December 23, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



895 



suits, to be sure; the soothing syrup con- 

 tains morphine, why should it not put baby 

 to sleep; the headache and the nerve cures 

 often contain enough acetanilide as the ac- 

 tive compound to produce a sleep from 

 which there is no arousing. It must be 

 said, further, that in no case do they con- 

 tain any remedies not well known to physi- 

 cians. They are not produced by unusual 

 skill and after long study. The only ex- 

 pensive thing about them is the adver- 

 tising. 



As intimated above, the work of the 

 council is limited to the third group of 

 remedies. Those of the first and second 

 groups are well known, while those in the 

 fourth group are unworthy of notice, as 

 used, except to condemn. It may be urged, 

 and has been urged, that the restriction of 

 the free sale of patent medicines is a lim- 

 itation of personal liberty, that any man 

 should have the right to buy what he 

 pleases. There are cases in which such 

 right may be conceded, but not where po- 

 tent or dangerous remedies are bought for 

 administration to helpless invalids or chil- 

 dren. Self dosage is always foolish; the 

 dosage of others vrith remedies of unknown 

 composition may be criminal. 



The physician should be fully informed 

 as to the nature of the I'emedies he is ex- 

 pected to use, and the work of the council 

 is to furnish this information regarding all 

 new things presented to his attention. 

 Thej' should not be employed on the mere 

 guarantee of the financially interested 

 manufacturer. 



At the beginning of our work the council 

 adopted certain rales, which if complied 

 with, would entitle articles submitted to us 

 to consideration and report, and to notice 

 in "New and Non-official Remedies" in 

 case they were found satisfactorj'. At 

 first certain manufacturers assumed a very 

 independent attitude and attempted to 



ignore the stand of the council, but the 

 situation to-day is reversed and every firm 

 engaged in the work of producing remedies 

 to be used by physicians is glad to secure 

 our indorsement of its products. Since 

 our experience with the acetanilide mix- 

 tures we have been able to pass on the 

 merits of nearly all the new remedies of- 

 fered in the American market, and many 

 of the older ones also, in the proprietary 

 list. Up to the present time we have ex- 

 amined not far from one thousand com- 

 pounds and those which appear to have 

 some merit and are honestly advertised are 

 listed and described in our publication 

 mentioned. The publication does not, of 

 course, imply an indorsement of the thera- 

 peutic claims. 



The importance of the work of the coun- 

 cil appears in several directions. It is- 

 constructive as well as destructive, and in 

 its future development must lay greater 

 stress on this point, the reasonableness of 

 the claims made for therapeutic value- 

 Thus far we have been mainly concerned in 

 securing from manufacturers complete 

 statements of composition and place of 

 manufacture, general properties and be- 

 havior, which are controlled often by very 

 full investigations of our own. We have' 

 insisted that in their advertising the manu- 

 facturers must abandon the practise of 

 making exaggerated claims as to curative 

 action, which is not only undignified, but 

 often not in accord with facts. Doubtless 

 in the future the work of the council will 

 have to be more critical in this respect. 

 We have admitted to "New and Non- 

 official Remedies," for example, a number 

 of lecithin preparations, but it seems ab- 

 surd to think that in the quantities in 

 which they are used in a medicinal way 

 they can have any value as nerve or tissue 

 builders or stimulants in nutrition. One 

 or two eggs would doubtless contain more 



