TWO EVILS. 
4G1 
If a clear and expressive letter is written there is no question 
but that a sound-minded publisher will give the matter due con¬ 
sideration. I took it upon myself to write the Farm, Stock and 
Home in regard to the matter, with the result that I have not 
seen any of these advertisements in that paper since, and have 
now written the Dakota Farmer, asking - them to further de¬ 
cline such advertising and have no doubt in my mind but that 
they will do so. 
If every veterinarian would write one letter to any paper that 
carries these advertisements, a lot of good could be accomplished. 
Now, to our second evil, the patent medicines. These, along 
medical lines, have been well exposed of late years, but there is 
a line of veterinary proprietaries that ought to be exposed for the 
benefit of the profession. 
These, same as the diploma mills, are pretenders upon the 
public mind and are deceptive, to say the least about them; they, 
nearly all of them, depend upon the glib and untruthful adver¬ 
tisements as bait to get the public’s money. 
There is also a class of pretenders, imposers upon the public 
mind, as the individual of “ Anti-abortion serum,” fame of Wis¬ 
consin, that the veterinary profession should know all about. 
The American Medical Association maintains a department 
i 
for the analysis and exposure of all proprietary preparations, the 
result of which is published in the journal of the association, and 
I believe that the A. V. M. A. could do something along similar 
lines. 
The services of a good analytical chemist could be obtained to 
analyze as many of these preparations as the association would 
decide upon to have examined. 
I believe that it would be money well spent and the benefit de¬ 
rived from it would be far greater than the expense involved. 
The “ stunts ” and “ cures ” made by some of these remedies 
could almost make a man lose his faith in all materia medica and 
therapeutics taught at college. To illustrate absurdity of state¬ 
ments made by some of these medicine men a few examples are 
given here. 
