ALLEGED UNSKILFUL TREAT WENT.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3763, 27 April 1907, Page 3

ALLEGED UNSKILFUL TREAT WENT.

A Question of Qualification. Christchurch, April 25. The inquiry touching the death of John Joseph Greaney, aged eighteen, which occurred on Sunday last, was resumed this evening before Mr H- W. Bishop, District Coroner. Greaney had been suffering from diphtheria, and had consulted a man named Stanton under the impression that he was a properly, qualified doctor. Stanton gave him some powders to take. He died from the complaint on Sunday last. Medical evidence was given today that death was due to diphtheria, and that the condition of the stomach indicated that some irritant had been taken. The life of deceased might possibly have been saved by proper skilled treatment applied three or tour days before death.

A. Bickerton, analist for Canterbury, stated that the powders given to the deceased by Stanton contained nothing but sugar. He found, however, that the stomach was affected by oxalic acid, which .could not have got into the stomach by natural means, and which was not used in medicine. , One of the medical witnesses stated that the presence of oxalic acid was in no way to be accounted for by the diphtheric condition. In charging the jury the Coroner said that quackery was rampant throughout the world, there were persons afflicted with diseases not readily amenable to skilled treatment, who clung to the hope that a quack with no qualification recognised by the law might afford relief. After all it was a matter for legislation. So long as the law remained in its present state so long would such people prey upon the public by holding themselves out to cure diseases that the best physicians and surgeons found great difficulty in coping with. Until the legislature thought fit to place a check upon those people who escaped through a loophole from the consequences of the law, and advertised themselves in such a way as (though doing nothing actually illegal) to make people believe they were qualified, and consult them, these quacks would continue to thrive upon the ignorance and credulity of the community. No doubt they might be able to treat cases, but he (the Coroner) drew the line at diphtheria, which was a very dangerous disease, and certainly not one to be taken in hand by an unqualified throat specialist. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the law to prevent the quack from doing his best so long as people were satisfied to place themselves in his care. It was quite clear that the relatives .of Greaney, from what they had heard, were misled into thinking Stanton was a qualified man. The only other extent to which the jury could go was to say whether the young man was so treated by Stanton as to cause his death. It was clear that Greaney came by death through diphtheria, and ‘if the jury were prepared to express any opinion as to the treatment by Stanton they were of course at liberty to do so. The result of the present agitation against quacks would probably lead to legislative action of some sort, but until that day came neither the speaker or the jury could do much to prevent those people trading upon the credulity of the public. The jury, after a short retirement, returned the following verdict: —That deceased’s death was due to diphtheria, accelerated by the treatment adopted by Stanton.”