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J. M. MASON.

Of the 950 inches advertisements in the daily portion, 28 inches are medicinal and healing advertisements. Of the 488 inches advertisements in the supplement portion, 230 inches are medicinal and empirical advertisements, 12 medicinal for cattle. The proprietors of these medicines issued a circular to the New Zealand papers, just as they do in America, threatening to withdraw their advertisements if any legislation was allowed to pass restricting their sale. 13. Or supporting an Anti-quackery Bill? —Yes. It stated that if at any time " any law was passed in your State interfering with the sale of our goods our contract with you ceases." 14. I saw one circular in which the vendor of a patent medicine pointed out that if the paper supported these regulations they would withdraw their advertisement, and they should consider the great loss it would be in the way of fees for advertising?— Yes. I have been able to stop, except in one or two papers, a good many quack concerns, but there is one going on which I think should not be allowed, and that is the Viavi treatment. I have been informed of one case where the patient received great harm. 15. Mr. Hornsby.] Has that reference to the lectures given in the Sydney Street Schoolroom? —Yes. This is what Mr. Labouchere says about them in Truth: "A quack establishment of American origin, dealing in remedies for female ailments. Engages women who go about the country pretending to possess medical knowledge, delivering ' health lectures,' which they have mostly learned by heart, and persuading deluded women that they are in serious danger unless they take the Viavi remedies and submit themselves to the treatment of the Viavi agents. They suggest ailments where merely nervous unrest exists, and they charge nothing for their advice, which keeps them within the four corners of the law; but they bleed their victims for external applications, which have as much virtue as did the King's touch for scrofula." 16. The Chairman.] These people are carrying on business all through New Zealand?— Yes, all over the colony. It is, of course, beyond us to control the London magazines coming in. We are not much troubled by men like Keith Harvey, who is going to cure a man who is absolutely deaf by gargling the passages of his nose, or something of that sort. I may say that " Dr." Bell, who was the apostle of Freeman and Wallace, gave the impression, so I am told, in some way in Dunedin that he was the emissary of the White Cross League. He was billed to appear in Westport, and I was billed to appear there too, but he did not come. He was ill. He has gone out of the colony now. 17. And took a lot of money with him? —Yes, it was marvellous. I was told by a man that his place was filled up by people who wanted to see him. 18. The Chairman.] What do you suggest with a view of preventing these men preying on the public?—l think, really, that the Postal Act has worked so well that it is a very important factor. The portion in the Act which proscribes the advertising of such things as treatment of sexual ailments is an excellent one, because unless you stop the advertising you will not stop the sale of these things. 19. Now, with regard to the necessity for the formulae being put on the bottles or packets?— With regard to that I certainly think everything that contains poison in any form at all should have legibly marked on the outside of the bottle, " This contains poison." It is argued by the man who only has a small amount of opium in his mixture that he should be exempted. I was told by the proprietor of one medicine that if he put that on the outside it would frighten mothers. I said that was why I wanted it. "I do not say your medicine is not good; but the mother who soothes her child with opium should know it." Ido not think it will stop every one, but lam certain that s. mother will hesitate to give her child stuff which is dependent for its soothing effect on opium. The other day a child died in Wellington, on which a post-mortem was held, and Dr. Fyffe said the child died through starvation from the amount of opium contained in the cough-mixture, the action of the opium inhibiting the action of the bowel. It was ascertained that this mixture contained a small amount of opium. The child had been fed on it for a time; so that I think, no matter how small the degree, the word " Poison " should be put on the outside of the bottle. With regard to the formula being put on, lam not entirely wedded to that. The only thing is that, with regard to a large number of patent medicines, the public would say, " Let the Public Health Department analyse it." Any one with any knowledge of chemistry knows that it is absolutely impossible to undertake the analysis of things like Vitadatio. If we started to do it, probably the vegetable mixtures would take nearly a week to separate the various things, and then we should not be able to properly separate them, because there are so many different classes. Some have fifteen or sixteen different ingredients. We as chemists, if the formulae were submitted, would have only to look for the things that are alleged to be in such compounds, instead of having the whole animal, mineral, and vegetable world to look into. Certainly, all medicines containing poisons, however small in amount, should be labelled. It is urged that to disclose the formula would give away a man's whole business. The answer to that is this: that some of the biggest sellers of medicines, like Parke, Davis, and Co., of America, Burroughs, Welcome, and Co., and a number of others, set out the contents of their compounds on the label. Take Eno's Fruit-salt. Most chemists know its composition. I could buy it cheaper, but as a matter of fact I always buy Eno's stuff, because no one is able to make it so well. It does not necessarily follow that because you know what is in a bottle you can make it up like the other man. No one knows the order in which a thing is mixed, and the mixing makes all the difference in the world. 20. Or the proportions?— Yes. For instance, if you take tincture of iron or digitalis and phosphoric acid, and you put the digitalis in after the iron, the mixture would become dirty, but if you add the phosphoric acid to your iron and then put in the digitalis you will get a beautiful green solution. The point is, that the man is not giving away his rights in any case where he is asked to give the formula. 21. It was stated by one witness that it was impossible for an analyst to find certain substances? —Yes, it would be extremely difficult; and with regard to certain American weeds used in abortion cases you would only be able to know they contained an alkaloid of a certain group.

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