374 



SCIENCE 



[N. S., Vol. XL., No. 1028 



von Gruber finds that the descendants of one 

 million people would after 100 years only 

 amount to 347,000 souls. 



To counteract the modern tendency to race 

 suicide von Gruber proposes (1) Improvement 

 of the economic condition of families with 

 many children by proper laws. (2) Limita- 

 tion of the economic advantages of childless- 

 ness. (3) Suppression of those agencies which, 

 for pecuniary gains, spread the vice of race 

 suicide. He takes an energetic stand against 

 those modern " reformers " who would loosen 

 the marriage ties. He considers the modern 

 monogamous marriage the only basis of 

 healthy sexual relations. Freedom in mar- 

 riage would become " free love " and end in 

 general sterility. He condemns the claim of 

 the law committee of the Federation of Ger- 

 man Women, who maintain that " as a free 

 person woman is the mistress over her own 

 body and may destroy a germ which, in its 

 initial stage, is an inseparable part of her own 

 body." The ideal of woman's emancipation 

 has never been more nearly approached than in 

 Imperial Eome, where sterility was a general 

 phenomenon. 



It is nothing but just that the state bear a 

 part of the expenses of parents with a numer- 

 ous family. Parents who have three or more 

 normal and healthy children under 14 years 

 should be paid a monthly contribution, and if 

 they have raised three or more children they 

 should receive an old age pension when they 

 have reached the age of 60 years. Besides 

 these economic advantages von Gruber would 

 give a father of three or more children a plural 

 vote at all elections proportional to the number 

 of his children. A large portion of the sums 

 expended in the assistance of families with 

 many children could be procured by a tax on 

 the incomes of bachelors and parents with few 

 or no children. Von Gruber proposes severe 

 laws against the " propaganda for the two- 

 children system," as well as severe penalties on 

 criminal abortion and on the advertisement 

 and sale of drugs and other means for the pre- 

 vention of conception. 



A. Allemann 



PATENT MEDICINES IN GBEAT BSITAIN 

 Largely through the efforts of the American 

 Medical Association and through legislation 

 by Congress some progress has been made in 

 the United States in limiting the dangers from 

 the sale and use of secret medicines. The 

 conditions are now worse in Great Britain 

 than in this country, and in 1912 the govern- 

 ment appointed a select committee which has 

 just issued an abstract of its report. It finds 

 that there is a large and increasing sale of 

 patent and proprietary remedies and appli- 

 ances and of medicated wines; that this con- 

 stitutes a grave and widespread public evil 

 and that " an intolerable state of things," 

 requires new legislation to deal with it, rather 

 than merely the amendment of existing laws. 

 Legislation is recommended as follows: 



1. That every medicated wine and every propri- 

 etary remedy containing more alcoliol than that re- 

 quired for pharmacological purposes, be required to 

 state upon, the label the proportion of alcohol con- 

 tained in it. 



2. That the advertisement and sale (except the 

 sale by a doctor's order) of medicines purporting 

 to cure the following diseases be prohibited: Can- 

 cer, consumption, lupus, deafness, diabetes, paraly- 

 sis, fits, epilepsy, locomotor ataxy, Bright 's dis- 

 ease, rupture (without operation or appliance). 



3. That all advertisements of remedies for dis- 

 eases arising from sexual intercourse or referring 

 to sexual weakness be prohibited. 



4. That all advertisements likely to suggest that 

 a medicine is an abortifacient be prohibited. 



5. That it be a breach of the law to change the 

 composition of a remedy without informing the 

 Department of the proposed change. 



6. That fancy names for recognized drugs be 

 subject to regulation. 



7. That the period of validity of a name used 

 as a trade mark for a drug be limited, as in the 

 case of patents and copyrights. 



8. That it be a breach of the law to give a false 

 trade description of any remedy, and that the fol- 

 lowing be a definition of a false trade description: 

 ' ' A statement, design, or device regarding any 

 article or preparation, or the drugs or ingredients 

 or substances contained therein, or the curative or 

 therapeutic effect thereof, which is false or mis- 

 leading in any particular. ' ' And that the onus 

 of proof that he had reasonable ground for be- 

 lief in the truth of any statement by him. regard- 



