Nostrums and quackery : articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nostrums and quackery : articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    187/522 (page 183)
    tors even the fuiidaiiieiital facts of roprodiietion or the phy- siologic data concerning their peculiar sex characteristics; fewer teach their daughters to keep the vagina clean by the use of douches; and fewer ever know, until they learn through experience, generally bitter, the tremendous importance of cleanliness and hygiene in the duties and obligations which are assumed with marriage. CAPITALIZING CLEANLINESS jNlost women sutler more or less from their reproductive organs, and a very considerable amount of this discomfort or suffering is due to lack of common sense cleanliness. And that, as we understand it, is exactly wdiat the agents of the Viavi are eternally preaching; it is almost every other word in the documents which the concern puts out; keep the vagina clean, by the use of the douche, and use a little common sense. The immediate increase of personal comfort, and many times the quick relief from some annoying minor ailment, which follow on the exercise of cleanliness and common sense, might so hypnotize the average woman who accepts the Viavi preach- ments and takes the Viavi “treatment,” that she would be ready to believe almost anything the promoters care to tell her. But, of course, no large paying business could be built up by simply selling a little good advice and a trifle of common sense. There must be something definite to take, some wonder- ful, secret and very costly remedy that will work the result, to secure wdiich the douche is but the merest preliminary. Hence the “capsules” and the “cerate” and the “liquid” and the “royal,” and the rest of the wonderful remedies which, collectively, leave little uncured or uncurable by Viavi. Xow let us see how these gentlemen, Messrs. IT. and H. E. Law, originators of the “idea” and of the “Viavi treatment,” as we have seen, well-known citizens of San Francisco and ])rominently identified with members of its upright and hon- orable commercial bodies, work the “idea” and conduct its business side so that it earns for them the millions which pour into their coffers. The promoters are the brains and the life of the enterprise and can not be dissociated from it. SOME QUESTIONS Bo ihc Tiavi ‘rejnedies” contain morpliin, or opium, or some hahit-forming drug? The very question which we asked was bitterly resented by these gentlemen. They claimed it was a reproach to their self-respect even to intimate that they, who seek to alleviate the pains of suffering humanity in general, could trade on human life and character by selling to innocent people habit- forming “dope.” They sent us copies of all sorts of certificates from analysts showing the absence of any harmful drug. And, furthermore, upon reflection, we came to the opinion that from the purely business standpoint, it is unnecessary to put an