CONTINUING the subject of patent medicines containing subtle poisons, which, unconsciously to their victims, induce moral slavery, with resulting ruin of body and soul, Mr. Adams says:—
“Recent years have added to the mortality records of our cities a surprising and alarming number of sudden deaths from heart failure. In the year 1902 New York City alone reported a death-rate from this cause of 1.34 per thousand of population; that is about six times as great as the typhoid fever death record. It was about that time that the headache powders were being widely advertised, and there is every reason to believe that the increased mortality, which is still in evidence, is due largely to the secret weakening of the heart by acetanilid. Occasionally, a death occurs so definitely traceable to this poison that there is no room for doubt.”
Several cases of death from the use of orangeine powders are cited by Mr. Adams. He continues:—
“Yet this poison is being recommended every day by people who know nothing of it and nothing of the susceptibility of the friends to whom they advocate it. For example, here is a testimonial from the orangeine booklet:—
“‘Miss A. A. Phillips, 66 Powers St., Brooklyn, writes: ‘I always keep orangeine in my desk at school, and through its frequent applications to the sick, I am called both “doctor and magician.”’”
“If the school herein referred to is a public school, the matter is one for the board of education; if a private school, for the health department or the county medical society. That a school-teacher should be allowed to continue giving, however well-meaning her foolhardiness may be, a harmful and possibly fatal dose to the children entrusted to her care, seems rather a significant commentary on the quality of watchfulness in certain institutions.”
This dangerous drug, like opium and cocaine, fosters its own demand by creating a persistent craving on the part of the user. It is this slavery of the drug taker that makes the patent-medicine business so profitable.
“I can conscientiously recommend,” says Mr. Adams, “orangeine, Koehler’s powders, royal pain powders, and others of that class to women who wish for a complexion of a dead, pasty white, verging to a puffy blueness under the eyes and about the lips.”
Moral Depravity of Drug Takers
One of the worst features of the use of this class of patent medicines is the moral paralysis which ensues to the user, who frequently resorts to lying and deception to conceal the fact of their use, and to the most dishonorable methods of obtaining them. “Often it is difficult,” says Mr. Adams, “for a physician to diagnose these cases because the symptoms are those of certain diseases in which the blood deteriorates, and, moreover, the victim, as in opium and cocaine slavery, will positively deny having used the drug.”
“Orangeine is less dangerous, except in extent of use, than many other acetanilid mixtures which are much the same thing under a different name. A friend of mine with a weak heart took the printed dose of laxative bromo quinine, and lay at the point of death for a week. There is no word of warning on the label. In many places samples of headache powders are distributed on the doorsteps. The St. Louis Chronicle records a result:—
“‘HUNTINGTON, W. VA., Aug. 15, 1905.—While Mrs. Thomas Patterson was preparing supper last evening, she was stricken with a violent headache, and took a headache powder that had been thrown in at her door the day before. Immediately she was seized with spasms, and in an hour she was dead.’”
Acetanilid is the active ingredient of all the following well-known “remedies:” orangeine, bromo-seltzer, royal pain powders, miniature headache powders, megrimine, anti-headache, Dr. Davis’s headache powders, antikamnia, ammonol, salacetin, phenalgin, cephalgin; but these do not by any means exhaust the list.
“The prescribed dose of bromo-seltzer is dangerous, and has been known to produce sudden collapse.
“Megrimine is a warranted headache cure that is advertised in several of the magazines. A newly arrived guest at a Long Island house party brought along several lots and distributed them as a remedy for headache and that tired feeling. It was perfectly harmless, she declared; didn’t the advertisement say ‘leaves no unpleasant effects’? As a late dance the night before had left its impress upon the feminine members of the house party, there was a general acceptance of the ‘bracer.’ That night the local physician visited the house party (on special ‘rush’ invitation), and was well satisfied to pull all his patients through. He had never before seen acetanilid poisoning by wholesale.”
Dr. Davis’s anti-headache “describes itself as ‘a compound of mild ingredients, and positively contains no dangerous drugs.’ It is almost pure acetanilid.”
Antikamnia “is simply half or more acetanilid, with other unimportant ingredients in varying proportions.”
“The United States Post-Office, in its broad tolerance, permits the Antikamnia Company to send through the mails little sample boxes containing tablets enough to kill an ordinary man, and these samples are sent not only to physicians, as is the rule with ethical remedies, but to lawyers, business men, ‘brain workers,’ and other prospective purchasing classes. The box bears the lying statements: ‘No drug habit—no heart effect.’”
Soothing Sirups
“As to the ‘soothing sirups,’ designed for the drugging of helpless infants, even the trade does not know how many have risen, made their base profit, and subsided. A few survive, probably less harmful than the abandoned ones, on the average, so that by taking the conspicuous survivors as a type, I am at least doing no injustice to the class.
“Some years ago I heard a prominent New York lawyer, asked by his office scrub-woman to buy a ticket for some ‘association’ ball, say to her, ‘How can you go to these affairs, Nora, when you have two young children at home?’
“‘Sure, they’re all right,’ she returned blithely; ‘just wan teaspoonful of Winslow’s, an’ they lay like the dead till mornin’.’”
“What eventually became of the scrub-woman’s children I don’t know. The typical result of this practise is described by a Detroit physician, who12has been making a special study of Michigan’s high mortality rate:—
“‘Mrs. Winslow’s soothing sirup is extensively used among the poorer classes as a means of pacifying their babies. These children eventually come into the hands of physicians, with a greater or less addiction to the opium habit. The sight of a parent drugging a helpless infant into a semi-comatose condition is not an elevating one for this civilized age, and it is a very common practise. I can give you one illustration from my own hospital experience, which was told me by the father of the girl. A middle-aged railroad man of Kansas City had a small daughter sick with summer diarrhea. For this she was given a patent diarrhea medicine. It controlled the trouble, but as soon as the remedy was withdrawn, the diarrhea returned. At every withdrawal the trouble began anew, and the final result was that they never succeeded in curing this daughter of the opium habit which had taken its hold upon her. It was some years afterward that the parents became aware that she had contracted the habit, when the physician took away the patent medicine and gave the girl morphin with exactly the same result which she had experienced with the patent remedy. At the time the father told me this story, his daughter was nineteen years of age, an only child of wealthy parents, and one who could have had every advantage in life, but who was a complete wreck in every way as a result of the opium habit. The father told me, with tears in his eyes, that he would rather she had died with the original illness than to have lived to become the creature which she then was.’”
“‘Making cocain fiends is another profitable enterprise. Catarrh powders are the medium. A decent druggist will not sell cocain as such, steadily, to any customer, except upon prescription, but most druggists find salve for their consciences in the fact that the subtle and terrible drug is in the form of somebody’s sure cure. There is need to say nothing of the effects of cocain, other than that it is destructive to mind and body alike, and appalling in its breaking down of all moral restraint. Yet in New York City it is distributed in ‘samples’ at ferries and railway stations. You may see the empty boxes and the instructive labels littering the gutters of Broadway any Saturday night, when the drug-store trade is briskest.
“‘Birney’s catarrhal powder, Dr. Cole’s catarrh cure, Dr. Gray’s catarrh powder, and crown catarrh powder are the ones most in demand. All of them are cocain; the other ingredients are unimportant—perhaps even superfluous.
“‘Whether or not the bottles are labeled with the amount of cocain makes little difference. The habitues know. In one respect, however, the labels help them by giving information as to which nostrum is the most heavily drugged.
“‘People come in here,’ a New York City druggist tells me, ‘ask what catarrh powders we’ve got, read the labels, and pick out the one that’s got the most cocain. When I see a customer comparing labels, I know she’s a fiend.’”
We have had space for a few only of the statements which have been made on good authority, exposing the perfidy and menace of the patent-medicine business. One verse from a rhyme by Wallace Irwin on this subject, entitled “Dr. Shekel and Mr. Snyde,” may perhaps fittingly conclude these quotations:—
“I have read of his fame in the papers,
And gazed on his picture with pride.
‘DR. SHEKEL CAN CURE! THE FRIEND OF THE POOR!’
But I never have seen Mr. Snyde.
Yet in high patent-medical circles,
Where Shekel is lauded to fame,
I’ve heard it inferred, by a hint, by a word,
That Shekel and Snyde are the same!
That a psychical, strange metamorphical change
Comes over that healer of pain,
That at will he can slide to the aspect
Of Snyde,
Or presto! be Shekel again.”
“(Shekel and Snyde in a single man
Graft on a purely medicinal plan
To sell a brew to the idiots who
Believe in a heathen science;
Snyde in secret mixes the stuff,
Shekel in public sells enough
To get-rich-quick at the cost of the sick—
What a frightfully neat appliance!)”
To sum up the essential points of this series on the Patent-Medicine Evil: (1) The “bracer” class of patent medicines, peruna and the like, are mixtures depending for their effect wholly upon alcohol. They are simply intoxicants in disguise. (2) The “germicide” preparations, such as “liquozone,” are mostly water, with a little acid of various kinds, and if made strong enough to kill germs in the human system would necessarily kill the user first. (3) The headache and catarrh powders, sleeping powders, soothing sirups, and the like, act on the system through the presence of acetanilid, opium, or cocain, and are poisons of the most deadly character, on account of the moral slavery which they fasten upon the user. (4) There is no drug of any kind which is a necessity in the cure of disease, with the possible exception of quinin in some cases of malaria. (5) The government, while requiring the individual who would practise medicine to complete a long, hard course of study in a medical college, by some strange inconsistency, related often to patent-medicine lobbying at the legislatures, permits the patent-medicine manufacturer to sell his evil wares broadcast to any and every person in the land, and any and every person to prescribe for himself and take the “remedy” in such quantities as he sees fit. (6) There is a criminal alliance between the patent-medicine business and the newspapers, the public press being willing to maintain and foster this evil business in consideration of the lucrative sum paid for patent-medicine advertising. (7) The patent-medicine evil is a greater menace to health and temperance in this country than all the saloons and breweries in the land.
And has it occurred to you, reader, in your perusal of this series of articles, that the one and only sure safeguard in the world against such an evil is that message of the gospel of health for both soul and body which has been committed to Seventh-day Adventists, giving light from heaven on healthful living and the causes and rational treatment of disease? Is not the world tremendously in need of this message, merely for its physical benefits, to say nothing of its remedy for moral ills? Ought not Seventh-day Adventists to be the mightiest force in this country in opposing every form of intemperance? Verily, God has given his church light in advance of the world, and placed it in the lead in every true work of reform.
At Fourscore
By F. E. Snow
Call her not old, although the flight of years
Has measured off the allotted term of life!
Call her not old, since neither doubts nor fears
Have quenched her hope throughout the long, long strife.
They are not old, though days of youth have fled,
Who quaff the brimming cup of peace and joy!
They are not old who from life's hidden springs
Find drafts which still refresh but never cloy!
For what are years, though flying ne'er so fast?
A year's a day if full of gladsome zest!
But who shall measure time, when hopes are past?
A day's a year if sorrow is the guest.
The secret of perpetual youth is hers
Who finds delight in deeds of kindness wrought;
No age can dim the luster of her crown
Whose days with loving ministry are fraught.
— F. E. Snow.
The Conversion of a Countess
THE Countess of Essex some time ago visited for the first time an American slaughter-house. As a result she lost her appetite for flesh foods, and has eaten none since. Describing her visit, she stated:—
“I can't tell you how everything was stained deep with blood, how there arose from the drenched dark floors the peculiar odor of blood.
“As I was hurrying away, three beautiful lambs were led in by a man who had a long, shining knife. Filled with pity and indignation, I said:—
“‘How can you be so cruel as to put those innocent little lambs to death?’”
“‘Why, Madam,’ said the man, ‘you wouldn't eat them alive, would you?’”
— Selected.
Quantity as Well as Quality in Diet
No reform in diet will amount to anything which does not have regard to the quantity as well as the quality of food taken at the meal. On this point an exchange remarks: “The evils resulting from excess in eating can scarcely be overestimated. Indeed, startling as the statement may seem, it is nevertheless well supported, both by experience and by reliable authority, that it is safer for a person to disregard the quality of his food than to indulge in excess in quantity. In other words, food of inferior quality and not the best calculated to nourish the system, taken in proper quantity, is less injurious than food prepared in the best possible manner, taken in too large a quantity. A person, then, who adopts the vegetarian system, thinking to make a reformation in his manner of living by so doing, and who then constantly overloads his stomach, even with the best of food, has only rendered his condition worse than before, and consequently is in greater need of making a reformation.”
L. R. CONRADI
By L. R. Conradi
The Work in the German Empire —No. 1
L. R. CONRADI
Although until 1889 there were not more than twenty-five Sabbath-keepers in all this empire,—and they were in a small country village,—the work has been steadily advancing until to-day the land of the great Reformation is second only to the United States so far as our membership is concerned. Our first conference in this field was organized only seven years ago; to-day, however, there are in Germany proper five organized conferences and the German Union District; and all things considered, the year 1905 has been the best Germany ever had.
The German empire has a population of about sixty millions; and there is no other country, outside of the United States, where the cities show such a rapid growth in population as they do in Germany—thus giving evidence of general prosperity.
Thus far we have held our German Union meetings at Friedensau, during the summer months, when about eight hundred of our people have camped on the grounds; but this does not in the least detract from the local attendance at our annual winter conferences for the various fields. Five such meetings were appointed this year, from December 27 to January 28, the meetings in each instance to begin Wednesday night, and to close the following Sunday night.
The first of these meetings was that held for the Rhenish-Prussian Conference, in the beautiful city of Cologne on the Rhine (population, four hundred and twenty thousand), a city often referred to as the “German Rome.” When this conference was organized three years ago, it contained about six small churches in the Protestant towns in the neighborhood of Elberfeld-Barmen. There was but a handful of workers at that time; but since then one large city after another has been entered,—even cities containing a large Catholic population,—until we now have fifteen organized churches and companies, four of which were organized the past year. Among the new companies is the church in the historic city of Aix-la-Chapelle, a strong Roman Catholic center, where we have twenty-seven members. Many of these were formerly Romanists. Among them are a former Catholic missionary and his wife. The gentleman was in China a number of years, and traveled even to Tibet. He received his education in Rome and Paris; he also studied medicine, and he had charge of a large hospital in Peking. This gentleman is an Austrian by birth, and during the Boxer revolution in China he defended the hospital with such valor that the Austrian emperor received him into special audience and conferred high decorations of honor upon him. He has also had an audience with the pope. He and his wife are now engaged in self-supporting work, but would be ready at any time to connect definitely with our cause.
VIEW OF COLOGNE
We also have recently organized a company of fourteen members, at Bonn, the famous university city—a town of about eighty-one thousand inhabitants. We had quite a difficult time to secure any kind of hall for this meeting, as it was held from Christmas to New-year. There were in attendance forty-one delegates from the different churches, and about one hundred and eighty of the four hundred and thirty-three members we have in this field. Although they have but nine workers in this conference, last year they had one hundred and twenty-four additions, and five thousand dollars tithe, an increase of one thousand dollars over 1904. They pay an average tithe of more than ten dollars per capita in this field. All our conference transactions passed off harmoniously. Brother G. Schubert was again chosen president. About eighty dollars was pledged and given for the material fund for the new book, “Ministry of Healing,” in German. About thirty dollars was given as Sabbath-school and First-day offerings at this meeting. Aside from the writer, and local workers, Brethren J. Erzberger and Luepke assisted at the meeting. Brother Erzberger will have his home in the Rhenish Conference for the future, continuing in the German Union employ. Our book sales last year in this field amounted to about seven thousand five hundred dollars.
Our next meeting was that for south Germany, held at Pforzheim, a city that contains about sixty thousand people. Elder Boettcher had secured a hall three months ahead; knowing that the proprietors were Catholics, he told them that we were Protestants. The business manager told him that it did not matter to him who we were, so long as we paid our dues. The circulars were printed and distributed; and the day we were coming to the meeting, the manager told him that the priests had been after him, and said that by no means could this meeting be held there, unless we took it by force. So he went with Brother Boettcher to secure another place; a fine hall was secured, but at much greater expense. While we thus had some trouble at the very beginning, yet we were glad to see about two hundred of our people present, from Bavaria, Wurtemburg, Baden, Alsace-Lorraine, and Hessen. The South German Conference has a population of about thirteen million two hundred thousand. It was organized in 1902. They added one hundred and fifty-nine last year, and their membership increased from four hundred and one to five hundred and twenty-five, while their tithe sprung from four thousand four hundred dollars in 1904 to six thousand dollars in 1905. We are glad this field had such a good representation of our membership at the general meeting this year, and that such a harmonious spirit was manifest in our deliberations. Two hundred and fifty dollars was pledged and given to the material fund for “Ministry of Healing,” for German East Africa, etc., at this time. Many not of our faith were present at the public services. We had baptism, five going forward in this rite. We are glad that lately the number of workers in the South German Conference has grown, and that now we have some workers at least in every large section of the field. Elder J. T. Boettcher was chosen president. This conference, as also does the Rhenish Conference, pays two tithes to the German Union; and yet each of these fields, after settling with the workers, had a small surplus in the treasury for the beginning of the next year. H. F. Schuberth, J. Erzberger, and the writer were present from abroad at this meeting. The prospects were never brighter for this field than they are to-day, although we still have some difficulty in Bavaria, and do not know what the end may be. However, we are sure that God, who is ever tenderly regarding his work in all the world, will have a care for it here, too. The book sales in the South German Conference were about fifteen thousand dollars last year.
The next conference was held at Bremen, January 10-14, where the friends in western Germany came together. For two nights we had the14trades-union hall, a very nice new building—one of the leading halls in the city. The West German Conference has nineteen million inhabitants, and is about five hundred miles long, and perhaps four hundred miles wide. Within its territory is the independent German Union District, which was cut off from the West German Conference last winter. As the territory of this conference extends over such an area, we could not expect a large attendance, especially as Bremen is to one side of the field; yet about one hundred and seventy-five of our brethren were able to visit the meeting. Their report was very encouraging. Two hundred and fifty-two members had been added during the year, so that while they had lost four hundred members last January by the organization of the German Union District, they had gained half of that number, and had also regained half of the tithe lost by this division, through the natural growth in their own field. This conference now has about twenty-five workers, and among them are four ordained ministers. Among the churches received was a prosperous company at Eisenach, at the foot of the Wartburg. We have also a strong church at Erfurth, another town closely associated with Luther and the Reformation. The ministers had warned the city against our meetings, but in spite of that, we had a good outside attendance. Dr. Hoenes and Elders Frauchiger and Erzberger, with the writer, were able to render assistance at this meeting. The present membership of the West German Conference is nine hundred and sixty-nine, and their tithe is over $10,250, or an average of over ten dollars a member. The book sales here amounted to about eleven thousand dollars for the year. Elder J. Pieper was again chosen president of the West German Conference. Everything passed off with the greatest harmony. The brethren were glad to welcome Brother Isaac, from America, who takes the place which is made vacant in this field by the removal of his brother Daniel to Russia.
The outlook for the future of this conference is bright. We hope all our friends in all parts of the world will remember the cause of God here in their prayers.
Hamburg.
“Come Over and Help Us”
By Mrs. W. C. Hankins
MRS. W. C. HANKINS
CHINA, with approximately one fourth of the world’s population, is entirely ignorant of the fact that the Saviour is coming again soon, and, in truth, very few of her people are aware of the fact that there is a Saviour who is able “to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him.”
Every year millions of these people are going to their graves unsaved, knowing nothing of that gospel which is “the power of God unto salvation,” and has the power to lift them from the depths of sin into which they have fallen.
Now, every Seventh-day Adventist believes that we have the grandest system of truth that the Lord has ever given to any people, and that the rays of gospel light of all past generations are now concentrated upon the Word of God, so that we are living in the noonday glare of that light, and that the third angel’s message is the gospel of God for this generation.
Now, dear friends, if this be true,—and we believe it is,—the possession of this most precious of all treasures brings with it a grave responsibility.
We read how the Saviour healed the sick, and brought the dead back to life again, and we think what a grand thing it would be to have that power, so that we could relieve the misery of the afflicted ones around us. If we had that healing, life-giving power, would we sit quietly at home, and never use it or let it be known? And if the Lord would promise us that power, if we were willing to go to China, and there use it for the glory of his name, would we be willing to go? And if he promised us that the mighty power of God would accompany us, even as it did the apostles of old, would we refuse to go? And if he promised you the gift of tongues, so you could learn the language quickly, would you consider the language an insurmountable barrier?
Then why not come, and come at once? for all this has he promised, and more. Listen to his words: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Matt. 28: 18-20.
Have you, dear reader, obtained salvation? Do you know your sins are forgiven? Is this gospel of Christ the most precious of all your treasures? Are you looking forward with joy and confidence to the coming of Christ, and a life of endless joy with your Saviour? If so, “Freely ye have received, freely give.” Matt. 10: 8. And remember that if you would keep what you already have, you must give it away; for “there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.” Prov. 11: 24.
Do we believe that these people are lost without the gospel? that “there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved,” but the name of Jesus?—Yes, we believe that, and we believe that it is some one’s duty to go and tell them about the gospel, and to reveal the power of that gospel in their lives, and to warn them of the wrath to come. But did we ever think that perhaps our own soul’s salvation depended on our doing it? No? Then listen to the words of the Lord: “If thou forbear to deliver them that are drawn unto death, and those that are ready to be slain; if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?” Prov. 24: 11, 12.
But some will say, “We can not all go to India, or China, or Africa.” No, all can not go; but that does not mean that they can, therefore, do nothing for those people. If you can not go to the heathen, then you should be earnestly seeking the Lord to send some one else in your stead. And say, like many did during the Civil War, “If I can not go, I will pay some one else to go as my substitute.” And if you can not do that, do all you possibly can toward paying the expenses of some one who will go. And, having sent men to the front, remember that they are facing danger, and hardships, and perhaps death, while you are in your comfortable home, among your loved ones, and constantly and earnestly pray for them and their work, and give so freely of the means that the Lord has entrusted to your keeping that the work in these needy fields need not be retarded for lack of money.
And now, who should come? As you read this, does your heart warm toward these poor people as Christ’s did toward you? Do you wish to help them? If you were here, could the Lord use you? Are you specially called by God to some other work? Have you a living faith in God, and a working knowledge of his word? Are you willing to face danger, privation, and perhaps death, that others may have eternal life? Are you willing to give up cherished plans and ambitions, that you may help along the work in the most needy and difficult fields? Are you willing to plod away at a foreign language, if by so doing you can hasten the Lord’s coming? All these questions and more ask yourself, and then ask the Lord if he wants you to come, and follow the dictates of his Holy Spirit—remember, not of your own desires, but of the Spirit of God.
And now as to our needs. Any consecrated worker can be used here, but above all we need some of the strongest men in the denomination for the work here in China; for China constitutes fully half the heathen world, and requires strenuous work. And this has been the Lord’s plan in the past; for instead of sending Paul, the best educated of the apostles, to strengthen the work at Jerusalem, he sent him to the heathen, with the result that the whole world soon heard the gospel.
The Lord chose men to carry on the work at Jerusalem, and they were men of power, full of the Spirit, and just the men for the place, and so the work prospered. But Paul, who “was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles,” he sent to the heathen. And so now we need mighty men here in Asia, who, like Paul, can carry forward the work with great power.
Brethren, China’s millions are calling from the depths of sin and woe, “Come over and help us.” Who will come?
