Content note: Reproduced period advertisements for venereal-disease remedies, with frank medical wording. This object is shown as it was published. Why
No home remedy or quack ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea
Public health poster: a figure built from yellow newspaper clippings and patent-medicine advertisements pours red liquid from a bottle onto a spoon, on a dark blue field. The clippings carry quack-cure claims ('Gon-Med', 'Blood disease controlled with home treatment') and the headline reads 'No home remedy or quack ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea. See your doctor or health officer.' The tell is the collage: real-looking ad copy is gathered to show the claims, then answered by one line.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Public Health Service (Karsakov)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- Health, Media and information
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Public Health Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1412 (NAID 515076).
Text on the object
UNITED STATES PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE [signature:] KARSAKOV [clippings:] Dr. Welch's Gon-Med / Recommended For Use In Treatment Of GONORRHEA / This can be used in your home and no one need know your condition. / All correspondence is strictly confidential. / SENT IN PLAIN WRAPPER / For Men: $3.00 / For Women: $2.00 / specify whether for man or [cut off] / WELCH MEDICINE [cut off] SECRETS OF WISE [cut off] PHYSICIANS AND GREAT CHEMISTS ARE EMB[cut off] THESE FORMULAS AND THEY DO [cut off] / CURES UNDER [cut off] IODIDES, [cut off] NO CASE WITHOUT CHEMIST [cut off] 909 [partly illegible] O. K. MEDICINE / [partly illegible clipping text] FOUND — A CHECK FOR PARAL[cut off] Every woman should USE PAXTON'S 3 in 1 for a wash, to [cut off] Diseases. Saves A Hot Spring Trip! Paxton's 2 Life Savers Puts Superior Healing Waters in your Home. Unnatural Color and LEOPARD SPOTS [cut off] What You Are On [cut off] Save Your Vital Organs and [cut off] TROLS Disease of Blood BLOOD DISEASE CONTROLLED WITH HOME TREATMENT / Read What Mr. Sam C. Has to Say of This Easily Used 69-Year-Old Treatment / Mr. Sam C. of Los Angeles, Cal., like hundreds of other satisfied users, writes his endorsement as follows: "Your medicine will do more than you claim for it. I have seen it proven for over 40 years. There is nothing wrong with me [partly illegible] HOW I RESTORED MYSELF TO PERFECT HEALTH FROM TUBERCULOSIS, SYPHILIS AND CANCER / INTRODUCING "NEUROPO" SYSTEM OF RESTORING HEALTH (REVISED EDITION) / BY LOUIS BOND CHERRY SYPHILORRHOEA [partly cut off] / DR. READ'S EUREKA NERVE AND BO[cut off] / EUREKA CO., 1616 South St [cut off] 'Men's Doctor' Racket Dupes Thousands, Slaying Reveals See the editorial, "Beware of Quacks." FREE ADVICE / MEN'S DOCTOR / SPECIALIST A belief that thousands of Pitts[burgh men] have fallen prey in re[cent years] / 'Somethin[g] Mike Kosk[o] Don't Do That My Friend But Take Holmes' Dead Shot EUREKA TONIC BUILD SY[cut off] NO home remedy or quack ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea see your doctor or health officer [imprint:] VD 7-R 41
