Patent foods and patent medicines : two lectures / by Robert Hutchinson.

  • Hutchinson, Robert., Sir, 1871-1960.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Patent foods and patent medicines : two lectures / by Robert Hutchinson. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    of mine could be. I would only say that in each case the preparation is intended to be given as a powder smuggled into tea or coffee without the patient's knowledge, and is alleged to remove the craving for alcoholic drink, and that for twenty-four little packets of the former I had to pay 5s. Oh, the eternal gullibility of the British public ! Reasons for the Success of Patent Medicines. If, then, gentlemen, as the analyses have shown, these preparations contain nothing new and nothing mysterious, why is it that they are so popular, and that the revenue from their sale amounts to no less a sum than .£300,000 per annum ? I think, in the first place, that this popularity points to the existence of a great deal of minor illness for which people do not think it worth while to consult a medical man. To this I do not see that we have any reason to object, because we cannot hope to possess a monopoly of attempting to cure people. It is open to anyone who thinks he can do it to try to cure somebody else, if that person is foolish enough to allow him to try his hand; and so long as diseases exist people will try to find remedies for them without the intervention of the doctor. That one must admit. But apart from that I think there is a subtle psychological reason for the success of patent medicines. None of us likes to confess that he has failed in the treatment of a case, and that is specially true of the man who tries to cure himself. A patient buys a bottle of patent medicine and becomes his own physician. If he gets well he is immensely pleased with himself and at his dis- crimination in selecting (as he thinks) the proper remedy, and he goes and tells his friends what a clever fellow he is. But if he fails and feels no