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SCIENCE OF HOME AND COMMUNITY 



list of 36 patent medicines analyzed by the Massachusetts 

 state board analyst, the one with the smallest amount of 

 alcohol contained 12 per cent, while the one with the most 

 contained 47.5 per cent. The average for all the thirty-six 

 was 23 per cent. That is, about one fourth of these patent 

 medicines was alcohol. Since the passage of the pure food 

 law by Congress a number of years ago, manufacturers of 



FIG. 218. Proportions of alcohol in patent medicines and in alcoholic beverages. 



patent medicines are obliged to state on the label the per 

 cent of alcohol contained, so that a person may tell by read- 

 ing the labels how much alcohol is present in a medicine. 

 One patent medicine found recently on sale in a drug store 

 contained 87 per cent of alcohol. 



There is danger in using patent medicines the same as 

 in using alcoholic liquors, because both contain alcohol, 

 only the medicines contain much more than the light liquors. 

 Doubtless some people have acquired the appetite for 

 alcohol through using patent medicines. Before the manu- 

 facturers were obliged to state on the labels the per cent of 

 alcohol, people who would not think of touching alcoholic 

 liquors drank even stronger doses of alcohol in the medicines 

 without knowing it. Some patent medicines contain other 

 harmful drugs. These facts show that patent medicines 



