This article was originally published in the defunct eSkeptic newsletter at Skeptic.com on Dec 12, 2007. An archived version is available here.

Lydia Pinkham, as she appeared on an original antique advertising card, circa 1880.

The 100th anniversary of the FDA marks a milestone in medicine before which cranks and charlatans ran amok

This year has represented a little-remarked-upon major milestone in American medicine: the 100th anniversary of active Federal regulation of food and drugs. The Pure Food and Drug Act came into effect on January 1st, 1907 — the first step toward the creation of the modern Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and a step forward from the dangerous anarchy of the patent medicine era.

For the first time, drug manufacturers were required by law to disclose the dosage and purity of their products (including, for the first time, disclosing whether they contained poison, alcohol, or narcotics such as heroin or cocaine). They were also required to refrain from deliberately lying about their products, and from fraudulently substituting a claimed ingredient for some other ingredient.

Bizarrely, such laws were needed. Read more