Health, ageing & disabilityRoyal commission
Royal Commission on Secret Drugs, Cures, and Foods
11 December 1906 – 8 August 1907
Inquired into patent medicines, “secret” remedies and adulterated foods: their composition, the claims made in their advertising, and the harm they caused.
How it came into existence
Appointed by Letters Patent dated 11 December 1906, during the Deakin government. The sole commissioner was Octavius Beale, the Sydney piano manufacturer and campaigner on public health, who had sat on the 1903–04 New South Wales royal commission on the decline of the birth rate.
How it ended
Its two-volume report was presented on 8 August 1907, and the commission then ended. It documented the unscrupulous conduct of the makers and advertisers of patent medicines.
Main functions
- Composition of proprietary medicines and “cures”
- Advertising claims for medicines and foods
- Adulteration of foods
Lineage
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