QUACKS AND PATENT MEDICINES 
505 
Testimonial letters stating that the writer has been greatly 
benefited by a given patented preparation or mechanical con¬ 
trivance are abundantly used by all fakers. An official of 
the United States Postoffice once wrote: “ Speaking gen¬ 
erally it may be said that in all my experience in this office 
never has a medical concern, no matter how fraudulent its 
methods or worthless its treatment, been unable to produce 
an almost unlimited number of these so-called testimonial 
letters.” An investigation by the American Medical Asso¬ 
ciation has shown that some of these letters are purchased, 
some written in the office of the “ patent medicine ” concern, 
and some actually written in good faith. Those who write 
the letters in good faith are relatively few in number and 
nearly always ignorant and unable to judge accurately of the 
cause of their trouble. Many of them after writing of the 
benefits are found to be just as deaf or epileptic as before tak¬ 
ing. In the case of consumptives who write of being helped, 
it is only necessary to wait a few months and the death certifi¬ 
cates are available as silent testimonial to the fake. 
As the United States Government has been more and more 
successful in prosecuting the ordinary frauds, the propa¬ 
gators of fakes have become more skillful, especially in the 
false-scientific manner of advertising. 
The following is from “ The Nostrum and the Public 
Health ,” an article published in the Journal of the American 
Medical Association, May 24, 1919, written by Arthur J. 
Cramp, M.D.: 
“ The physician, of course, is opposed to the average 
‘ patent medicine ’ because it is exploited in such a way as to 
cause the public to magnify its trivial ailments, to drug 
itself , unnecessarily and in cases in which something serious 
is the matter to lose vitally valuable time in seeking medical 
aid. . . . 
“ Unfortunately, the home remedies of to-day are, generally 
speaking, ‘ patent medicines 1 ; and the methods of promoting 
