USE OF PATENT MEDICINES

Waikato Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 5508, 14 January 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

USE OF PATENT MEDICINES

One has heard often of patent medicine mixtures being used desperate people in lieu of beer or spirits. The Chief Health Officer, I)r Valintine, has something to say in this connection in dealing with the pure foods question in the Health Department's annual report: —" It is only too well known that many so-called 'patent medicines' have earned their popular reputation by the comforting, stimulating, or debauching influence—according to the reader's views on the alcoholic problem—of their alcoholic contents. It is, of course, open to debate whether a definite statement on the label of such alleged remedies may tend to prompt the purchaser to buy that article which declares the higher percentage of spirit, or that such unwonted candidness about theße 'secret' remedies may open the eyes of the public to their true nature and thus reduce their sale. Be that as it may, the present regulations require that any proprietary medicine sold for internal use by man shall bear a definite statement as to the percentage of proof spirit contained.