Are Patent Medicines Dangerous?


BY ROBERT L. HEILBRONER
Down in Washington. D.C., a constant, unobtrusive cold war is being waged by three organizations—the Federal Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and a quiet institution known as The Proprietary Association.
These three groups are vigilantly protecting the consumer against foods, drugs, and cosmetics that are adulterated, or labeled or advertised with false or misleading statements.
They also do occasional battle with the remnants of the once-famous quack-medicine makers, known to some as "the patent-medicine industry." They were fugitives from justice, with a record both long and nauseating. Theirs was at best a cold-blooded operation built on the principle that there is no buck so easy to wangle as the buck of a person in pain.