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Show PATENT AND PROPRIETARY MEDICINES. , : ( , r A Rcplyj to Mr. Bok. I am not a maker of patent medicines, medi-cines, nor have -1 any Interest In the sale of them. 1 am simply a user, like the rest of you. - , Patent medicine are- friends of my youth, ;and friends of my family. They have lielped'me when J-need'ad hoit: and if tlicy need help now I feel like defending them. It la duly fair reciprocity. reci-procity. ' The fact Is that the term "patent medicines," us upplled -to advertised remedies, is a misnomer. Very few of the romedlot advertised to tho laity arc-pntenterf. arc-pntenterf. The . real- patent medicines fire aaverllscd lot yhyslcians alone. They are brought Into use almost solely sole-ly throligh yhyiichlng' prescriptions. Practically all the snythetlc chemicals chemi-cals produced In late years are protected pro-tected by patents. ' The most valuable products used by modern physicians are patented. The coal" tar preparations prepara-tions which are most widely used, and the most 'effective germicides, arc among them. All physicians prescribe these- remedies,, yet they know that their owners control a monopoly. The largest 'pha'rmaceutleal houses are not those which make remedies advertised ad-vertised In newspapers. They make the remedies which are advertised to physicians phy-sicians ilone, and- they control those remedies absolutely by a patent or trademark. If the medical profession ceased to use these patented remedies, half the 'prescriptions which arc wit-ten wit-ten would need to be altered. This does not bear out Mr.- Bolt's theory that; the discoverer of a remedy of. real, value gives it freely . to .the world. Tho custom. with those who Invent In-vent such rcrpeelles today Is to patent thorn and control them, Just as docs tho man 'who luyerils'a new machine. And tile medical- profession,, recognizes and approves the method, for every modern physician prescribes patented remedies more frequently than any others. And enormous enterprises are built solely on this fact. The mere fact, therefore, that a man controls a remedy, either by a patent or trademark, does not argue against IL It Is- rather evidence that the man has something which he considers worth controlling. K the man, in. addition, spends large sums In .advertising. whether to physicians phy-sicians or to the hilly, It forms to me further evldehco of value. Nothing is more certain . than the fact' that a worthless article cannot be advertised profitably. Those who .know advertising know that the cost of selling a bottle or package to a new user Is several times the profit made oh It. The only hope of profit coinc's through continued use; niid, without merit, continued use cannot can-not be expected. When a man has made a success In advertising a medicine. It Is to me tho best evidence possible that he has something good. A physician may put up a prescription prescrip-tion for some individual case without giving much thought to It. But If that physician Is going to spend a fortune on advertising, with no possibility of petting his money back unless he satisfies satis-fies millions of users, he la naturally going to put up the best prescription he can make. If he Is wise he will get tho best prescriptions for his purpose lhat any man can make. Then there Is the question of alcohol which Mr. Bok seems lo consider such a' perilous one. All the fluid extracts and tinctures used In medicine must employ alcohol as a solvent and preservative. pre-servative. Prohibit a physician from using alcohol in his prescriptions and you would make the practice of medicine medi-cine Impossible. It a physician must use alcohol in certain prescriptions, shall we complain that a ready made mcdlelne'empioys It for the same purpose pur-pose ? If wo are going to avoid the use of alcohol we must banish the extracts aid essences used In our kitchen. Fluid extracts, whether they are medicinal or culinary, cannot bo made or preserved without alcohol. The use of alcohol In medicine la approved ap-proved by the pharmacopoeias of all nations. Tt Is In accord with the practice prac-tice of all medical authorities In the world. The abuse of alcohol Is another matter, mat-ter, but the cost alone Is enough lo prevent pre-vent abuse. Alcohol costs -iboul .2.C0 per gallon. It Is loo expensive for any medicine maker to use more than he needs of II. And he cannot hope tl at people are going to take the medicine because of the alcohol, when good whisky whis-ky can be purchaser! for one-fifth as much. . A dose of meuietno which contains even 20 per cent of alcohol does not seem to me a very dangerous matter. That means one-fifth of n reaspoonful of alcohol at a time. Phvsicians do nol hesitate to give brandy To a child in teaspoonful dose.i, and brandy is half alcohol. When one con-pares medicine med-icine with wine or beer, he should also compare the dosage. Ono takes rioro alcohol In a glass of wine ihan he takis in a greut many doses of medicine. Mr. Bok Is also most unfair In his reference to poisons used In proprietary medicines. It Is true that some medicines medi-cines contain polsona In small percentages, percent-ages, but the use is i:ot nearly as general gen-eral aa In physicians' prescriptions. A great many drugs "-bleb are recognir.ed by every physician us helpful In small doses are poisonous when taken In excess. ex-cess. An elderly druggist told me a few days ago lhat he had personally examined exam-ined more than 100,000 phy.dclans' prescriptions, pre-scriptions, and, by actual count, 70 per cent of them contained nn opiate. Yt analysis shows not a tiuce of opiate in the largest sellers among the proprietary pro-prietary remedies. Strychnine Is anotlu-r dangerous drug largely prescribed by physicians. It Is used as a tonic and stimulant. Yet this Is a drug rarely found In proprietaries. The maker nt a proprietary medicine must be more careful about the use of any poison than the physician. The physician is Jn a position to 'Irect his doges and to watch tho lvsulls. Tie is able' to lake chnheos which no maker of a general remedy will take, for fear that tho directions on the bottle will not be adhered to. There are thousands of physicians whose Interosts are opposed to-proprietary r.miedlc-s. They are reaiiy to denounce de-nounce a ready-made remedy at the slightest evidence of liirm from-It. Yet how seldom we hear of any harm from proprietaries. I hnve myself never iieai'd- of a single authtMUIcatcd case. It Is the lack of poison. rUtl.or than Its presence, .which forms the. real objection ob-jection to proprietaries. It Is by using d poison which the medicine maker nvolds that the physician, often secures a greater effect. The tinker of ft remedy rem-edy has too much at stake 'to ufc anything any-thing which will- result in occasional harm. And this caution leads lilm often to omit Ingredients wMcli .ho knows to be valuable". Proprietary remedies are used not alone by the poor who eunnct afford to call a physician. They arc employed em-ployed by those to whom expense Is of no Importance. And In pulinarv ailments. ail-ments. ,whena. .phyalqluu. J. called, he prescribes a ready-made rcnivdy. Pro prietary remedies are at some time taken by all of us. They are found In nearly every home. And I know of no business where fraud has less chance of "success than In moth'clne. A worthless remedv Is very quickly found out, A sick person will not long continue a remedy which does not help. The lack'of mt'iit In a food nfay remain long undiscovered, but If a medicine lacks virtue the fact Is at once apparent. When I need a remedy for any ordinary or-dinary ailment, my choice goes to a. remedy so good that it made its maker rich. A DEFENDER |