Some Drug Exposures

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXV, Issue 42, 17 October 1907, Page 22

Some Drug Exposures

The ' Otago Daily" Times ' of Monday summarises the evidence given by Dr. Cahill (Wellington) before the Select Committee which had the Quackery Prevention Bill under consideration. Dr. Cahill had been questioned as to the worthless" class of ' medicines and drugs infernal ' with which people persist in loading their over-wrought digestive machinery. A.nd this is how our local morning contemporary sums up ' one or two striking examples ' in point :— '

' There was a remedy for obesity. It was retailed at 6s. The intrinsic value was 2d.' An anti-fat , cure was the same. A kidney cure cost Is ; the real value of a bottle was one-thirty-fifth of a penny, and the pilules consisted of ordinary white Sugar. A certain make of pills were, he said, sold wholesale to chemists at" £1 7s a dozen boxes, containing about two and ,a half gross of pills. They are made for Is 6d- a gross. They are sold readily, said Dr.' Oahill, at 2s 6d a box, and the unfortunate poor girls who suffer mostly from anaemia, and are employed in shops, are deluded by the advertisements to purchase these pills at an exorbitant price. What is sold wholesale at 27s could be" sold over the. counter at 2s 6d .a gross with a very fair profit. As to drugs which are absolutely harmful, Dr. Cahill stated "tjhat .they were mostly liquids, and the sale de-pends-largely-upon the amount of alcohol they contain.'

• We hope that all .concerned will read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest, not the nostrums, out the lesson that' the Doctor's evidence conveys. ~ . "