'^Sptember''^92'S:}        Control  of  Patent  Medicines.  675 
stances  or  patent  medicines  offered  for  sale  to  the  public,  which  can- 
not be  tested  adequately  by  direct  chemical  means.  Some  of  the 
most  distinguished  professional  people  of  Great  Britain  have  been 
named  upon  the  committee,  which  will  consider  in  the  first  instance 
the  report  of  a  select  committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  on  patent 
medicines.  This  committee  issued  a  report  in  August,  1914,  sum- 
marizing the  legal  position  in  regard  to  patent  medicines,  as  follows : 
"For  all  practical  purposes  British  law  is  powerless  to  prevent 
any  person  from  procuring  any  drug  or  taking  any  mixture,  whether 
potent  or  without  any  therapeutical  activity  whatever  (so  long  as  it 
does  not  contain  a  scheduled  poison),  advertising  it  in  any  decent 
terms  as  a  cure  for  any  disease  or  ailment,  recommending  it  by 
bogus  testimonials  and  the  invented  opinions  and  facsimile  signa- 
tures of  fictitious  physicians,  and  selling  it  under  any  name  he 
chooses,  on  the  payment  of  a  small  stamp  duty,  for  any  price  he 
can  persuade  a  credulous  public  to  pay." 
Principal  Recommendations  of  the  Committee. — The  prin- 
cipal recommendations  of  the  committee  were: 
"That  the  administration  of  the  law  governing  the  advertise- 
ment and  sale  of  patent  and  secret  medicines  be  combined  under  one 
department  of  the  State — the  Ministry  of  Health  when  created, 
and  until  then  the  local  government  board. 
"That  the  manufacturers,  proprietors,  and  importers  of  such 
medicines  be  registered. 
"That  an  exact  and  complete  analysis  of  every  remedy,  including 
medicated  wines,  with  a  full  statement  of  the  claims  made  for  them, 
be  furnished  to  the  department. 
"That  a  special  court  or  commission  be  constituted  with  power 
to  permit  or  prohibit  in  the  public  interest,  or  on  the  ground  of  non- 
compliance with  the  law,  the  sale  and  advertisement  of  any  remedy ; 
and  that  the  commission  be  a  judicial  authority,  such  as  a  metro- 
politan police  magistrate  sitting  with  two  assessors,  one  appointed 
by  the  department  and  the  other  by  some  such  body  as  the  London 
Chamber  of  Commerce. 
"That  the  advertisement  and  sale  (except  the  sale  by  a  doctor's 
order)  of  medicines  purporting  to  cure  the  following  diseases,  be 
prohibited:  Cancer,  consumption,  lupus,  deafness,  diabetes,  par- 
alysis, fits,  epilepsy,  locomotor  ataxia,  Bright' s  disease,  rupture 
(without  operation  or  appliances). 
"That  it  be  a  breach  of  the  law  to  use  fictitious  testimonials, 
or  to  promise  to  return  money  paid  if  a  cure  is  not  effected." 
