SECRET DRUGS AND CURES.

NZ Truth, Issue 117, 14 September 1907, Page 5

SECRET DRUGS AND CURES.

" DEATH BY DRUGS."

" Remember to Distrust J"

Scathing Official Denunciation— By Commissioner 0. C. Beale— Vain Endeavor to Suppress— A Valuable Public-Spirited Report.

'A* more scathing and scarifying re- | port by a Government Commissioner upon the tricks and methods of quacks and quackeries has never been presented to the Parliament of any civilised nation than that which has recently been tabled m the Aus- ( trali an House of Representatives. In this case the Commissioner was Mr Octavius C. Beale. who, under a Royal Commission from the Federal Government, and apparently at his Dwn expense, has "by command," investigated m Europe and America the manufacture, importation, sale, etc., of "patent or proprietary medicines and drugs, alleged curative agents, medicinal preparations, toilet articles, foods and drinks," the consequence of the use of such' articles, and legislation and administration relating to such matters. ■The report is trenchant and fearless. It is a lengthy one, comprising 455; printed foolscap pages, and its preparation and printing, it is stated, has cost over £477. What the cost, it is a most valuable contribution to the literature of medicopvschology. It is no wonder, therefore, that 'all the allied FORCES OF QUACKERY . are up m arms against the distribu-. tion and dissemination of this valuable o ificial document, that these forces are threatening against, .the Commonwealth Government all the pains and penalties of the libel law, that all the legions of politicobureaucratism are m. consort to prevent the information contained , m the report being contributed by legitimate channels as a warning to the public, that the advice of the Federal Crown solicitor has been Invoked, and that "Truth" m particular has by various means been obstructed by obstacles, official and otherwise, from securing a co^~ ofthe report of the Commissioner. This conduct is on. a oar with that . which followed the printing three years ago of the second report of the Royal Commission m New South Wales on the Decline of the Birth Rate, of which only twelve copies were produced, these being -jealously guarded, even against the members .of the Commission itself. For all the use they have been, they might as well have not been . printed •at all. "To debauch and degrade humanity is a profitable trade." Millions upon millions are being made out of the SIMPLICITY AND CREDULITY of the multitudes ; and the ramifications of the trade are so extensive and far-reaching as to be almost interminable. Notwithstanding all the official and departmental secrecy and the determined dcrire., under legal threats, of opposing action, a copy of Mr Beale's k report has come into our hands by * an ordinary aiid simple channel. And \ while the Plute press, seemingly sememe m its affluent avenues ol "busiWncss." will not condescend to inform i the People of the important and valg table conclusions and recommenda^ fffcions put forward by Commissioner f Beale. ivho, upon the face of , it has & done his duty without fear and withJFout favor." it has -been left to, * "Truth." now and hereafter, to again /be placed m the position of % popular guardian and custodian. It * would be too lengthy a task m the * ■ present article to proceed to the consideration of • the innumerable details and specific instances and illustrations cited by Mr Beale. The purport of the present article must, accordingly, be a comparatively brief summary or resume of the tenor of the report, together with a glance at the Commissioner's conclusions and recommendations. The specific instances must be held over until a later period. ' Commissioner Beale divides his report into six sections, which deal with :— l. Prevention of conception, and foeticide (which is otherwise spoken of as • "LIMITATION OF FAMILIES") ; 2, infanticide and infant mortality ; 3, injury and death to the adolescent ; 1. injury and death of adults; 5. advertisements'; and 6, legislation. Several indices are appended to the publication, 'and these relate, amongst other things, to "drugs, includiue; deaths and doctors," 1 and two pages of "authorities" arc quoted as having been consulted, these comprising English, American, Ger- i man, French, and Austrian official and professional publications. In the case of the New South Wales Commission previously alluded to, Com- j missioner Beale states, "a part of the duty was. to examine into the trade m secret nostrums, m proprietary child foods, and m secret preparations for the prevention of concention. and for the destruction of the human embryo. The main subject—that of racial perpetuation— j was so vast m extent and m import that adequate inquiry could not hhen be made into the whole field, ft become a part of my work to reoort unon the nostrums mentioned. The scope of Mr Beale's commission was still wider. It included most of the domain of the former, inasmuch as it deals with the proximate agents "which, m chief, bring about the decline of fertility and +Tmqr which affect m a hieh degree the mortality of children." But it reached far beyond, for it involved the whole range of life with the alißrrwi and accepted, though secret curation of ever y kind of ailment ihnt. afflicts mankind from birth to iJ»th-"a s'vstem whieh-so far as Anirlo-SaxoTKlom is concerns-is as as the sea." "^6 Preservation of the secrecy and of the PRIVILEGE' TO DECEIVE ie absolutely indispensible to the iraders whose traffic is reported upon hut the perpetuation of the advantages they now enjoy means mor- { aicorn.pl ion, physical deterioration *nd national decadence." "A hi*h , autliori'T rs reprrsentMß not meie- . iv the l^alins profession of Great; Britain, but, iv a large measure,

Europe — 'The Lancet * — recently wrote :- 'Quackery has destroyed more m this country than the sword, famine, and pestilence united.' " Commissioner Beale expresses the hope that by contemplating the various provinces of the inquiry "legislators and other readers will form a more permanent impression of the multifarious evils of the traffic m secret drugs." "The principle of deception has come to be recognised as an unwritten law, a prescriptive right, a sanction by long-continued but not immemorial custom." Dealing m his introduction with infants' foods, "secretly prepared," Mr Beale remarks : "The frequency with which mothers refuse or are unable to nurse their babies is much lamented. But ■ . SOBS DO NOT SAVE. .From the lack i of ' physical warmth and the maternal love and encouragement the baby is disadvantaged. When to this defect is added constant injury from starchy and other indigestible foods, plus opiates and acetanilide, the baby's chance of survival is small. The first and chief legislative remedy is to place babies m the same ' protection by statute as that now afforded to chattelanimals, pigs, r lambs, and calves. . . I,To sell or hold for sale, for the use of these chattel-animals m Great Britain, secret foods of any kind is, happily, a punishable offence." . "Particular attention is drawn to the complete liberty of the packers of secret drugs, wrongly called 'patent,' to vary the ingredients and the proportions of them while using the name, description, and testimonials attached to the .nostrums." But while the ■ SALE OF THESE NOSTRUMS is legislatively controlled and regulated m France and Germany, it is

(Western Maori.) He represents the Maori of the West, To keep awake he always does his best, What a giant he would be, Intellectually voii see,. If he only kept his brains beneath his vest.

conducted openly and freely m Australia. Opportunity may be afforded later on to refer to some of these "afaortifaoien'ts" and "genesic frauds" with which Mr Beale, deals m detail, m contju'nctioo with which, foy the way, he mentions Malthus, Mrs Annie Besant, Mill (the Manchester economist), and W. T. Stead. In this section, too, he deals with "Regularity Pills" and other drug devices of a similar kind, but m various shapes awd forms, and preparations to hiring altnout abortion or miscarriage,' including "elatermm," "the medicinal dqse of wtoich is- from one-eighth! to half a grain, though death has. ensued upon two-fifths of, a grain." and lead-poisoning. Examples of the sale of abor-tifaci exits, together witfo facsimiles of advertisements, are givr en, as well as results of the "regulation of families." Commissioner Beale refers alsoi, to the relation of the Church to racial decay, and quotes the Bishop of London as saving :— "The Roman Church— all honor to it— has never wavered m condemning such prevention of conception as a sin, and it would ill become the Church of England to condemn less clearly a practice which, if continued, must eat away the heart and drain away the . life-ib-lood -of our country." Next to afrortifacients, Mr Beale deals with infanticide and infantile mortality, and here again the toll of LOST BODIES AND SOULS is so enormous as to constitute a scandal. And these remarks refer especially to Australasia, thouigh many citations, from other countries are given. Pie alludes to "these murderous but money-making frauds" styled as children's foods and soothingl syrups, and the "long rows of tiny graves m our cemeteries" which they have left. He speaks of "the systematic drugging of children" with preparations, the active ingredients |of which are morphia and ohlorojform. In this connection he mentions chlorodyne lozenges, sold m confectioners' shops m England and Australasia, which are strongly impregnated with the narcotic compound, and which are bought by children for the sake of 'prompt intoxication. After usiiuq; these tibe children, if they survive, "use no other sweet." Coming to the subject of "injury and death to the adolescent," Mr Bealo deals thoroiichlv with : — "(a) th' 3 sale" of intoxicants Vnown as bracers— which are disfcnisorl alcoholics ; (b) preparations of cocaine,, acetaoni-

lide, sulphonal, and other synthetic depressants, and of opium ; (c) compounded drugs, supposed to excite sexual desire ; (d) preparations to preivent conception or to induce abortion: ; and (c) the sale of certain things manufactured m Europe, which are designed and sold for the sole j purpose of . NAMELESS AND UNNATURAL VICES." Poisoning by the mtixing of drugs, and hypnotic drugs, and herbalists are considered under this head. More than 110 pages of the report are devoted to drugs causing "injury and death to adults," referring particularly.to sulphonal and chloral and cocadne, poisonous hair dyes, skin tonics and bteautifiers, consumption cures, drink cures, "vegetable preservatives," various pills and purgatives, cosmetics, and the drug toaMt generally. The chapter upon advertisements is a liberal education m itself, and m this connection it is pointed out that the "religious." "home" and "family" journals are amongst the worst offenders, a reference is made to the "National AntiQuackery Society," of the United States, and to the aid afforded to that organisation by President Roosevelt ; also to "faked" testimonials and other assistants to advertising, i

r A. relic of by-gone days, Of hoary old customs and ways.About time he "got" For all thds bally rot, The public's the umchaw that pays.

The chapter upon legislation is a particularly forcible and educative one, and ranges from Great Britain to America, and back to France, Italy, Germany, and even to New Zeala-nd. In his "conclusions are recommendations" Mr Beale refers to "the un'iversatility of the social injury and ' racial deterioration" offered by quackery, which, he asserts*, demands "secrecy and deception" as indispensa/ble conditions, where the racial interests demand truth and candor. He declares :— "An'ti-conceptionad. a-nd spermaitooidal preparations, all injurious and some poisonous, are regularly held for sale and sold m Australia. Aibortifacient poisons and potent drugs are announced and sold widely, though thinly disguised. Various preparations, other than drugs and instruments . . . to effect prevention of conception or to cause miscarriage, are regularly held for sale and sold. OPIATES FOR INFANTS and children, mercurial teethiag pow-

(Taieri.) The subject of this little screed ! Is Taieri 's selected D. Reid, Tho' Reid is his name. You can see by his frame That he cannot be classed as a weed.

dera, and dioses of acetanilide, crude or mixed, are regularly held for sale and sold without practical restriction. For the adolescent and adult, poisonous and potent drugs are universally held for sale and sold." Amongst the latter he includes ranges of "narcotics ; alcoholic nostrums, professedly for women, girls, and children m health and disease, for adults generally, for inebriates, for. P'hanuaco'mia'niacSi for a3>stainers from alcohol, • for pregnant women and nursing mothers, for consumptives and invalids of all kinds ; wines containing cocaine, calculated to induce pharmaconmnia ; synthetic heart depressants ; drugs for reduction of blood pressure and cardiac interference m various ways ; cathartics, m- | eluding drastic purgatives ; aphro- ! disiacs, anaphrodisiacsi, metallic and : herbal drugs for | SELF-TREATMENT OF DISEASE, ! of disturbances, and even of normal healthy symptoms m both rc.vcs : pv?paratirns for s;if ij\atmcni' of contagious and' non- contagious sexual dis-

orders ; gout cures containing irritant, poisons ; drugs making new blood' ; aniline ■derivatives for reduc- | inp; and 'altering tlu nroportions of |Ibj : to'locd corpuscles; consumption cures ; absolutely 'inert' cures or medicine*— su^ar and salt, plain water to cure all diseases, borax and water, ordinary well water slightly mineral-: isod ; bromides, liver medicines containing potent and dangerous drugs ; animal extracts • bactericidal preparations, falsely so-called) ; drink cures by narcotic and neurotic drugs ; dermal preparations contains us mercurial salts ; skin foods, hair washes of lead and zinc, skin preparations of resorcinal, metal and other irritants ; hair restorers, hair destroyers, hair renewers of injurious and often ridiculous components ; cancer cures and' cancer pastes ; asthma, coughi, pneumoniai. pleurisy, a-ndi other cures containing narcotics ; cure-alls ; and special cures for epilepsy, fits, deafness, blindness, paralysis, tabes, rheumatism, corpulence, anaemia:, undeveloped hreasts, varicocele, red nose 3, psoriasis, epithelioma, mortification, chorea, wrinkles, yellow fever, pimples, palsy, blushing, decayed bones, and early death." In addition there is "an interminable series of quack secret cure systems, which embrace everything m health and diisease under like trickery, treachery, HUMBUG AND FRAUD, They are . not subject to preliminary examination, license and inspection. Though these humbugs are notorious and often ridiculous, prosecutions are either rare or entirely absent." "Humbugs and homicides," says Commissioner Beale, "stand shoulder to shoulder." He recommends, inter alia : — "That every preparation, whether of a simple substance or of compounded substances, for the prevention, alleviation, or cure of human ailments, when issued for retail sale, shall be accompanied by the formula of preparation ; that -no advertisement or testimonial be permitted on the article itself ; that the transmission through the post of literature concerning such medicines be prohibited ; that letters patent be granted for approved and novel formulae for prevention or cure of human ailments ; that registration of every proprietary name applied to such medicines be compulsory ; that no anti-conceptional preparations, or articles expressly for that purpose, be held for sale or sold ; that the importation, mianuifiacture, holding for sale, sale, hirins out, or giving away of objects in 'ended for indecent interferences with the sexual organs be made by express provision a felony." Further, he advises the establishment of a Federal Bureau of Chemistry "which would be of inestimable service m the preservation of health and life from frauds and mistakes, and also m the furtherance of agricultural and other industry m the Commonwealth." "And," he' concludes, "upon the architraves of the' Commonwealth Health Offices should be engraved the ancient maxim m any la/nigu-age that, will be most effective, '.Remember to. Distrust.' "