SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXII. No. 834 



terms. I should say physiological jargon, 

 as the talks reeled off would not bear close 

 inspection. It is no wonder that such men 

 make an impression on the half educated 

 doctor. Men are sometimes respected in 

 proportion as they are not understood. I 

 do not know who writes the scientific mat- 

 ter for some of these advertising firms. To 

 the uninitiated it often sounds well, but to 

 the phj^siologist or chemist the talk may be 

 meaningless. Unfortunately, physicians 

 can not all be sufficiently well trained to 

 detect the frauds in all cases. 



As an illustration of another kind of 

 fraud consider the product known as X's 

 Antiseptic Powder. X is a pharmacist of 

 Washington and his manufactured reme- 

 dies have much more than a local reputa- 

 tion. This powder was advertised as a 

 "scientific combination of borate of 

 sodium, alumen, carbolic acid, glycerin 

 and the crystallized principles of thyme, 

 eucalyptus, gaultheria and mentha, " but 

 ■on analysis we found it to contain boric 

 acid 81.26 per cent., zinc sulphate 15.56 

 per cent, and a little water and flavoring 

 matters. This was a petty swindle, but 

 the worst of it was that the manufacturer, 

 when confronted with the facts, attempted 

 to excuse them with the statement that he 

 had a right to use what he pleased and 

 call the mixture by any name he chose in 

 order to prevent imitations, as long as the 

 product accomplished what he claimed for 

 it. X claims to be strongly devoted to the 

 ethical principle, and has recently pub- 

 lished a little pamphlet in which he says 

 much about honesty in business methods. 

 It is fortunate that under the food and 

 drug laws all such frauds may be pun- 

 ished. The label must be made to tell the 

 truth. 



I mention this case, which may appear 

 ■a very unimportant one, because it illus- 

 trates an interesting point. It appears 



that at one time the X powder contained 

 the substances, or some of them, as claimed 

 on the label. Later a change or improve- 

 ment was made, but it would be poor 

 business policy to change the label. I am 

 told that many business men reason the 

 same way about manufactured articles and 

 we have a good illustration in the anti- 

 kamnia, spoken of above. This was an 

 acetanilide mixture at the start, but now, 

 to get around one of the provisions of the 

 drug laws, it contains phenacetin instead, 

 when sold in the United States, and acet- 

 anilide, it appears from the last analyses 

 made, when sold in England. There is an 

 element of danger in this practise. One 

 may become accustomed to a certain large 

 dose of the thing here and, thinking he 

 has the same product, get a double dose of 

 acetanilide if he buys it in England. The 

 normal dose of the latter is about half that 

 of phenacetin. Where are the "ethics" in 

 such a practise? 



As acetanilide has flourished under 

 many aliases so hexamethyleneamine has 

 appeared in a variety of forms. It has 

 figured as urotropin, formin, eystogen, 

 aminoform, hexamin, urotone and others. 

 Uron is another preparation containing 

 the same substance, and hails from St. 

 Louis. The manufacturers give it the 

 complex formula LiCijHjNjOa, but it ap- 

 pears to consist essentially of 58 per cent, 

 of lithium benzoate and 42 per cent, of 

 hexamethyleneamine. 



Another firm advertises a remarkable 

 salt under the name thialion, for which the 

 chemical term sodio-tri-lithic-anhydrosul- 

 phate is given as a synonym. A beautiful 

 graphic formula is added which reminds 

 one of the first attempts of the freshman. 

 The product actually contains sodium sul- 

 phate, sodium chloride, sodium citrate and 

 a little lithium citrate. The .journal in 

 which this wonder has been extensively ad- 



