Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 October 1909 — POISON IN YOUR HEADACHE CURE Government Warns Against Drugs Being Used Commonly. [ARTICLE]

POISON IN YOUR HEADACHE CURE Government Warns Against Drugs Being Used Commonly.

THEY HAVE WEAKENING EFFECT Report Says That Powders That at One Time Were Prescribed by Physicians Now Are Avoided by the Medical Profession—lnvestigation Shows That Many Patent Preparations Hurt the Circulation and Discovery Is Made That In Some Cases Death Has Been Caused. Washington, Oct. s.—The attention of the department of agriculture has been repeatedly directed to the general sale and use of harmful headache mixtures. These complaints led the department to make a very thorough investigation, with the result that a warning to the public against the use of the headache medicines on the market has been Issued. It was brought out that there are on record 814 cases of poisoning by these drugs, twenty-nine of which proved fatal. The department’s warning points out that acetanllid, antipyrln and phenacetin are very commonly used in the preparation of mixtures intended for the relief of headache and other minor aches and pains. In urging persons not to use these drugs unless they are prescribed by a physician, the department says that the unfavorable symptoms produced by the drugs affect principally the heart and circulation and through them other parts of the body. The three drugs, according to the warning, were after their discovery for a long time used exclusively for the reduction of fever, but as time went on they were employed less and less for this purpose, because of their weakening effects. They gradually came to be used more and more as a remedy against pain. The department says that the public does not seem to realize that these drugs "fire poisons in the true sense of the word.