Abstract
Popular remedies have maintained a separate existence in modem medicine, accentuated by industrialism and commercialism which permitted the production and marketing of patent medicines on a vast scale. In Germany one thousand patent medicines were already available by 1871. Advertising was the cornerstone of this success, with products sold in various retail outlets and by mail order. Some offered a universal cure for all illnesses; others targeted specific illnesses, particularly sexual concerns. Although doctors in Germany recommended legalization of "quackery" in 1869, the explosion of patent medicines caused most doctors and pharmacists to seek greater legal control of sales and bans on advertising to protect the public. The federal structure of Germany and the difficulty of treating patent medicines separately from legitimate pharmaceutical products hampered their efforts. As well, popular support for patent medicines stayed high because of a lingering belief in humoral pathology, lower cost and accessibility of patent medicines, and the inability of professional medicine to cure many illnesses, including those causing most anxiety. The extension of health insurance in Germany gradually overcame these obstacles.
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