A BILL TO PREVENT FRAUDS IN "PATENT MEDICINES."

A campaign of education against fraud and deception in the patent medicine business has been conducted by certain lay journals—principally Collier's Weekly and the Ladies' Home Journal—and the public's attention has been called, as never before, to the dangerous and fraudulent character of the majority of these preparations. The public is aroused; there is no doubt of this. But the public is made up of individuals and, as is usually the case, each individual waits for another to act. The Ladies' Home Journal seems to have recognized this fact and, having educated its readers to the point where they realize something should be done, proposes certain legislation and gives them a chance to do something. The February issue contains a bill for an act to be introduced into every state legislature that meets this winter. The bill which we reproduce on page 373 bears evidence of careful thought, and,