. . . of our times although little known as such can hardly be over-estimated
in its importance upon the well-being of our widely scattered communities. The population in the American States is in
many sections so sparse that skillful Physicians are hardly available to
them. Vast numbers of our people, are
obliged to employ in sickness such medical relief as they can hear from each
other, or indeed any they can get from any quarter. Hence arises the great consumption of Patent
Medicines among us, greater by far than in any of the old countries, where
skillful physicians are accessible to all classes. Unprincipled men have long availed themselves
of this necessity, to palm off their worthless nostrums, until the word has
become synonymous with imposition and cheat.
One of our leading Chemists in the East, DR. AYERS, is pursuing a course
which defeats this iniquity. He brings
not only his own, but the best skill of our times to bear, for the production
of the best remedies which can be made.
These are supplied to the world, in a convenient form, at low prices, and
the people will no more buy poor medicines instead of good, at the same cost,
than they will bran instead of flour.
The inevitable consequence of this, is that the vile compounds that
flood our country are discarded for those which honestly accomplish the ends in
view, – which cure. Do we over-estimate
its importance, in believing that this prospect of supplanting the by-word
medicines, with those of actual worth and virtue, is fraught with immense
consequence for good, to the mass of our people. – Gazette and Chronicle, Peru, Ia.
– Published in The Davenport Daily Gazette,
Davenport, Iowa, Thursday Morning, May 1, 1862, p. 2
No comments:
Post a Comment