JULY 15, 1912 



SPECIAL NOTICES 



A. I. Root 



NOSTRUMS AND QUACKERY. 



I hold in my hand a most valuable book 

 bearing the above title. It has over 500 

 pages and 200 illustrations, and treats in 

 detail pretty nearly all the humbug medi- 

 cines advertised in our daily papers, and 

 kept on the shelves of many di'ugstores. 

 Right in the middle of the book a dozen 

 pages are devoted to electropoise, oxydo- 

 or, oxygen or, oxygenator, and oxytanor, 

 etc. It contains a history of this shameless 

 fraud almost from its beginning, 25 years 

 ago, when it started up. It is indeed a 

 shame and disgrace to our nation and to 

 the present age that this thing has been 

 allowed to go on, robbing sick people by 

 means of a senseless toy or plaything for 

 upward of 25 years. This book tells us that 

 the venders were making so much money 

 out of it that they had various imitators, 

 and really had the cheek to announce a 

 prosecution of those imitators. The courts, 

 however, quickly decided that they could 

 not well take up the case of a counterfeiter 

 when the original was already itself a fraud 

 on humanity. They describe it under the 

 head of what they call "gaspipe therapy," 

 for it is really only a short piece of pipe 

 with a cord or wire attached. Sometimes 

 this gaspipe is entirely empty, and at oth- 

 er times they put in sulphur, sal-ammoniac, 

 or, when it comes handy, just the dust and 

 sweepings from the floor. Of course, cures 

 have sometimes resulted from the use of 

 this humbug toy, and I believe the makers 

 themselves admit in their patent claims that 

 it is a device for working on the imagina- 

 tion of their patients, like a horseshoe nail- 

 ed over the door, etc. Well, now, this 

 book of 500 pages holds up in the limelight 

 of science and good sense a host of cure- 

 alls — cancer cures, consumption cures, 

 asthma cures, " baby-killers " (Mrs. Win- 

 slow's soothing syrup), vita-ore, cough med- 

 icines that contain opium, headache cures, 

 with accounts of a number of deaths that 

 have resulted from their use; Warner's 

 Safe Cure, catarrh cures, rheumatism 

 cures, and a hundred others. 



I suppose that most of you are aware 

 that the pure-food commission has stopped 

 a great number of these so-called remedies. 

 They relate ever so many instances of 

 medicines costing $1.00 a bottle or more 

 that contain only a few cents' worth of 

 medicine; and a good many times the bottle 

 contained nothing at all as a recognized 

 remedy for the disease it claimed to cure. 

 Our older readers may remember my fight 

 against electric belts, which, like eleetro- 



poise, had no electricity in them at all, and 

 worked simply on the imagination. I am 

 glad to see that electric belts are now pret- 

 ty much out of date, and to know that the 

 pure-food law of at least one State (Mass- 

 achusetts) is prohibiting the sale of elec- 

 tropoise in that State. When examined by 

 a chemist he pronounced it "a tube filled 

 with black powder which is a mere mixture 

 of inert substances." 



The price of this valuable book is only 

 $1.00 postpaid, and it would save many 

 dollars in most families, especially those 

 that are in the habit of spending their mon- 

 ey for much-advertised quackery. 



Address American Medical Association, 

 535 Dearborn Ave., Chicago, 111. 



Since the above was dictated I have learn- 

 ed of a lady near by who spent over $150 

 (and finally decided that it was of no ben- 

 efit) in patronizing one of the so-called 

 ''medical institutions" shown up in this 

 book. 



MASSACHUSETTS SOCIETY OF BEEKEEPERS. 



The annual field-day meeting will be held at Hill 

 Crest Apiaries, home of Mr. Fred C. Howard, 

 Wakefield, Mass., Saturday, August 3. 1912. The 

 following is the program: 



11:30 to 12:30. Social hour. 



12:30 to 1:30. Basket lunch. 



1:30. Meeting called to order by President E. 

 Clinton Britton. Business session; action on new 

 members; unfinished business. 



2:15. Professor Burton N. Gates, Inspector of 

 Apiaries of Massachusetts, will speak on "Bees in 

 Massachu.setts, Season of 1912." 



3:10. A swarm of bees will leave a hive, under 

 President Britton's direction. 



Musical selections. 



Mr. Wilfred Wheeler, of Concord, Mass., Expert 

 Orchardist, will speak on small fruit. 



Mrs. Susan E. Howard will transfer a hive of 

 Iiees from an old box hive into a movable-frame hive. 



Vice-president Shaw will show and explain some 

 of his recent inventions. 



Accommodations. Trains leave North Station, 

 Boston, for Wakefield at 10:15, 10:55, 11:50, and 

 12:50 A. M., and return 4:07, 4:43, and 5:14 P. M. 

 Cars leave Sullivan Square, Lower Level, Fellsway 

 Spot Pond car, transfer at Stoneham for W^akefield. 



Bring basket lunch. Hot coffee donated by so- 

 ciety. 



All interested in bee culture are cordially invited 

 to attend. T. J. Hawkins, Secretary. 



4 Emery Street, Everett, Mass. 



THE WATER WAY BETWEEN DETROIT AND BUFFALO. 

 DAILY EXPRESS SERVICE VIA D. & C. LAKE LINE. 



Particular and experienced travelers habitually 

 use the D. & C. Line eu route between eastern and 

 western States. Low rates and superior service 

 attracts this class of travel. You can save $3.00 by 

 purchasing your through tickets via the D. & C. 

 Line. Send two-cent stamp for illustrated pam- 

 phlet. Address Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., 

 4 Wayne St., Detroit, Mich. 



When Ordering Supplies 



remember we carry a lull stock and sell at the 



lowest catalog price. Two lines of railroad — 



Maine Central and Grand Trunk. Prompt 



service and no trucking bills. 



THE A. I. ROOT CO., Mechanic Falls, Maim 



J. B. MASON, Manager 



