Proprietary Remedies Research Articles

The Practical Medicine Series of Year Books. Comprising Ten Volumes on the Year's Progress in Medicine and Surgery. Issued Monthly. Under the General Editorial Charge of Gustavus P. Head. M.D., Professor of Laryngology and Rhinology. Chicago Post Graduate Medical School. Vol. VIII Materia Medica and Therapeutics, Preventive Medicine. Climatology, Suggestive Therapeutics, Forensic Medicine.

In the July number of this series we have "Materia Medica and Therapeutics" by Dr. George F. Butler, who reviews the literature very thoroughly. A useful portion of the work is a list of the new proprietary remedies taken from<i>Merck's Archives</i>. "Preventive Medicine" is ably treated by Dr. Favill, and "Climatology, Suggestive Therapeutics and Forensic Medicine" by such well-known writers as Drs. Norman Bridge, Brower and Moyer. In the August issue we have the subjects of "Pathology" by Dr. W. A. Evans and "Physiology, Bacteriology and Hygiene" by Dr. Gehrmann. In conclusion a supplement to the medical dictionaries, containing the new medical terms, is furnished by Dr. William Healy. The usefulness of this last addition is apparent. In the September number Dr. W. L. Baum reviews the literature of skin and venereal diseases. This part of the work is well illustrated. Nervous diseases are treated of by Dr. H.

A PROTEST AGAINST THE USE OF PROPRIETARY REMEDIES.

The profession is being overwhelmed by proprietary remedies. The manufacturers who project them copyright the name by which they are to be known, patent the process by which they are made, and patent the resulting product, so that these remedies must remain a monopoly for all time. Coblentz, in his recent edition of Newer Remedies, gives a succinct account of about two thousand, all introduced during the last few years, and Lehn and Fink, in Progress in Pharmacy and Therapeutics, enumerate about five hundred more. I have recently had three of the leading dispensing druggists of Chicago, Messrs. Gale & Blocki, Dale & Sempill, and D. R. Dyche & Co., examine the last 1000 prescriptions on their files for the purpose of ascertaining how many of them contained these proprietary remedies, with the result that one firm finds about 20 per cent., another 21 per cent., and the third 26

A Proprietary Medicine.

Ogden, Utah, Aug. 4, 1900. To the Editor: —The owners of a certain secret proprietary remedy—known as antikamnia—have recently scattered broadcast among the laity of this city—and probably of other cities —untold numbers of pictures, on the backs of which appear the many indications and explicit directions for the use of the stuff, accompanied by a glowing apostrophe to Dear Doctor, may your faith never grow less, etc., which I enclose. It has long been a mystery to me how sensible physicians could prescribe such substances. The picture seems especially appropriate in this connection, considering the working propensities of both. Very respectfully,