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.TIIE CANADIAN" MEDICAL AssocIATION JOURNAL
THE CANADIAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION [Mar. 1934

the many which describe such families, that and in consequence social organization has pro-
shows the apathy, the stupidity, of a society ceeded upon the assumption that conditions can
which allows such to breed as many as 17 to a make anything of any man. This is to say
family (as some of these families did), while nothing against the improvement in the standard
the honest, industrious, intelligent portion of of life and health which has been the triumph
the community cut down their families to two of modern social organization, but rather t;o
or three children because of the burden of look- assert that it has been one-sided, and that under
ing after the unfit. the best conditions it is human quality that
Because of the vital importance of the subject shapes the life of the individual and througlh
which Dr. Lidbetter has been investigating for him the life of the community. The best in
the future well-being of the race, I shall now civilization is the best biologically. What is
state a few of his generalizations. therefore necessary to-day is attention to the
There is a sufficiency of common character- problems of reproduction and its control."
istics in this group of persons to justify their
constituting a class by themselves, divisible into
two groups, those obviously defective, such as ONE HUNDRED MILLION GUINEA PIGS:
the insane, the imbecile, the epileptic, and the AND TEN MILLION MORE
low-grade mental type, which is the recruiting A book long overdue and of great importance
ground for the former. has just come from the press. The oddity of
There is assortative mating to a great degree; its title should not detract from its real value.*
that is, like tends to marry like. Even where It is intended to disclose dangerous and gen-
the insanity in the parents had not yet shown erally unsuspected conditions in articles in com-
itself, children from insane stock tended to seek mon use, and the purpose has been fearlessly
out and mate with those whose parents were to and consistently pursued by wholly competent
become insane at a later date. This assortative observers.
mating probably accounts for the great variety The "100,000,000 Guinea Pigs" are the 100,-
of defect to be found in these families. It has 000,000 inhabitants of the United States who are
been suggested that degeneration traits may the subject of experiment by the producers of
take a variety of forms, appearing as insanity food, medicine, cosmetics, etc., for the advantage
in one member, as epilepsy in another, as feeble- of the producer and experimenter, not of the
mindedness in a third. This may prove to be consumer and experimented upon-and we in
incorrect. It may be that the manifestation of Canada can add 10,000,000 in like case. The
different forms of defect in the same stock is due work deals specifically with many much used
to the stock carrying many different defective and much advertised articles, and points out
traits, and the genes for these segregate out in their defects and dangers. No one can read a
different members of the family. popular magazine without being struck by the
Those who hold that all this defectiveness attractive advertisements of proprietary articles
may be explained upon the basis of poor environ- -the high price of $5,000 a page has not de-
ment rather than poor heredity must reckon terred some manufacturers of tooth-paste. And
with the facts disclosed by Dr. Lidbetter in his recently the radio has been called into service
investigatioll. In the middle of it, the war inter- to detail the marvellous excellence of some
vened. Because of the greater opportunity for preparation or other.
everyone to find a job, many of the indigents Dealing first with foods, warning is given as
and poor relief recipients were cleared out of to the indiscriminating use of a well-known Bran
the workhouse and put to work. Their environ- which to many is a powerful intestinal irritant;
ment materially improved. When the war was the arsenic on apples, which is not unknown in
over, Dr. Lidbetter returned to his research with Canada, is mostly eliminated by cutting out the
the idea that all the data collected before would two ends, stem and blossom and washing the
be of little avail, as most of the old inmates apple.
of the workhouses would have changed. To his The modern drug-store has generally aban-
surprise he found most of them back again, and doned the illuminated globes filled with gorgeous
his work could proceed with little interruption. coloured fluid, and its windows are filled witlh
Environment had pulled them out of the slough, boxes, cartons, tubes, tins, jars, bottles, packed
heredity had pulled them back again. with liquids, powders, creams, pastes, and what
In conclusion he says, "The trend of modern not, for every conceivable purpose, but all in-
movements in all that relates to the socially in- tended for the profit of the producer and all
adequate is in the direction of their endowment intended to be made use of by the unsuspicious
as a class at the expense of the self-supporting consumer. Almost without exception such prep-
community" (italics mine). "This arises and arations are of trifling worth for any of the
continues with the passive consent of the aver-
age uninstructed citizen, whose social conceptions *
100,000,000 Guinea Pigs: Dangers in Everyday
are still derived -from the teaching of early Foods, Drugs and Cosmetics: By Arthur Kallet, Con-
social economics. Those teachings were neglect- sumers' Research and F. J. Schlink, Consumers' Re-
search; The Vanguard Press, New York, 1932: 8vo. viii,
ful of the problems of original human qluality, 312 pp.
Mar. 1934] MEN AND BooKs: ONE HUNDRED MILLION GUINEA PIGS 311

purposes for which they are advertised and many Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound is
are dangerous. dangerous as it is a relatively weak and worth-
Water containing radium, the sale of which less preparation, the use of which may delay
was being pressed among us a short time ago, competent treatment.
has been definitely discredited by ithe terrible As to tooth-pastes it is said that "probably
death last year of a wealthy American user of no other commodity has been responsible for so
Radithor. Almost equally dangerous are some much downright lying as tooth-paste has. De-
of the Cancer Cures. Some seem to be simply spite all claims to the contrary, no tooth-paste
inert, but all are mischievous in preventing the will keep your teeth from decaying, even if you
patient in the early stages from consulting a use it ten times a day; no tooth-paste that is
surgeon. safe for daily use will make your teeth white in
Electro-Chemical Rings were advertised to one day, three days or a thousand days; no tooth-
cure Bright's disease, epilepsy, diabetes, goitre, paste will prevent or cure pyorrhoea or any other
catarrh, cancer, etc.: Bel-Rub and Dr. Myers' disease condition of the gums or mouth; no
Pneumonia Compound, pneumonia and influ- tooth-paste will correct, except during an in-
enza: Mygrone, tuberculosis; Virginia Dare significant interval immediately following its
Wine Tonic, pernicious anaemia; D-O-D Specific use, acid condition of the mouth; no tooth-
No. 3, ptomaine poisoning. These were dis- paste will destroy enough organisms to make
covered to be frauds and so were Boracetine any difference in anyone's health or well-being.
recommended for typhoid, Kinmonth's Diph- In other words, a tooth-paste is simply a slight
theria and Sore Throat Remedy and Campbell's cleansing aid and nothing more . . . " The best,
Safe Complexion Wafers. as it is the cheapest, dentifrice is a simple salt
Some external remedies may be added to the solution, or baking soda, or precipitated chalk-
list: Alien's Universal Salve for wounds, etc., cheap, easily obtainable and absolutely safe.
and B. & M. External Remedy for a score of Pebeco involves risk, because its principal in-
diseases ranging from cancer to pneumonia, "the gredient is a poison, potassium chlorate. "In
only known penetrating germicide". 1910, a German army officer committed suicide
Some preparations are simply inert. For ex- by eating the contents of a tube of Pebeco."
ample, White's Scar-P ax, guaranteed to cure The morning "Salts" come in for attention.
scarlet-fever or smallpox in three days, which The principal ingredient of Kruschen Salts is
was found to contain in a $15 pint bottle nothing Epsom Salts and if you have constipation as
more potent than a half-cent's worth of cream well as obesity, Kruschen Salts may aggravate
of tartar dissolved in water; so Eksip, curing the constipation; if you have not constipation
diabetics but allowing them to eat anything, the salts may supply you with a chronic case.
consisted essentially of carbonate of magnesia, It is idle to speak of such salts with a basis of
talc and starch and would have been harmless Epsom Salts as not habit-forming. The same
but that it sent many diabetics to the grave by may be said of an aloe basis. The young woman
the fatal regimen permitted. So-called Mag- who took every night Dr. Edward's Olive
netic Cures are not uncommon, generally under Tablets "a pure vegetable compound, non-habit
a quaint name such as I-ON-A-Co, or Vit-O-Net. forming" was visited with a chronic and unman-
Almost without exception, we are told, the ageable constipation. Ex-Lax the "delicious
proprietary antiseptics commonly displayed in chocolated laxative" is equally dangerous; and
the drug store window connot be trusted to de- Sal Hiepatica is best avoided, "hoary old cure-
stroy germs under ordinary conditions of use, all cathartic" as it is.
and whoever depends on their antiseptic actions Cosmetics and other beautifiers are generally
in emergencies is taking a foolish and unneces- unsafe-Othine may remove freckles, but is apt
sary risk. Of Listerine, which seems to owe to replace them with inflammation and dark
much of its vogue to a supposed connection with blotches; depilatories are not always safe, as
Lord Lister (it is needless to say there was witness the now outworn Koremlu. The only
none) the American Medical Association says: permanent depilatories are electrolysis and
"The supreme ridiculousness of the situation x-rays and either may be disastrous in unskilful
becomes apparent when it is realized that the hands.
antiseptic virtues of Listerine are so infinitesimal The conclusion of the whole matter is-avoid
in comparison with better antiseptics as to in- every proprietary medicine, depilatory, cosmetic
validate even modest claims made for it...." -avoid eating fruit which may have some re-
Pepsodent Antiseptic now so persistently adver- mains of insecticide, wash the apples and cut
tised on the radio is worthless for the preven- out blossom and stem ends; see your doctor when
tion or treatment of colds or sore throats; and is you are sick, consfipated or otherwise; trust
but a weak antiseptic for minor cuts, etc., in your dentist about your teeth.
which an efficient first-aid is found in tincture This book as interesting, even amusing, as it
of iodine and in most cases neither is of any is instructive should be read by everyone who
real effect as a mouth wash for bad breath, and is interested in the public health or his own-
to neglect the basic cause by their use is exceed- and who is not -Reprinted from Health, 1933,
ingly unwise. 1: 16.

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