BECSifSEB, 6, 1912] 



SCIENCE 



767 



grew up widely differing theories in re- 

 gard to their treatment. 



It was natural in these days, that men 

 should face symptoms with remedies calcu- 

 lated to remove or obscure them. This 

 method, contemptuously designated as 

 allopathy, ' ' unlike treatment, ' ' as the drug 

 and symptom were unlike, had in it the 

 germ of better things, because it gave play 

 for experiment and was not bound hand 

 and foot by any predetermined notion. 



It was a step forward from the idea of 

 the dark ages, that each disease had some 

 definite predestined remedy, that for each 

 ailment, that is, a special group of symp- 

 toms, there was somewhere, somehow, some 

 cure mysteriously provided in nature if we 

 could only find it out. 



As the plant world lies all about us, as 

 most plants secrete or produce something 

 with a definite odor or taste, balms, resins, 

 aromatic oils, bitter alkaloids, strange sub- 

 stances useless for any purpose unless it be 

 that of medication, it was natural that 

 men should turn their attention to these 

 substances. Some of these products or 

 simples showed strange effectivenesses. 

 Others did no harm and were therefore sus- 

 pected of doing good. Quinine was thought 

 to cure malaria by setting up a feverish 

 condition like that arising from malaria 

 itself. Digitalis controlled the action of 

 the heart. Mandrake, senna, rhubarb kept 

 the intestines open. The pink (Spigelia) 

 was death to worms. Yerba buena, yerba 

 santa, sage tea, catnip tea, tansy tea, sassa- 

 fras tea, as well as tar, molasses and sul- 

 phur, were "good for the blood," especially 

 in the spring, and the tonic effect of almost 

 any bitter bark dissolved in alcohol was 

 highly appreciated. 



Out of this notion that a specific disease 

 had a specific cure, naturally arose the 

 form of quackery involved in the patent 

 medicnne. Its practical value lay in the 



elimination of the doctor, or rather in post- 

 poning his arrival until near the end. It 

 is very simple, by reading an advertise- 

 ment in any easy-going newspaper, or by 

 the perusal of an almanac, to pick out your 

 own disease from the list of symptoms 

 graphically set forth. Almost every one 

 has felt headaches, twinges, blurrings, ring- 

 ings, smartings, achings, givings and mis- 

 givings and these will indicate the neces- 

 sary drug. If this drug be essentially 

 whisky and water made sweet or bitter by 

 some easy stain, or if some more virulent or 

 effective poison is used, there is likely to be 

 enough of apparent satisfaction or of 

 change in symptoms to justify a written 

 testimonial and another bottle of the drug. 



Or if the basal constituent of the medi- 

 cine be merely water, the effect of hope 

 with the lack of visible harm is likely to 

 lead to the same results. In either ease, the 

 self-medication is likely to produce no ef- 

 fect or an effect worse than nothing. 



While much that is now sold in the drug 

 stores represents merely a harmless or 

 sometimes useful physician's prescription, 

 the aggregate result of the patent medicine 

 is the building up of gigantic systems of 

 robbery, on the one hand, and a corre- 

 sponding damage to public health, on the 

 other. 



The way out of the patent medicine dom- 

 ination lies in the better training of physi- 

 cians, on the one hand, and the enlighten- 

 ment of public opinion, on the other. No 

 more effective agency exists for the form- 

 ing of public opinion than an aggressive 

 administration of the Bureau at Washing- 

 ton which deals with pure food and pure 

 drugs. No single agency in this direction 

 has counted for so much as the personal 

 work of one man, who has spent his life in 

 fighting frauds and poisons. But we must 

 have a hundred Wileys in the public service 

 where we now haven't one. 



