Page:The Great American Fraud (Adams).djvu/42

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as great as in the open field, for many of those which are supposed to be sold only in prescriptions are freely distributed to the laity as Peruna. And their advertising is hardly different.

Dangers of Antikamnia

Antikamnia, claming to be an "ethical" remedy, and advertising through the medical press by methods that would, with little alteration, fit any patent painkiller on the market, is no less dangerous or fraudulent than the Orangeine class which it almost exactly parallels in composition. It was at first exploited as a "new synthetical coal-tar derivative," which it isn't and never was. It is simply half or more acetanilid (some analyses show as high as 68 percent.) with other unimportant ingredients in varying proportions. In a booklet entitled "Light on Pain," and distributed on

doorsteps, I find under an alphabetical list of diseases this invitation to form the Antikamnia habit:

"Nervousness (overwork and excess) - Dose: One Antikamnia tablet every two or three hours.

"Shoppers' or Sightseers Headache - Dose: Two Antikamnia tablets every three hours.

"Worry (nervousness, 'the blues') - Dose: One or two Antikamnia and Codein tablets every three hours."

Codein is obtained from opium. The codein habit is well known to all institutions which treat drug addictions, and is recognized as being no less difficult to cure than the morphin habit.

A typical instance of what Antikamnia will do for its users is that of a Pennsylvania merchant, 50 years old, who had declined, without apparent cause,