 What is "La-anago Yergis"?
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories May 1943. Paying no attention to them, it was carrying a case of liquor in two hands, six siphons in two others, and a broom and dustpan in the remaining pair. "We purvey that renowned Martian remedy, La-anago Yergis , the formula for which was recently discovered by ourselves in the ancient ruined city of La-anago. Medical science is unanimous in proclaiming this magic medicine the sole panacea in the entire history of therapeutics." Our condenser broke down, and we've gone without water for five ghastly days." He came near starving and moved on to Titan. It's bitter as some kinds of sin before it's purified. What's fair is fair, and you have put a different complexion on what seemed at first to be an unconscionable interjection of a middleman between Nature and man's thirst." "On account of the quantity, I'm able to quote a bargain price. The planetoid man worked the pump while the mayor intently watched the crude level-gauge, crying "Stop!" when it registered the proper amount. "Now do you see, my hot-tempered colleague?" said Harvey as he and Joe picked up buckets that hung on the tank. "Just the same," Joe griped, "paying for water isn't something you can get used to in ten minutes." In the fragile forest, they soon came across a stream that sprang from the igneous soil and splashed into the small pond whose contents, according to the mayor, was theirs for the asking. They filled their buckets and hauled them to the ship, then returned for more. It was on the sixth trip that Joe caught a glimpse of Jupiter-shine on a bright surface off to the left. "Joseph, the good-natured artist in me has become a hard and merciless avenger. Harvey studied it worriedly, put his own hand somewhere on it, swallowed as it closed, then breathed again when his fingers were released in five units instead of a single compressed one. Something shrewd was called for.... "Joseph!" "I come down with it every year, and I ain't hankering to have it in an off-season. "You'll find everything you want in the back room," Johnson said frantically, "sulfopyridine, mustard plasters, rubs, inhalers, suction cups—" "Relics of the past," Harvey stated. La-anago Yergis never fails, my friend," Harvey explained.
 It's a placebo. It's not real medicine.
 It's a panacea that can cure any ailment.  It's medicine. It's a cure for "asteroid fever."  It's purified water.  It's a placebo. It's not real medicine.