The Menace, an Exposition of Quackery Nostrum Exploitation and Reminiscences of a Country Doctor Page: 47
128 p. : ill., ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this book.
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Chas. D. Dixon, M. D.
other bunco devices. Actina itself is alleged to cure deaf-
ness and blindness, also catarrh, nervousness, and a few
pathological odds and ends, and principally ends. It is sold
for $10. It is a small steel vial with screw stoppers at both
ends, one end "cures" eye ailments and the other ear
troubles. They work simultaneously. I hope to live long
enough to see this concern give a test, applying blind Mary
to one end, and deaf Tom to the other, and curing both at
one stroke of business for five dollars a piece.
Upon being unpacked from the box in which it is mailed
it comports itself like a decayed onion. It is worth ten
dollars to get away from the odor. "It can be used with per-
fect safety," says the advertisement, but I should regard
it as extremely unsafe to offer it to a person with a weak
stomach.
Its principal ingredient is oil of mustard, an active poison,
regarding which the U. S. pharmacopeia prints this em-
phatic warning, "Great caution should be exercised when
smelling this oil." So the "perfectly safe" guarantee is
hardly sound.
So far as curing any case of genuine eye or ear trouble is
concerned, the sufferer might just as well and with more
safety blow red pepper up his nose, and get his sneeze
cheaper than by sniffing at a ten-dollar evil smell. The
whole contrivance cost probably about twenty-five cents to
make.47
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Dixon, Chas. D. (Charles D.). The Menace, an Exposition of Quackery Nostrum Exploitation and Reminiscences of a Country Doctor, book, 1914; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth143569/m1/61/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Texas Health Science Center Libraries.