This article was first published in The Montreal Gazette.
“A gesture as effective as sending out a boy with a peashooter to bring down a rhinoceros.”
Sometimes I feel like I’m the boy and the rhino is the compendium of quack therapies ranging from coffee enemas, raw juice diets and therapeutic touch to Laetrile, homeopathic X-rays and Joe Mercola’s penchant for infusing carbon dioxide up his rectum. Alas, the peashooter analogy is not my own. I swiped it from “100,000,000 Guinea Pigs,” a book published in 1933 by consumer advocates Arthur Kallet and F.J. Schlink. It claimed that the American public were guinea pigs, at the mercy of retailers who were flooding the market with overly hyped products that were either untested or known to contain harmful ingredients.
The peashooter in Kallet and Schlink’s example was aimed at “Allen’s Ulcerine Salve,” the “rhinoceros” that was claimed to be an effective treatment for gunshot wounds, lacerations and animal bites. Not only was there no evidence of efficacy, but the product contained a toxic lead salt. The 1906 Food and Drug law had prohibited nostrums from false labelling of ingredients, but if there were no ingredients listed on the label, authorities could do nothing but confiscate a few dozen bottles.
Allen’s Ulcerine Salve was by no means the only rhinoceros targeted by Kallet and Schlink. Lead arsenate was widely sprayed at the time on fruits and vegetables as an insecticide and government action was only taken when Britain refused to import American apples because of arsenic residues. Dried fruits were preserved with sulphur dioxide at doses that were not allowed in Europe, flour was bleached with potassium bromate already banned in France, and toxic ammoniated mercury was widely advertised to whiten skin and remove freckles. Fear of bacterial diseases was widespread and various “antiseptics” of unproven efficacy were advertised to convince a credulous public that without them they were destined to find themselves hairless, toothless, reeking of body odour and helpless in the face of germs that were waiting to pounce on vital organs. Pebeco toothpaste was supposed to strengthen gums with its content of potassium chlorate, for which there was no evidence. A tube contained as much as 30 grams of the chemical, a potentially lethal dose. A German army officer was said to have committed suicide by consuming a tube of Pebeco.
Obesity “cures” containing animal thyroid extracts or laxatives were available in pharmacies, as were painkillers like Salicon that contained Aspirin without it being declared on the label. People with Aspirin sensitivity were fooled into trying it. “Scar-Pox” guaranteed to cure scarlet fever or smallpox in just three days. It contained nothing but a few pennies worth of cream of tartar. “Kopp’s Baby Friend” and “Winslow’s Soothing Syrup” contained unregulated amounts of morphine sulphate, and then there was perhaps the ultimate dangerous quack remedy, “Radithor,” marketed by William Bailey, a man with a long record of dangerous quackery. He had previously “invented” the “Radiendocrinator,” a small container of radioactive radium that came with an “athletic strap” so that men could place it under the scrotum where it could be irradiated to enhance potency. The only thing it enhanced was the risk of cancer.
Radithor was a solution of a radium salt that was meant to be consumed as a cure-all. Wealthy American businessman Eben Byers became a Radithor guinea pig when he started consuming the liquid upon noting that his performance in the bedroom wasn’t what it used to be. At first, he claimed he had “staged a comeback,” but that was short-lived. Soon his teeth began to fall out, most of the bones in his jaw had to be surgically removed, and his body eventually disintegrated from radiation sickness.
One of the most scathing attacks in 100,00,000 Guinea Pigs was directed against “Koremlu,” a cream that “devitalized the hair follicle so that it can no longer produce hair.” It was marketed by New York beauty salon owner Kora M. Lubin and contained thallium acetate, a chemical that could indeed cause loss of hair. But it could also cause loss of life.
Thallium as an element was isolated in 1861 almost simultaneously by French chemist Claude-August Lamy and British chemist Sir William Crookes. Lamy found that during his experiments he suffered from exhaustion and developed excruciating pains in his legs. When he fed thallium compounds to animals they quickly weakened and died. This led to the use of thallium sulphate for pest control that persisted until the 1950s.
Animals exposed to thallium also began to shed hair and that induced French dermatologist Raymond Sabouraud to use it to treat ringworm, a scalp infection. Removing hair from an infected scalp he believed would allow the scalp to heal. He did urge caution about its use because of thallium’s toxicity. It seems Lubin read about Sabouraud’s use of thallium and paid no attention to the warning. She launched Koremlu in 1930 as a depilatory mostly for women to be used on the upper lip, armpits and legs. It wasn’t long before they were experiencing hair loss on the scalp, fatigue, severe pain and burning in the feet and even paralysis. No government action was taken because Professor Curt Wimmer of Columbia University’s College of Pharmacy declared it to be safe after trying one-gram portions on his body for 10 days and finding no toxic effect. Women were using as much as six grams a day. Finally, Koremlu disappeared when the company went bankrupt after numerous lawsuits had alleged damage by the product.
It wasn’t only unregulated chemicals that were wreaking havoc with the health of people. There were quack devices as well. The Vit-O-Net was an electric blanket that would “charge the bloodstream with minute currents of electricity to nourish cells.” Pneumonia and diabetes were no match for the energized cells. Vit-O-Net’s inventor was “Dr.” W. F. Craddick, who despite having only a Grade 8 education received a doctorate from the College of Drugless Physicians in just two weeks in return for a promise to send “students” to the college. Then there was the “Electro-Chemical Ring” that would help against rheumatism, bladder stones, gout, irregular menstruation, jaundice and diabetes by “supplying electricity to the blood to reduce the intensity and quantity of acid until there is no surplus.” It was a ring made of iron and nothing else.
Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose! The situation has not changed all that much since 1933. Yes, there are more regulations, but quacks are still running amok. Is there much difference between the Vit-O-Net and today’s “Biomat” that claims to be a “3-part synergy of quantum energetics from deep-penetrating heat of far infrared Rays, negative ion therapy for cellular activation, and the healing properties of amethyst?” Are the current magnetic bracelets that claim to relieve pain all that different from the Electro-Chemical Ring? I think not. Battling quackery is hard, but maybe with enough peashooters we can slow down that charging rhinoceros.
