FOODS AND DIETARIES 255 



PROBLEM XLIV 



A study of some medical frauds?- 

 I. NOSTRUMS 



a. The Bracers 



i 

 Note. " Gullible America will this year spend some 



$75,000,000 on patent medicines and incidentally with them 

 swallow huge quantities of alcohol, much opiates and nar- 

 cotics, and be most scandalously humbugged." 



FIG. 59. Showing percentage of alcohol in certain liquors and patent medi- 

 cines. A test tube represents a glass, a, beer, 5% ; 6, claret, 8% ; c, cham- 

 pagne, 9%; d, whisky, 50% ; e, well-known sarsaparilla, 18% ; /, much-adver- 

 tised vegetable compound, 20% ; g, celery compound, 21% ; h, popular blood 

 bitters, 25% ; i, another sarsaparilla, 26% ; j, tonic, 28% ; k, another brand of 

 bitters, 37% ; I, another bitters, 44%. 



Observations. 1. Note the percentage of alcohol in the fol- 

 lowing patent medicines by comparing the test tubes. Note. 

 The tubes should be filled with water or alcohol to the indi- 

 cated heights and the contents colored with carmine to make 



1 Adapted from Adams, The Great American Fraud, American Medical 

 Association, Chicago. 



