“MEDICAL” CHARLATANS

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXX, Issue 438, 29 September 1908, Page 4

“MEDICAL” CHARLATANS

Australian papers to hand contain full reports of the case heard in Sydney last week in which damages were claimed against a “ Medical Institute,” which latter, as reported by cable, was so scathingly denounced by Mr Justice Cohen. The evidence disclosed and the circumstances of the case showed, as the Judge remarked, humanity in one of its worst forms —how the craft and cunning of designing men in their haste and hunger for money can set at nought the feelings and sufferings of their fellow-men, no matter what sacrifice may be involved ifi their machinations. The plaintiff was a young man about twenty years of age, who met with a slight accident while following his duties as a boundary rider and believed he was suffering from rupture. Being anxious about his condition, he followed the advice of some friends and communicated with the Freeman and Wallace Medical Institute, stating that he believed his complaint was rupture and asking for advice. As the result of correspondence he went to the institute, where he was examined. One of the letters produced in Court showed howthe fears and weaknesses of correspondents are worked upon by the Institute by suggestions of physical and mental decay, the horrors of a failing body and wasting constitution being set forth in unmeasured terms. The letter was as follows :

“Dear Sir,—Replying to your communication, which reached us by yesterday’s mail, enclosing answers given to the best of your knowledge concerning your condition and health, we must inform you that without doubt yours is decidedly a very complicated case, and the ailments in evidence therein include many deep-sealed and obscure symptoms which severally and collectively have weakened and debilitated your system to such an extent that a comparatively long time must elapse before your complaints can be thoroughly cured. We may say that had you consulted us in the initial stages of your ailments not only would the task of restoration have been considerably easier, but the matter of expense would also have been much less. Notwithstanding what we may hereinafter say, we must certainly tell you that yours, is not the worst case we have had to deal with during our 35 years’ practice as specialists in private and nervous complaints. But still the severity thereof is sufficient to demand immediate attention. As surely as constant dripping wears away a stone, so surely your ailments will, if left unchecked, bring about your mental and bodily destruction. Deadly diseases, especially such as the ailments you are beset with, are very rapid in their action, and were we to disclose to you the particulars of many cases on our books which, through procrastination, were allowed to run unchecked for some time, before the sufferers took competent treatment, you would not wonder that we always make it a point to urge upon all sufferers the absolute necessity for prompt action where their health is at stake.” The letter went on to elaborate upon the symptoms of the plaintiff’s case, and to state that the ailment was always accompanied by a corresponding failure of nerve force, and the spinal column directly connected with the brain was often affected to such a degree that iu 90 per cent, of the cases left unattended the sufferer eventually became a victim of biain collapse or filled a premature grave. It was pointed out that the case called for the skill of a clever and expert specialist, and was not one where the aid of an ordinary general medical practitioner would prove of much value. The point was emphasised that the latter was often jack of all trades in the treatment of diseases, and while he might be very clever in treating ordinary cases within the scope of his everj'day practice, yet where there were specific troubles to combat, as in the case under notice, the special knowledge possessed by the specialist as the result of many years experience, was what was absolutely required. The defendants estimated ‘‘after careful and considerate thought that it will take at least from four to five months before we can have you thoroughly cured, and our fees for the treatment and guaranteed cure will be ,£24, less the £\ paid.” In a concluding exhortation, the plaintiff was warned against the lime when, unless he promptly consulted a specialist, he would become a " complete derelict upon the waters of life.” All these suggestions of physical and mental decay were made to a young man the nature of whose ailment was described by Dr. Sinclair, who saw him in the month of February as simply varicose veins, for which he was operated upon and was back at work in a few weeks. When he first visited the Institute he asked if he could be treated for less that ,£25, but was informed he could not be treated for a lower sum as his case was worse than they had thought when writing. He got some medicine, and about three weeks after he went back to Sydney and remained under the treatment of the defendants until February, when he went to consult a doctor in the city, who cured him iu a couple of weeks. During the time he was under the Institute he was given pills, lotion, and ointment, making payments as he went along. He suffered pain all the time he was taking the medicine, could not sleep, and did not work.

When .summing up, Mr Justice Coben scathingly denounced the methods adopted at the Institute, by those concerned in its management. His Honor said he doubted whether the annals of the Courts of the Stale disclosed a case in which the epithets of cruel cunning, unmeasured audacity and hypocritical pretence could be more justly applied. The whole atmosphere of the institution, he said, reeked with wickedness, and it was only men with callous dispositions, with hearts of stone, steeled, perhaps, by their hunger for money, who could trade upon the crdnlity of their fellow-men as the proprietors of the Institute under notice preyed upon their fellow men. A perusal of the above shows the wisdom of our new Zealand Parliament taking the stand it has done in prohibiting the advertising in the Dominion newspapers oi any cure or specific which may delude unfortunate sufferers with false hopes and divert their attention from safer and more effective methods of treatment, for the public are too easily led astray by highly-advertised cures for every malady to which human flesh is heir, which only impoverish the gullible victims and freqnentlydo them irremediable harm.