serted that the patent medicine evil and the
fraudulent medical cure more directly concern the mothers of the race
than any others. No matter who the ailing victim may be, some woman is
deeply and sincerely interested in his, or her, recovery and welfare. If
the proper influence is exerted at the right time, and if it is based
upon adequate knowledge of the danger involved, it is certain that the
sufferer will not become a victim of the fraudulent and dangerous
advertised nostrum, or a fake medical course of treatment. If each
mother, therefore, possessed an adequate knowledge of the patent
medicine evil, and exerted the influence which would naturally result
from the possession of such knowledge, we should soon see the end of the
whole business.

Most people are honest and sincere. It is difficult, however, to arouse
the majority to concerted and sustained action. If the honest and
well-intentioned element in society could be influenced to a sustained
effort to correct existing evils, in any department of human effort, the
fraudulent and dishonest members of society could be effectually
rendered harmless. If the suggestion which I have advanced in the
article on Eugenics, to form Eugenic Clubs in every community, should be
adopted, the members could, in a definite way, contribute to the
propaganda, by insisting that the members of the legislature and
Congress inform themselves upon these subjects, and act and vote in
accordance with the sentiment of their constituents. It is only by some
such systematized, concerted effort that any hope may be reasonably
entertained that this question will be satisfactorily and finally
solved. That it is capable of being solved satisfactorily there is no
doubt whatever. It depends upon the women.

The passage of The Pure Food and Drugs Act, caused, for a brief period,
a cessation of the strenuous activity which had previously characterized
the patent medicine business. It was not, however, to be expected that
any single legislative act would permanently strangle such a
parasite,--for we must remember that it is an easy and a highly
remunerative calling. Nor was it to be expected that men who are adepts
in sophistry and experts in quibbling could not find a way to circumvent
the intent of the law.

This was proved to be so because they are again beginning to advertise
more freely and with more assurance. One of the best known has assumed a
new advertising garb. Its new diction is spe