QUACKS AND QUACKERY.

NZ Truth, Issue 63, 1 September 1906, Page 5

QUACKS AND QUACKERY.

DOCTOR MASON DENOUNCES DELUSIONS.

A Talk to Men Only by the Chief Health ' Officer.

Dr. Mason (Chief Health Office), renewed his crusade against the charlatan, quack and cure-all, when, last 1 Sunday afternoon, m "a pleasant Sunday afternoon" gathering m the Presbyterian Church, he,.; m a lecture to men only, entitled "Deeper Perils," exposed, denounced and ridiculed the pretensions, ' methods

and conduct of blackmailing, bloodsucking 1 , quack specialists and professors ; patent medicine nostrums and soul-destroying drugs, which too easily find a ready market with a gullible, unsuspecting public.

There was' an old aphorism, said > the lecturer, that honesty was the best policy, and the first time he heard it, it was fired off by a longhaired, unwashed individual, who, standing on a barrow, was endeavoring to find a sale for bis pills and potions. This hairy, . greasy-frocked individual styled himself a professor and remarked m connection with that same . aphorism tfiat he had tried them both. a.;brief referenoertohis previous 'lecture on dome ; MASTERS OP RASCALDOM AND* DECEIT, •

the doctor quoted the' proverb -that"fools latigh at their own folly." Would, he said, that the men and boys m the clutches of* the vigor-res-

toring '; quack could laugh. Listen, the auiiience were invited, to the oily way m which the hooks were baited.

"A retired clergyman who has suffered from the sins of ignorance, has, by the grace of God, been shown a remedy, and is willing tosh ow the way of salvation to anyone, who. will send a stamped addressed envelope to - — ."

That sort of blasphemous scoundrel was best left alone. Those who wrote to him would live to regret it ; he would never leave them alone. He

would haunt them night and day till

be got every penny out of them. By exaggerating the refcult of Tiis fool clients pernicious sin, he would play on their fears and ruin them mentally, morally and monetarily. After this ' the lecturer turned to good account a story of his student days. He had once had pointed out to him, m a lunatic asylum by the lecturer on mental disease, an individual who was to aU intents and pur-

poses practically sane. But this mdi

yidual hugged the belief that he had discovered the elixir of life, and he used to get some garden manure and soil, mix it up with water and, within the walls of the asylum, offer it for sale, but none there . would buy^ Because of his good behavior he was" occasionally allowed to roam out

into the town, and when he came back he generally had a lot of money. One Saturday afternoon a couple of warders followed him and found him m the mark et place, selling to the populace the

-1, . BOTTLED-UP . CONCOCTION 'the lunatics inside the asylum would

not have at any price. This story

course 'raised a laugjh, bat the audience quickly turned from gay to grave when Dr. Mason brought under their notice the specious wiles employed by notorious rascals m Sydney, Wellington and Chiistchurch, who scattered broadcast pernicious literature which fell into the hands of boys and girls - who learned that the consequences of their folly were awful, amd that un-<. - less the remedies of these rascals were taken' at once they would end m the-v ; lunatic asylum. Nrnertenths «f the3 statements made were .unacbrilfeerajted'- ' lies. "Whatever you think is tto&matter with you is what I care," saysthe quack. Taking the usoal style of" the quack who got the. boy, m his: clutch ; what did they find ? Ewery :', boy was an "esquire" to them. He-, flattered .where he could not frighten. To one boy m Wellington, a boy ■ . who could hardly read or write, had come a letter which began, "Honored Sir,— We' are m receipt of your es- , teemed fa.vor." The Irter&ture dis-- \ iributed by these scoudrels should not be allowed to go ttirough the post office. This literature contained statements on sexual matters, • which ( were as inaccurate as they were pernicious and indecent, and often set

forth symptoms which any healthy ■ man or boy might exhibit. They enlarged on the apparent bad state of -,-lhe> -boy, -and; ..J&ightened- hi» into '$$• belief Wttijft death or madness tHleatened ijm': In a large majority of i. cases tfnere ,was Wt really.,, nothing -WEoftg~with hixch ;4ifeoipe-^eir : an*iet^ was m an inverse proportion to their actual ailments— and men and boys would be better served by going to a respectable medical practitioner and confessing their faults to him. If heseeuied unsympathetic, it was not be- / .'cause he lacked interest ; but he was (/lily endeavoring to , lessen m their minds the urgency of the often sup- . posed malady. "'Give up your sin, lead a clean and healthy life and you will free yourself from all that haunts you," was the advice of the jeetmrer ; who proceeded m a masterful manner to tear to shreds the devices of the money-making "youthful v i s;or . River, ' ' beside whom Bret Harte's "Heathen Chinee" was a fool.

A powerful insidious drug, the indiscriminate use of which led to the

'formation of a. drug habit, was what Ihlorodyne was described as. This drug contained* morphia, benzoic acid and a proportion of that most powerful of all poisons— prussic acid. This was a damnable drug. It was kept m. the same cupboard as the jam, hacon, and candles. Such a drug should not be sold m shops. The nature of it should be made apparent and should be sold only m such proportions as to prevent its misuse. London "Truth" was quoted to prove that cures for consumption, deafness, drunkenness, hair-restoring, hair-re-moving, the Greecian school of physical culture, all based upon fraud, impudence and advertising, were control-

W ,by one man, named Pointing

ffliea there was some Yankee cure for Consumption called Twbercoline, which claimed to effect its wondrous cure by infusing iron into the blood corpuscles by some preparation which was composed mainly of fippper, but

which, when analysed, was found- to contain no copper at all. Dr. Mason next proved that Professor Westcott Jenner, of Liverpool, England, who "cared" drunkenness, was identical with ORAM O'NEILL, OF CHICAGO, whose vacuum treatment never failed m any eye trouble. Steam's headache powders, and Daisy powders, Curie toothache and headache powders were next exposed. They were proved to be anything but harmless, and though sold at prices rangmg from ; a shilling, their cost ! was from one-eighth to one-ninth of. a penny to produce, and their use led to the pernicious drug habit and its' -horrific consequences.

Concluding his indictment, Dr. Mason said he was not there to lecture on morality. Speaking as one responsible for, the physical well-being of the colony, he issued a warning .against "the abortion-monger. Incontinence would mean suffering as continence and clean living would mean the opposite, and the truth of that remark was nowhere to be seen better than m the letters aod books of the scoundrel quack. His plausible lies seemed to offer condonation for the sexual sms and frailties of men and women. But, mark his words, •those who dealt with the quack would pay heavily for it. All would be bet* teir m pocket and peace of mind if they left him severely alone. Such a tribe of blackmailers should be shunned. Let a girl write to these rascals—and he spoke of absolute knowledge—and they would follow her, even after she was married, and bleed her of money and her peace- of mind by threatening to inform her husband of her early indiscretions. "If you have sinned," Doctor Mason's last words were, "take the consequences, as you must whether you elect to take them or not. A clean life is the best life. -Help us, who are trying . .m this direction. You can repeat what has been said, and if. you see a ■ boy going Wong, give him a helpmghand and keep him away from the sharks, for they will surely wreck him physically! morally and monetarily.