knows. I do not. unless it be, as Bar- 

 num said. "The people like to be humbugged." Go into any drug store and 

 see the shelves. On one side are the scanty drugs for prescriptions, on the 

 other the shelves are crowded with patent nostrums, many of which, the label 

 informs us, will cure anything from bunions to earache. That in itself should 

 make us doubtful of them ! Not so, however, for their sale continues. 



And who buys them? INIen and women? Yes, but mostly women; more 

 than that, mostly country women. Some time ago I talked with an agent for 

 Black Draught and Wine of Cardui. and he told me that it is the little coun- 

 try stores that are by far his best customers. When I made the remark that 

 I hoped the Farmers' Institute, farm papers, etc., were educating people 

 against them, he said : "It would seem as if they should, but our business 

 last year was 18 per cent more than it was the year before." Ah ! what a 

 travesty on the intelligence of our people! I said: "What do you suppose 

 ever made it so?" "Oh," he replied, "we advertise so much." Yes, and there 

 is the pity of it. We women are paying for most of those advertisements. 

 Take any average county newspaper, and cut out the patent medicine adver- 

 tisements, and what have you left? — -a thing of shreds and tatters, a sieve. 



It would not be so bad if the only result was the loss of the money that 

 should have sent Mary to school, bought Johnnie a new coat, or paid the mort- 

 gage on the farm. The pound of flesh is taken also, and that pound of flesh 

 is apt to be the presence of real maladies where only simple ailments existed 

 before. 



The average person drifts into the patent medicine or "dope" habit un- 

 thinkingly. Mrs. Jones will have a headache. It may be caused by anything 

 from indigestion to pressure on the spine: but she will say: "John, when you 

 take the eggs to market to-day, get me a bottle of headache medicine." which 

 he does. It may be Orangine, Bromo-seltzer, Royal Pain Powders. Capudiue, 

 Antikamnia, Phenalgine, or any of several others. They are, according to 

 the American Medical Association, subtle poisons, usually in the form of 

 acetanilid. which, instead of "strengthening the heart and producing better 

 blood." do in fact thin the blood and finally undermine the whole system. 

 Those who habitually take any of those remedies suffer from anemia. I could 

 give you the names of a large number of people who died of taking headache 

 medicines. 



John himself, perhaps, has a pain somewhere — anywhere in his body. He 

 wants something to cure him and is willing to pay a dollar for a bottle of 

 relief. His glance wanders over the shelves, and Peruna. Paine's Celery Com- 

 pound or Hostetter's Bitters, Lydia Pinkham's Compound or Swamp Root 

 catch his eye. He takes one of them, and after the first dose he feels amaz- 

 ingly better. Surely he does, but he could have obtained a bracer cheaper 

 and purer at the nearest saloon. If the husband of any one in this audience, 

 especially if she were a W. C. T. U. worker and he a church elder — if he stood 

 up before the bar and drank a glass of whiskey, the wife would feel aggrieved 

 for the sake of his example if not for the harm of it physically. Nevertheless. 



