CHAPTER V.

BLOOD PURIFIERS.

Although, as a rule, the makers of any kind of quack medicine find no difficulty in showing that almost any disease that can be named takes its rise in the organs or part of the system which their own particular nostrum professes to benefit, it is, of course, particularly easy to connect a great variety of diseases with the condition of the blood. The claims made for some of the following “blood purifiers” do not fail in comprehensiveness, for ringworm and itch, among other complaints, appear to be regarded as disorders of the blood.

CLARKE’S WORLD-FAMED BLOOD MIXTURE.

This is advertised and sold by an English Drug Company, price 2s. 9d. a bottle, containing 8¼ fluid ounces.

The following passages are quoted from a pamphlet enclosed with the bottle:

No matter what the symptoms may be, the real cause of a large proportion of all diseases is bad blood. Clarke’s World-famed Blood Mixture is not recommended to cure every disease; on the contrary, there are many that it will not cure; but it is a guaranteed cure for all blood diseases.... It never fails to cure Scrofula, Scurvy, Scrofulous Sores, Glandular Swellings and Sores, Cancerous Ulcers, Bad Legs, Secondary Symptoms, Syphilis, Piles, Rheumatism, Gout, Dropsy, Blackheads or Pimples on the Face, Sore Eyes, Eruptions of the Skin and Blood, and Skin Diseases of every description.

On the label it was stated:

The Mixture is pleasant to the taste, and warranted free from anything injurious to the most delicate constitution of either sex, which all Pills and most Medicines sold for the above diseases contain.

Directions: The mixture must be taken about half-an-hour after meals, in the following doses:—

_For Adult Males._—One tablespoonful four times a day. ” _Adult Females._—One tablespoonful three times a day. ” _Children under 12 years of age._—Two teaspoonfuls three times a day. ” _Under 12 years._—From half to one teaspoonful, according to age, mixed with a little water and sugar.

Analysis showed the mixture to contain 1·5 per cent. of potassium iodide, 1·2 per cent. of sugar (partly inverted), 1·6 per cent. by volume of alcohol, and traces of chloroform and ammonia, a brown colour being given by a small quantity of what was evidently burnt sugar. The composition of 8 ounces is thus:

Potassium iodide 52·5 grains. Spirit of sal volatile 10 minims. Spirit of chloroform 67 ” Simple syrup 50 ” Burnt sugar q.s. Water to 8 fluid ounces.

The estimated cost of the ingredients is 1⅓d.

OLD DR. JACOB TOWNSEND’S AMERICAN SARSAPARILLA.

This is sold by a Company having offices in London. A bottle, holding a little under 9 fluid ounces, costs 2s. 6d.

On the wrapper it was stated:

This Sarsaparilla is the great purifier of the blood and general juices of the system, it effects the most salutary changes in disease; cures scrofula, salt rheum, all scorbutic disorders, chronic sore eyes, rheumatism, piles, liver complaints, erysipelas, all blotches and eruptions of the skin; in short, it removes every impurity of the blood, and all humours and morbid collections of the body.

The directions given on the label were:

Take half a wineglassful three or four times a day, an hour before or after meals. Persons very weak and debilitated may begin with a tablespoonful and increase the dose as the patient recovers health and strength. It is better to take it without the addition of water.

Analysis showed 100 fluid parts of the liquid to contain 18·2 parts of solids, of which 5·5 parts were sugar (partly inverted) and 2·5 ash, the remainder being of the nature of a vegetable extract. The mineral constituents were only those common to the ash of most drugs, and no metallic salts were found in medicinal doses; nothing of alkaloidal nature was present. The mixture contained 8·1 per cent. by volume of alcohol. In the case of a vegetable preparation of this kind, containing no definite active principle that can be identified chemically, it is not possible to state with certainty the various drugs from which it may have been prepared; a study of its general properties, and a series of careful comparisons, pointed to the present mixture being of similar nature to the compound concentrated solution of sarsaparilla (liquor sarsae compositus concentratus) of the _British Pharmacopœia_, with the omission of the liquorice, and with the addition of sugar: the drugs in the official preparation (besides liquorice) are sarsaparilla, sassafras, guaiacum wood, and mezereon. A liquor prepared in this manner, with the alcohol reduced to the amount found in the mixture under examination and the aroma slightly increased by adding a little additional oil of sassafras, agreed fairly well both in general properties and the results of chemical examination with the medicine under consideration.

MUNYON’S BLOOD CURE.

Munyon’s Homœopathic Home Remedy Company has an office in London, but the label on the bottle bears the words “Manufactured in U.S. of America.” On the outer package it was stated:

It eradicates all Impurities from the Blood, and cures Scrofulitic Eruptions, Rash on the Scalp, Scald Head, Itching and Burning, and any form of Unhealthy, Blotchy, Pimply, or Scaly Skin;

and similar claims were put forward on the label and in a circular enclosed with the bottle.

The bottle cost 1s. and contained about 200 pellets or pilules, of the average weight of ½ grain. They consisted of sugar; careful search was made for small quantities of medicament, but no other ingredient could be detected. Quantitative determination of the sugar showed just 100 per cent.

The estimated cost of the pilules is one-thirtieth of a penny.

HARVEY’S BLOOD PILLS.

These pills are sold by a Company giving an address in Wales. A bottle, containing 20 pills, costs 1s. 1½d.

The label and the enclosed circular bear the picture of a man’s head, with the words, “Harvey. Discoverer of the circulation of the blood,” with the possible implication that the Harvey who discovered the circulation of the blood also discovered or invented these blood pills.

The modest claims made in the circular included the following:

Harvey’s Blood Pills for Skin Diseases. An Unfailing Remedy for Scurvy Sores! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Scrofulous Sores. A Certain Remedy for Ulcerated Legs! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Sluggish Liver. The Surest Remedy for Ringworm! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Erysipelas. The Quickest Remedy for Itch! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Boils. An Effective Remedy for Eruptions! Harvey’s Blood Pills for Rheumatism. The Safest Remedy for Piles!

Harvey’s Blood Pills are purely Vegetable, and contain the best properties of Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Burdock, and Quinine. They are Warranted Free from Mercury.

Harvey’s Blood Pills fortify the feeble, restore the invalid to health, and do good in all cases. All sufferers should immediately have recourse to these celebrated Pills.

Harvey’s Blood Pills are “specially” suitable for Females. They remove all impurities.

Somewhat lengthy directions were given for diet, etc., as well as for taking the pills, in various cases; from which it appeared that the usual dose is:

For a male adult, one Pill three times a day; a female adult, one Pill twice a day; children one Pill at bedtime.

The pills were coated with French chalk, coloured red externally; when deprived of their coating, the average weight was 2·76 grains. Analysis showed them to contain quinine equivalent to 17·3 per cent. of the crystalline sulphate, 21·7 per cent. of potassium iodide, small proportions of powdered rhubarb and liquorice, and vegetable extract or extracts. A mass prepared from the following formula agreed closely with the pills in general properties and in results on analysis in various ways:

Quinine sulphate 17 grains. Potassium iodide 22 ” Powdered rhubarb 16 ” ” liquorice 8 ” Extract of sarsaparilla 12 ” ” burdock 12 ” ” taraxacum 12 ” Divided into 36 pills.

The estimated cost of the ingredients for 20 pills is ¾d.

PROFESSOR O. PHELPS BROWN’S BLOOD PURIFIER.

Professor O. Phelps Brown advertises in this country from an address in London; the bottle sold for 2s. 9d. contained 6 fluid ounces.

The following paragraph appeared on the label:

This medicine is a concentrated preparation of Rock Rose and Stillingia, combined with other plants, well-known for their specified action on the blood, which makes a compound medicine, that has never been equalled, and will be hard to surpass in the scientific future. It is impossible to give a full account of its virtues and cleansing capacities on this label, and the Prof. must, therefore, be content with briefly stating that it is an infallible remedy for All Diseases of the Blood, be they Constitutional, Hereditary, or of Recent Contraction. Nearly every ailment known to the medical faculty is in a greater or lessor degree dependent for its appearance and its virulence upon a _Disease of the Blood_. Ulcers, Tumours, Scrofula Bunches, Fistula, Piles, Painful Eruptions, indeed all afflictions manifested upon the outer surface of the body are the consequences of diseased blood. Many terrible maladies, which take the shape of Internal Inflammation, Sores, etc., and appear in the form of Fevers, Aches, Swellings, Glandular Disturbances, Mental Derangement, and General Debility, also proceed from the same cause. It is an admitted fact that, with Pure Blood and Regular Bowels, no individual ever can be permanently, seriously, or dangerously ill, if ill at all.

Dose.—For Adults, one tablespoonful three times a day before eating. For Children, the dose must be reduced to a teaspoonful.

Analysis showed 100 fluid parts of the liquid to contain 19·7 parts of solids, of which 15·5 parts were sugar (partly inverted); a good deal of mucilage was present, but no alkaloid and no mineral substance except the small quantity of ash always present in vegetable extracts; alcohol was present to the extent of 23 per cent. by volume. Evidence was obtained of the _probable_ presence of a preparation of stillingia, but this drug does not contain any active principle by which it can be certainly identified. Rock rose (_Cistus canadensis_) has been used to some slight extent medicinally, but no particular virtues appear to have been assigned to it; it is, however, described as bitter and astringent. The 3 or 4 per cent. of extractive matter present in the mixture under consideration showed neither bitterness nor astringency, nor any property by which it could be identified, or which would indicate any medicinal properties.

HOOD’S COMPOUND EXTRACT OF SARSAPARILLA.

This is an American preparation, but the Company which makes it has offices in London. A bottle, costing 1s. 1½d., contains 2¼ fluid ounces.

The following paragraph appeared on the covering of the bottle:

A trial bottle will convince the most skeptical of the real merit of Hood’s Sarsaparilla, and will enable everybody to test its wonderful power in restoring and invigorating the whole system, in renovating and enriching the blood, in giving an appetite and a tone to the stomach, in eradicating and curing Scrofula, Scrofulous Humors, Scald Head, Syphilitic Affections, Cancerous Humors, Ringworms, Salt Rheum, Boils, Pimples and Humors on the Face, Catarrh, Headache, Dizziness, Faintness at the Stomach, Constipation, Pains in the Back, Female Weakness, General Debility, Costiveness, Biliousness, and all diseases arising from an impure state or low condition of the blood. Hood’s Sarsaparilla is designed to act upon the blood, and through that upon all the organs and tissues of the body. It has a specific action also upon the _secretions_ and _excretions_, and assists nature to expel from the system all humors, _impure particles and effete matter_ through the lungs, the liver, the kidneys, and the skin. It effectually aids _weak, impaired, and debilitated organs_, invigorates the _nervous system_, tones and strengthens the _digestive organs_, and imparts new life and energy to all the functions of the body. The peculiar point of this medicine is that it strengthens and builds up the system while it eradicates disease.

In a pamphlet enclosed with the bottle it was stated:

It is carefully prepared from Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Mandrake, Dock, Pipsissewa, Juniper Berries, and other valuable vegetable remedies, in such a peculiar manner as to retain the full curative value of each ingredient used.

The dose was given as:

Adult, ½ to 2 teaspoonfuls; usual dose 1 teaspoonful three times a day; children, less, according to age.

Analysis showed it to contain, in 100 parts by measure, potassium iodide 1·7 parts (7½ grains in 1 fluid ounce), and sugars (partly inverted) 9·1 parts; the total solids amounted to 12·8 parts, thus leaving 2·0 parts of vegetable extract per 100 fluid parts. The concentrated compound solution of sarsaparilla in the _British Pharmacopœia_ contains about 21 parts of solids in 100 fluid parts, so that it may be concluded that the amounts of extracts of “Sarsaparilla, Dandelion, Mandrake, Dock, Pipsissewa, Juniper Berries, and other valuable vegetable remedies” in this mixture were not large. The liquid had a somewhat aromatic odour and taste, in which oil of juniper could not be detected, nor was it recognizable on distillation; none of the other ingredients mentioned is capable of being identified in such a mixture. No alkaloid was present, and careful search for other likely ingredients gave only negative results. The mixture contained 19·6 per cent. by volume of alcohol.

HUGHES’S BLOOD PILLS.

These pills, made in Wales, are sold in boxes, price 1s. 1½d., containing 30 pills.

They were described on the label as “For all Blood, Skin, and Nerve Diseases.” In a circular enclosed with the box there was a dissertation on the functions and composition of the blood, from which the following extracts, with all their capital letters, are taken:

The Blood being therefore the Life of the living Body, it stands to reason that if it is poisoned, you poison the whole system, and eventually destroy the life of the man. When the blood is chilled, or distempered through breathing impure air, unhealthy food, etc., it at once gets disturbed, and breeds disease in some form or other. This is the cause of Blast, Scurvy, Piles, Boils, King’s Evil, Swollen Glands, Inflammation of the Eyes and Lids, Pains in the Sides, Back, and Kidneys, Cough, Bronchitis, Pleurisy, Rheumatism, Wounds in the Legs and Different Parts of the Body, all Scorbutic Affections, Cancer, Pimples on the Face, Neck, etc., and all Skin Eruptions, Chilliness, Headache, Indigestion, Fullness after Meals, Dyspepsia, Vomiting, Loss of Appetite, Consumption, Toothache, Neuralgia, Fits, St. Vitus’s Dance, all Liver Complaints, Costiveness, Yellow Jaundice, Depression of Spirits, Stitches in the Sides, Fevers, Epidemics, Plagues, Gout, Nerve Diseases, Lumbago, Erysipelas, all kinds of Inflammation, and most Chest Diseases.

The noted Pills, “Hughes’s Blood Pills,” act directly upon the Blood and Juices of all parts of the system, which they Strengthen and Purify. By so doing the Liver, Kidneys, Heart, Lungs, Stomach, Bowels, Brain and Nerves are renewed and toned to such a degree that their functions are perfectly performed, securing to the man healthy days.

Very lengthy directions were given for taking the pills for a variety of complaints, from which it appeared that the usual dose was one or two pills at night, or one three times a day.

The pills had a thin loose coating of French chalk; after removing this the average weight was 2 grains. Analysis showed the presence of no inorganic salts, except the usual small quantities of phosphate, sulphate, etc., found in the ash of most vegetable drugs. The pill contained a trace of oil of cloves and consisted of powdered drugs to the extent of about half its weight; ginger and cinchona were identified in this portion; a trace of alkaloid was extracted, showing the properties of the alkaloids of cinchona. A portion of the tissue, which appeared to be derived chiefly from a seed, could not be recognized, and a lengthy series of comparisons failed to identify it. The remainder of the pill was separated into two substances, which appeared to be aloes and jalap resin, but in each a mixture as this pill presented, the identity of these substances cannot be established with complete certainty. The proportions of the ingredients, also, can only be ascertained approximately; the following formula was indicated:

Aloes 0·7 grain. Jalap resin 0·2 ” Powdered cinchona bark 0·3 ” ” ginger 0·2 ” Oil of cloves Trace. In one pill.