The Danger of Patent Medicines
By L. A. S.
WHILE great efforts are being put forth, and have been for years, to combat the curse of intemperance by means of legislation and education directed against the brewery and the saloon, or the contents of beer, wine, and whisky bottles, the devil has been stealing a march on the temperance forces, and quietly but effectively promoting the curse through an unsuspected channel,—that of the “patent medicines” which have come into such general use. It is the strongest testimony to the credulity of the present age that the patent medicine business flourishes as it does to-day. The people swallow these nostrums without having the least idea of the character of what they are taking into their systems, relying upon the statements that appear in the advertisements, which are made not to give the people information, but to sell the “medicine.” And first, they are humbugged into believing that because they have certain symptoms, which the advertiser knows are experienced more or less by almost everybody, and sets forth at length in his advertisement, they need just the “remedy” which the patent medicine manufacturer has discovered, as the advertisement of the same assures them. In the May issue of the Ladies’ Home Journal, the editor, Mr. Edward Bok, deals a telling blow to this patent medicine curse, and the facts which he states ought to be read and remembered by every temperance-loving person in the land. He publishes a list of thirty-six of the most common of these “remedies,” with the percentage of alcohol contained in each, as ascertained by careful and reliable analysis, his authority for such figures being document No. 34, issued by the Massachusetts State Board of Health. The figures show that these “medicines” contain alcohol by volume from twelve per cent to forty-seven and a half per cent. Thus it appears that all these patent preparations are much more intoxicating than beer, which contains from two to five per cent of alcohol, and some are stronger even than whisky itself. Yet these “medicines” are taken by temperance people who would be shocked at the thought of taking whisky or beer, and are often given by them to their children. Think of the craving for intoxicants which must be the inevitable result of the use of these alcoholic preparations, and of what vast numbers must thereby receive an impetus toward the saloon. What a terrible handicap to the cause of temperance! It is little wonder that its progress is slow. The alcoholic percentage of some of the most popular or widely advertised of these patent medicines, is set forth in this list as follows:—
Lydia E. Pinkham’s Vegetable Compound .................... 20.6
Paine’s Celery Compound ................................. 21
Ayer’s Sarsaparilla ..................................... 26.2
Hood’s Sarsaparilla ..................................... 18.8
Peruna .................................................. 28.5
Parker’s Tonic, “purely vegetable” ...................... 41.6
Baker’s Stomach Bitters ................................ 42.6
Burdock Blood Bitters .................................. 25.2
Green’s Nervura ........................................ 17.2
Hostetter’s Stomach Bitters ............................ 44.3
Warner’s Safe Tonic Bitters ............................ 35.7 Even worse than the mixture of alcohol in some of these modern cure-alls, is the use of opium and cocaine, which because of their nerve-paralyzing effects are put into various preparations advertised to relieve pain. Thus adults, and even children, are unconsciously made slaves to these drugs. Such facts as these throw a new light upon the importance of the health reform movement which is a part of the special message for this time given by Seventh-day Adventists. This movement calls attention to rational principles of living and the treatment of disease. It advocates a return to conformity with the laws of nature, which are the laws of God. It exposes the uselessness and danger of drug-taking and shows, how health may be regained and preserved without the use of such “remedies.” If people would accept and practise these health principles, the “patent medicine” curse would be shut out, and with it all the tendency to intemperance which that business fosters. There is nothing the world so much needs, and has so much needed ever since it became due the world, as the third angel’s message.