icines generally comprised under this heading. Only in
this way can one comprehend their right and wrong use.

=A Patent Medicine= is a remedy which is patented. In order to secure
this patent, an exact statement of the ingredients and the mode of
manufacture must be filed with the government. These true "patent
medicines" are generally artificial products of chemical manufacture,
such as phenacetin. The very fact of their being patented makes them
non-secret, and if an intelligent idea is held of their nature and
mode of action, they may be properly used. Physicians with a full
knowledge of their uses, limitations, and dangers often, and
legitimately, prescribe them, and thus used they are the safest and
most useful of all drugs and compounds of this class.

=A Nostrum.=--The Century Dictionary defines a nostrum as "a medicine
the ingredients of which, and the methods of compounding them, are
kept secret for the purpose of restricting the profits of sale to the
inventor or proprietor." Some nostrums have stated, on their label,
the names of their ingredients, but not the amount. There has been no
restriction upon their manufacture or sale in this country, therefore
the user has only the manufacturer's statement as to the nature of the
medicine and its uses, and these statements, in many instances, have
been proved utterly false and unreliable.

=A Proprietary Medicine= is a non-secret compound which is marketed
under the maker's name. This is usually done because the manufacturer
claims some particular merit in his product and its mode of
preparation, and as these drugs are perfectly ethical and largely used
by physicians, it is to the maker's interest to maintain his
reputation for the purity and accuracy of the drug. Familiar instances
of this class are: Squibb's Ether and Chloroform, and Powers &
Weightman's Quinine.

From the above definition it may be seen that the only unreliable
medicines are those which are, in reality, nostrums. In regard to all
of these medicines the following rules should be observed:

_First._--Don't use any remedy that does not show its formula on the
label.

_Second._--No matter what your confidence in the medicine, or how
highly recommended it is, consult a physician before using very much
of it.

_Third._--Take no medicine internally without a physician's advice.

Throughout this chapter the word "patent medicine" will be used in its
widely accepted form, in the everyday sense