GENERAL CABLES PATENT MEDICINE CASE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 126, 29 May 1915, Page 5

GENERAL CABLES PATENT MEDICINE CASE

CLAIMS EXPLODED IN COURT WHOLESALE DEALERS FINED. (By Telegraph.— Press Association,— Copyright.) (Received May 29, 9.20 a.m.) . SYDNEY, This Day..The Crown Prosecutor, uhdor the Pure Food Act, proceeded Against Elliott Brothers on tho ground of alleged mis* description of the patent medicine known as Vitadatio. The Crown Prosecutor relied on the statement printed in a pamphlet sold with the medicine, stating it cured Bright's disease, hydatids, stricture, cancer, consumption, ringworm, and paralysis. v Amongst the expert evidence, Dr. Cooksey Bhowed that Vitadatio contained 2.5 per cent of proof spirit, also salicylic acid, tannin, gentian, sarsaparilla, and s«hna or rhubarb. Dr. Palmer, principal Government Medical Officer, declared that according to this analysis Vitadatio could not Cure B right's disease, hydatids, cancer, or consumption. He made the further statement that, with the exception of quinine and mercury* no drug ever cured anybody , Other doctors supported Dr. Palmer regarding the diseases mentioned. For the defence, evidehce was given in support of cures in Sydney. Arthur Palmer, proprietor of Vitada tio, gave evidence that he was ill for fourteen years in New Zealand, and was treated for dyspepsia, liver, Bright's disease, and pleurisy, and subsequently underwent an operation in Invercargill, which showed that he was full of hydatid tumors/ A doctor told him the only medicines which would cure him would, also kill him. He tried Vitadatio, and it cured him. He denud Vitadatio con? tamed tannin, rhubarb, senna, Bamparilla, or gentian. A bottle cost him a shilling, of which the bottle cost twopence, the material threepence, and the labour sevenpence. He declined to give the names of certain h°rbs which he paid had" cost him £20,000 to get from Wclber. the original proprietor, but at the Magistrate's request he wrote down their names. The Magistrate found against the defpndants, who. lip said, were merely wholesale buyers of Vitadatio. He ordered them to pay a fine of £10 and costs. FRENCH LINER WRECKED NINE HUNDRED PASSENGERS LANDED. (Received May 29, 10.30 a.m.) PARIS, 28th May, The Atlantic liner Champagne haft been wrecked at St. Nazaire (at the mouth of the Loire), Nine hundred passengere were landed.