"Fortuitously I had the opportunity of observing the influence of this remedy on a consumptive who took it regularly, and who was so enamored of its favorable action that he gave up his business to conduct an agency for its sale. It was not long after he had entered upon his new vocation that I received word of his death, due to pulmonary hemorrhage."
The "returned missionary" fraud has been exposed by different druggists' papers, among them the New Idea. The "missionary" would advertise a "free cure," if people would send to him. The "cure" would be in the form of a prescription.
There being no drugs in any drugstore bearing the names given in the prescription, the dupe was expected to pay an exorbitant price for them to the philanthropic "missionary." In one case of this kind the "medicinal plants brought from South America, the only place where they grew," were upon examination by chemists of the New Idea found to be ordinary drugs, not one of which comes from South America.
The same paper tells of another "South American" fraud, 60,000 bottles of which were said to be sold in Detroit in a few weeks, by an itinerating vendor.
A certain liver, and kidney, and constipation cure, sold in the form of herbs, is said by New Idea to be chiefly couch grass, and senna leaves. Yet it sells for 25 cents for a small package.
To this paper the public is also indebted for the information that a kind of wafer advertised to "cure
