LIFE DESTROYING DRUGS.

NZ Truth, Issue 62, 25 August 1906, Page 8

LIFE DESTROYING DRUGS.

Patent Medicines to Avoid

No. I. i

• r 'Headache powders

Ignorance and credulous hope make the .'market • for, most proprietary .remedies.; Intelligent people are not. vi yen largely to the use of the.gra.?-;, ingly advertised cure-alls; such as Liquozone or Peruna. Nostrumsthere are, however, which reach the', thinking: classes as well as the readi-. ly gulled. Depending, as they do, for their success upon the lure' of some subtle l drug concealed under a trade, J^narae. or some opiate not readily, ob- 4 tain-able under its own label, these j are Uhe most^dan^iroi^'Of- all quacfc? medicines/ not only m their, immediate effect ; but because they create enslaving appetites, sometimes' obscure v and difficult of treatment,.; most often tragically obvious. Of •'<■ these concealed drugs 'the headache J jpowders are the most widely used, and of. the ' T __ j HEADACHE POWDERS QRANGE-

INE : as the most -conspicuous.. x Orangefo^pri-rits its formula. J lt is,., therefore, its proprietors claim, not a secret remedy. But to all intents and purposes it is secret, because to the uninformed public the vitally important word "acetanilid" m the formula means little or nothing. Worse than its secrecy is its policy of ■'. careful and . dangerous deception. Orangeine, like' all the headache ' pbwders, is simply a^ mix-' ;tiire of acetanilid with less potent d'rjigs. Of course, there is no orange m it, except the orange hue of the iboxes and, wrappers which is its advertising symbol. But! this is an unimportant deception. The WICKEDNESS OF THE FRAUD lies m this : That whereas the nostrum, by vitrue of its acetanilid content, thins the blood, depresses the heart, and finally undermines the whole system, it claims to strengthen the heart /and to produce better blood. Its action is the reverse. Recent years have added to the mortality records pf 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 cau.se 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 bein-p: widely advertised, and there is every reason to believe that the increased mortality, which is still- in evidence, is due '"largely yjq^he jsecret WEAKENING- OF tSe HEART , riy acetanilid. Occasionally, a. death ■occurs so definitely, traceable to this poison that there is no room for doubt, as m the following report by Dr. "J. L. Millar, of Chicago, m the "Journal of the American Medical •Association," upon the death of Miss -Frances Robson :— "I was lirst called to see the patient, a young lady, physically sound, who had been taking Orangeine powders for a number of weeks for insomnia. The rest of the family noticed that she was very blue, and for this reason I was called. When ■I saw the patient she complained of a sense of faintmess and inability to keep warm. 'At this, time she had taken a

BOX OF SIX. ORkNGrEINE POWDERS within about eight hours.' She was warned of tjbe danger of! continuing

-ohe indiscriminate use of the remedy, but insisted that many of her friends had used it and claimed that it was harmless. The family promised to see that she did hot obtain any more of the remedy. Three days later, however, I was called to the house and found, the patient dead. The family said that she had gone to .her room the evening before m her •usual health. The next morninf. the patient not appearing, they investigated and found her dead. The case was reported to the coroner, and the coroner's verdict was : 'Death was Ifrom the effect of an overdose of ?Orangeine powders administered by _er own hand, whether accidentaly, ;:or otherwise, .unknown to the jury.' "

Last July, v an 18-year-old Philadelphia, girl got a box of Orangeine at a- "drugstore, having be.en fctold that they would cure headache. i'ThefeWas nothing on the label or m *tlie'#rlii*ffa^ matter inclosed with the - preparation warning her of the ►dangerous . vCHARACTER-OF THE NOSTRUM. Following the printed advice', she jtook two powders. In three hours : she was dead: Coroner Dugan's ver(dict follows :—

• "Mary A. Bispels came by her -death from kidney and heart disease, aggravated by poisoning by acetanilid taken m Orangeine headache powders."

PRESCRIBING WITHOUT AUTHORITY. 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.

Obscurity as to the real nature of the drug, fostered by careful deception, is, the safeguard of the acetanilid vendor. Were ,its perilous quality known, the -headache powder would hardly be so widely used. And were the even more important fact that the use of these powders becomes a habit, akin to the opium or cocaine habits/ understood by the public, the repeated sales which; are the basils of Orangeine's prosperity would undoubtedly be greatly cut down. Orangeine fulfils the prime requisite of a patent .medicine m being a good "repeater." Did it not foster its own demand m the form of a persistent craving:, it would hardly be profitable. Its advertising invites to the formation -of an addiction , to the drug. "&ET THE HABIT,"

it. might logically advertise, m imitation of a certain prominent exploitation along legitimate lines. Not only is its value as a cure for nervousness and headache insisted upon, but its prospective dupes are advised to take this powerful drug as a bracer.-

"When, as often, you reach home, tired m body and miind . . . take an Orangeine powder — lie down for 30 minutes nap— if possible— anyway, relax, then take another."

"To induce sleep, take an Orangeine powder before retiring. When wakeful, an Orangeine powder will have a normalising, quieting effect."

It is also recommended as a good thing to begin the day's work on m the morning— that is, take Orangeine night, morning, and between meals ! These •

POWDERS PRETEND TO CURE asthma, biliousness, headaches, colds, catarrh, and grip (dose : powder every four hours during the day for a week !— a pretty fair start on the Orangeine habit), diarrhoea, hay fever, insomnia, influenza, neuralgia, sea-sickness and sciatica. ..

Of course, they do not cure any of these ; they do practically nothing but give temporary relief by depressing the heart. With the return to normal conditions of blood circulation comes a recurrence of the nervousness, headache, or what not, and the incentive to more of the' drug, until it becomes a necessity. One young woman whom I have m mind told me quite innocently that she had been taking five or six powders a day for several months, living changed from Koehler's Pow-