366 



NATURE 



[December 3, 1914 



edies, often originally manufactured from a 

 doctor's family prescription, and undoubtedly 

 beneficial for uncomplicated ailments. The chief 

 criticism made upon the sale of medicines belong- 

 ing' to this group is that their retail price is out 

 of all proportion to their cost, and that they are 

 often recommended for cases they cannot benefit, 

 thus causing the purchaser to run risk of serious 

 injury by delay in seeking proper medical treat- 

 ment. (2) Dangerous remedies which should not 

 be sold at all, or only on a doctor's prescription; 

 or which should not be sold for the purpose for 

 which they are offered. (3) Fraudulent remedies : 

 these are a large group, consisting of aborti- 

 facients, alleged cures for cancer, consumption, 

 diabetes, paralysis, epilepsy, deafness, and so on, 

 together with electric belts, apparatus for supply- 

 ing oxygen to the system (otherwise than by 

 respiration), " ionised " water, and the like. With 

 a touch of humour, the Committee remarks that 

 "the discovery of radium will probably add a 

 number of remedies to this group." It has, in 

 fact, already added some. The treatment of 

 '* remedies " included in this category need involve 

 no doubt or hesitation. "They are, and are 

 known by their makers to be, cruel frauds." The 

 sale and advertisement of them should be pro- 

 hibited under drastic penalties. Finally, (4) there 

 is a large group of remedies making grossly exag- 

 gerated claims. In respect of these, it is regarded 

 as beyond doubt that the public is defrauded on 

 a large scale by promises which cannot be 

 fulfilled. 



A good deal was said during the inquiry about 

 the difficulty, and even the impossibility, of com- 

 pletely analysing certain medicines — a matter 

 which is vital to many proposals for dealing with 

 secret! remedies by law. It was pointed out that 

 even such familiar and apparently simple articles 

 as extracts of dandelion and gentian are really 

 highly complex bodies, the exact composition of 

 which is still unknown to chemistry, and when 

 several such extracts are present in a mixture 

 detection of all becomes difficult, and accurate 

 determination of any may be out of the question. 

 But whilst this is true enough, the focussing of 

 the discussion upon this point puts the matter 

 out of perspective. There are limits to the powers 

 of analysis, but in a large majority of cases the 

 essential nature of the principal constituents of 

 any medicine can be detected with almost perfect 

 certainty and determined with reasonable accu- 

 racy, given skill, time, and a sufficient quantity 

 of material. 



Several abuses in connection with secret 

 remedies are indicated. Thus the composition 

 has sometimes been changed whilst the name 

 remained unaltered; e.g., acetanilide has been 

 replaced by phenacetin, and the potent drug 

 morphine has been added in one case, removed in 

 another, without the change being brought to the 

 purchaser's notice. Again, one medicine is recom- 

 mended as " a safe and simple remedy " for both 

 asthma and bronchial affections, though these are 

 medically of quite different types, the former being 

 NO. 2353, VOL. 94] 



a nervous disease, the latter an inflammation of 

 the mucous membrane. 



The Committee gives cogent reasons against 

 adopting a suggestion made by medical witnesses 

 and others, namely that every remedy sold should 

 be compelled to bear a label stating its exact 

 composition. This would inflict hardship ; it would 

 not necessarily convey useful information to the 

 purchaser, who could not be expected to know 

 chemical names such as, for example, "hexa- 

 methylene-tetramine " ; moreover, an accurate 

 statement might be in itself misleading. It is 

 proposed, however, that an exact and complete 

 statement of the ingredients and their proportions 

 should be lodged with a department of the 

 Government, and controlled by a confidential 

 analysis. All patent, secret, and proprietary 

 remedies should be registered with this depart- 

 ment, and a special Court or Commission should 

 have power to prohibit the sale or advertisement 

 of such remedies, either in the public interest or 

 on the ground of non-compliance with the law. 

 New legislation is urgently needed to deal with 

 a state of things which has become intolerable. 



The findings and recommendations of the Com- 

 mittee are too lengthy to summarise further here. 

 It may be said generally that the Report is fair 

 but firm, and shows that its compilers, whilst 

 considering legitimate interests, have not allowed 

 themselves to be hoodwinked by the quack. 



ORGANISATION OF SCIENCE. 



JUST before the beginning of the war much 

 fruitful discussion was going on in the 

 columns of Nature, the Morning Post, and 

 Science Progress on the subject of the encourage- 

 ment of science ; and those who are interested in 

 the theme should read Dr. R. S. Woodward's 

 address on the needs of research, delivered on the 

 occasion of the dedication of the Marine Biological 

 Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts {Science, 

 August 14, 1914). 



Dr. Woodward begins by exposing some of the 

 popular fallacies regarding research — that it " is 

 akin to necromancy " ; and that "the more remark- 

 able results of research are produced not by the 

 better balanced minds, but by aberrant types of 

 mind popularly designated by that word of 

 ghostly, if not ghastly, implications, namely^ 

 ' genius. ' " He has also exposed the absurdity 

 that research institutions should busy themselves 

 in soliciting suggestions from the amateur public 

 outside, that is, " in casting drag-nets in the wide 

 world of thought, or in dredging, as biologists 

 would say, with the expectation that out of the 

 vast slimy miscellanies thus collected there will 

 be found by the aid of a corps of patient ex- 

 aminers some precious sediments of truth." He 

 thinks that " important advances in knowledge 

 are far more likely to issue from the expert than 

 from the inexpert in research." 



Dr. Woodward traverses the idea "that re- 

 search is a harmless and a fruitless diversion in the 

 business of education"; and gives some figures 



I 



