Ignorance and credulous hope make the market for most proprietary
remedies. Intelligent people are not given largely to the use of the
glaringly advertised cure-alls, such as Liquozone or Peruna. Nostrums
there are, however, which reach the thinking classes as well as the
readily gulled. Depending, as they do, for their success on the lure of
some subtle drug concealed under a trademark name, or some opiate not
readily obtainable under its own label, these are the most dangerous
of all quack medicines, not only in their immediate effect, but because
they create enslaving appetites, sometimes obscure and difficult of
treatment, most often tragically obvious. Of these concealed drugs the
headache powders are the most widely used, and of the headache powders
Orangeine is the most conspicuous.
Orangeine prints its formula. It is, therefore, its proprietors claim,
not a secret remedy. But to all intents and purposes it is secret,
because to the uninformed public the vitally important word "acetanilid"
in the formula means little or nothing. Worse than its secrecy is its
policy of careful and dangerous deception. Orangeine, like practically
all the headache powders, is simply a mixture of acetanilid with less
potent drugs. Of course, there is no orange in it, except the orange hue
of the boxes and wrappers which is its advertising symbol. But this is
an unimportant deception. The wickedness of the fraud lies in this:
that whereas the nostrum, by virtue of its acetanilid content, thins the
blood, depresses the heart and finally undermines the whole system, it
claims _to strengthen the heart and to produce better blood_. Thus
far in the patent medicine field I have not encountered so direct and
specific an inversion of the true facts.
Recent years have added to the mortality records of our cities a
surprising and alarming number of sudden deaths from heart failure. In
the year 1902 New York City alone reported a death rate from this cause
of 1.34 per thousand of population; that is about six times as great as
the typhoid fever death record. It was about that time that the headache
powders were being widely advertised, and there is every reason to
believe that the increased mortality, which is still in evidence, is due
largely to the secret weakening of the heart by acetanilid. Occasionally
a death occurs so definitely traceable to this poison that there is
no room for doubt, as in the following report by Dr. J. L. Miller, of
Chicago, in the _Journal of the American Medical Association_, on the
death of Mrs. Frances Robson:
"I was first called to see the patient, a young lady, physically
sound, who had been taking Orangeine powders for a number of weeks for
insomnia. The rest of the family noticed that she was very blue, and
for this reason I was called. When I saw the patient she complained of
a sense of faintness and inability to keep warm. At this time she had
taken a box of six Orangeine powders within about eight hours. She was
warned of the danger of continuing the indiscriminate use of the remedy,
but insisted that many of her friends had used it and claimed that it
was harmless. The family promised to see that she did not obtain any
more of the remedy. Three days later, however, I was called to the house
and found the patient dead. The family said that she had gone to her
room the evening before in her usual health. The next morning, the
patient not appearing, they investigated and found her dead. The case
was reported to the coroner, and the coroner's verdict was: 'Death was
from the effect of an overdose of Orangeine {033}powders administered by
her own hand, whether accidentally or otherwise, unknown to the jury.'"
Last July an 18-year-old Philadelphia girl got a box of Orangeine
powders at a drug store, having been told that they would cure headache.
There was nothing on the label or in the printed matter inclosed with
the preparation warning her of the dangerous character of the nostrum.
Following the printed advice, she took two powders. In three hours she
was dead. Coroner Dugan's verdict follows:
"Mary A. Bispels came to her death from kidney and heart disease,
aggravated by poisoning by acetanilid taken in Orangeine headache
powders."
Prescribing Without Authority.
Yet this poison is being recommended every day by people who know
nothing of it and nothing of the susceptibility of the friends to whom
they advocate it. For example, here is a testimonial from the Orangeine
booklet:
"Miss A. A. Phillips, 60 Powers street, Brooklyn, writes: 'I always keep
Orangeine in my desk at school, and through its frequent applications to
the sick I am called both "doctor and magician."'"
If the school herein referred to is a public school, the matter is
one for the Board of Education; if a private school, for the Health
Department or the county medical society. That a school teacher should
be allowed to continue giving, however well meaning her foolhardiness
may be, a harmful and possibly fatal dose to the children intrusted
to her care seems rather a significant commentary on the quality of
watchfulness in certain institutions.
Obscurity as to the real nature of the drug, fostered by careful
deception, is the safeguard of the acetanilid vender. Were its perilous
quality known, the headache powder would hardly be so widely used. And
were the even more important fact that the use of these powders becomes
a habit, akin to the opium or cocain habits, understood by the public,
the repeated sales which are the basis of Orangeine's prosperity would
undoubtedly be greatly cut down. Orangeine fulfills the prime requisite
of a patent medicine in being a good "repeater." Did it not foster
its own demand in the form of a persistent craving, it would hardly be
profitable. Its advertising invites to the formation of an addiction to
the drug. "Get the habit," it might logically advertise, in imitation of
a certain prominent exploitation along legitimate lines. Not only is
its value as a cure for nervousness and headaches insisted on, but its
prospective dupes are advised to take this powerful drug as a _bracer_.
"When, as often, you reach home tired in body and mind... take an
Orangeine powder, lie down for thirty minutes' nap--if possible--anyway,
relax, then take another."
"To induce sleep, take an Orangeine powder immediately before retiring.
When wakeful, an Orangeine powder will have a normalizing, quieting
effect."
It is also recommended as a good thing to begin the day's work on in the
morning--that is, take Orangeine night, morning and between meals!
These powders pretend to cure asthma, biliousness, headaches, colds,
catarrh and grip (dose: powder every four hours during the day for a
week!--a pretty fair start on the Orangeine habit), diarrhea, hay fever,
insomnia, influenza, neuralgia, seasickness and sciatica.
Of course, they do not cure any of these; they do practically nothing
but give temporary relief by depressing the heart. With the return
to normal conditions of blood circulation comes a recurrence of the
nervousness, {034}headache, or what not, and the incentive to more of
the drug, until it becomes a necessity. In my own acquaintance I know
half a dozen persons who have come to depend on one or another of these
headache preparations to keep them going. One young woman whom I have
in mind told me quite innocently that she had been taking five or
six Orangeine powders a day for several months, having changed from
Koehler's powders when some one told her that the latter were dangerous!
Because of her growing paleness her husband had called in their
physician, but neither of them had mentioned the little matter of the
nostrum, having accepted with a childlike faith the asseverations of
its beneficent qualities. Yet they were of an order of intelligence that
would scoff at the idea of drinking Swamp-Root.
[IMAGE ==>] {034}
An Acetanilid Death Record.
This list of fatalities is made up from statements published in the
newspapers. In every case the person who died had taken to relieve a
headache or as a bracer a patent medicine containing acetanilid, without
a doctor's prescription. This list does not include the case of a dog
in Altoona, Pa., which died immediately on eating some sample headache
powders. The dog did not know any better.
Mrs. Minnie Bishop, Louisville, Ky.; Oct. 16, 1903.
Mrs. Mary Cusick and Mrs. Julia Ward, of 172 Perry Street,
New York City; Nov. 27, 1903.
Fred. P. Stock, Scranton, Pa.; Dec. 7, 1903.
C. Frank Henderson, Toledo, 0.; Dec. 13, 1903.
Jacob E. Staley, St. Paul, Mich.; Feb. 18, 1904.
Charles M. Scott, New Albany, Ind.; March 15, 1904.
Oscar McKinley, Pittsburg, Pa.; April 13, 1904.
Otis Staines, student at Wabash College; April 13, 1904.
Mrs. Florence Rumsey, Clinton, la.; April 23, 1904.
Jenny McGee, Philadelphia, Pa.; May 26, 1904.
Mrs. William Mabee, Leoni, Midi.; Sept. 9, 1904.
Mrs. Jacob Friedman, of South Bend, Ind.; Oct. 19, 1904.
Miss Libbie North, Rockdale, N. Y.; Oct. 26, 1904.
Margaret Hanahan, Dayton, O.; Oct. 29, 1904.
Samuel Williamson, New York City; Nov. 21, 1904.
George Kublisch, St. Louis, Mo.; Nov. 24, 1904.
Robert Breck, St. Louis, Mo.;'Nov. 27, 1904.
Mrs. Harry Haven, Oriskany Falls, N. Y.; Jan. 17, 1905.
Mrs. Jennie Whyler, Akron, 0.; April 3, 1905.
Mrs. Augusta Strothmann, St. Louis, Mo.; June 20, 1905.
Mrs. Mary A. Bispels, Philadelphia, Pa.; July 2, 1905.
Mrs. Thos. Patterson, Huntington, W. Va.; Aug. 15, 1905.
Some of these victims died from an alleged overdose; others from the
prescribed dose. In almost every instance the local papers suppressed
the name of the fatal remedy, {035}Peruna. That particular victim
had the beginning of the typical blue skin pictured in the street-car
advertisements of Orangeine (the advertisements are a little mixed, as
they put the blue hue on the "before taking," whereas it should go on
the "after taking"). And, by the way, I can conscientiously recommend
Orangeine, Koehler's powders, Royal Pain powders and others of that
class to women who wish for a complexion of a dead, pasty white,
verging to a puffy blueness under the eyes and about the lips. Patient
use of these drugs will even produce an interesting and picturesque, if
not intrinsically beautiful, purplish-gray hue of the face and neck.
[IMAGE ==>] {035}
Drugs That Deprave.
Another acquaintance writes me that he is unable to dissuade his wife
from the constant use of both Orangeine and Bromo-Seltzer, although her
{036}health is breaking down. Often it is difficult for a physician to
diagnose these cases because the symptoms are those of certain diseases
in which the blood deteriorates, and, moreover, the victim, as in opium
and cocain slavery, will positively deny having used the drug. A case
of acetanilid addiction (in "cephalgin," an ethical proprietary) is thus
reported:
"When the drug was withheld the patient soon began to exhibit all the
traits peculiar to the confirmed morphine-maniac--moral depravity
and the like. She employed every possible means to obtain the drug,
attempting even to bribe the nurse, and, this failing, even members of
the family." Another report of a similar case (and there are plenty of
them to select from) reads:
"Stomach increasingly irritable; skin a grayish or light purplish hue;
palpitation and slight enlargement of the heart; great prostration, with
pains in the region of the heart; blood discolored to a chocolate
hue. The patient denied that she had been using acetanilid, but it was
discovered that for a year she had been obtaining it in the form of
a proprietary remedy and had contracted a regular 'habit.' On the
discontinuance of the drug the symptoms disappeared. She was discharged
from the hospital as cured, but soon returned to the use of the drug and
applied for readmission, displaying the former symptoms."
[IMAGE ==>] {036}