QUACK EXPOSED

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 46, 17 May 1927, Page 1

QUACK EXPOSED

Yankee Seeks Auckland Victims With Cure for Deafness

SHOULD ATTORNEY-GENERAL ACT?

SOME years ago the Legislature in this country enacted a “Quackery Prevention Act” designed to protect a gullible public from sordid and unscrupulous rascals who made a pretence of curing the incurable for pecuniary gain. Penalties are provided for newspapers which publish advertisements inserted by quacks. Speaking generally New Zealand is not a particularly happy hunting ground for quacks and reputable newspapers, not unmindful, perhaps, of the provisions of the Act referred to, exercise considerable vigilance regarding the advertisements of persons who claim to be able to cure where the medical faculty fails.

THE most dangerous and unprincipled quacks are generally of American origin, and it should be hardly necessary to warn SUN readers to shun as the plague the quack who invites them to write to Chicago or New York for alleged free treatment: which the benevolent quack is anxious to bestow upon a suffering world. Free treatments do not mantain Yankee quacks in affluence or pay for full-page advertisements in the newspapers: The offer is merely a bait to catch the sufferer and get his postal address. Thereafter he is well and faithfully dealt with. All the plausibility and ingenuity of the quack is devoted to inducing him to part with some good New Zealand money in return for some utterly worthless treatment. Quacks, like criminals, fall into groups and specialise, as a rule, in clearly defined fields. Some pretend to cure cancer, some tuberculosis, and so forth. Deafness is a sphere of its own, and thousands of worthless treatments and mechanical contraptions are sold at exorbitant prices to sufferers throughout the world on the mail order system. SUPPLY OF “SUCKERS” FAILS Possible competition is becoming unduly keen in the United States or

the supply of “suckers” fails to expand quickly enough to satisfy the ever-growing army of quacks, because we notice one of the most notorious is extending his operations to Auckland.

In a full-page advertisement published in a contemporary, “Dr.” W. O. Coffee makes his appeal to the public of Auckland and invites the deaf to avail themselves of his wonderful offer of “Free Treatment.”

Dr. Arthur Cramp, Director of the Bureau of Investigation, American Medical Association, makes it his hobby and his business to pursue and expose the quack, and this is what he has to say about “Dr.” Coffee:

“From Davenport, lowa, Dr. W. O. Coffee conducts his mail order cure. Coffee used to do an extensive bunko business from Des Moines curing eyes by mail. In those days parts of his advertising paraphernalia were some lurid reproductions in colour from Haab’s ‘External Diseases of the Eye.’ One of the Haab illustrations, which in the original was labelled ‘Lime burn, caused by the explosion of a bottle,’ was reproduced by Coffee, and carried this legend: ‘This eye was afflicted with granulated lids and ulcers following inflammation. There is no known remedy that will remove these spots except Dr. Coffee’s absorption treatment, and it will do it completely/ ” Another observation from Haab’s book showed a lime burn of longer standing. This under Coffee’s interpretation became “Chronic ulcers of the eye and cataract.” Still another plate in Haab’s book showed two specimens: one, senile cataract in a woman 72 years old and the other, cataract in a 14-year-old boy. This plate was appropriated by Coffee and became “before and after exhibit.” The patient, said Coffee, made the fatal error ©f submitting to an operation with the result shown in “A,” but afterwards came to Coffee and repaired the damage as shown in “B.”

Samuel Hopkins Adams in his castigation of quacks in “Collier’s Weekly” devoted some space to Coffee and his methods. NEW FIELDS TO CONQUER

After this unfavourable publicity Coffee’s mail order eye business seemed to wane, and in 1915 the Des Moines newspapers recorded the fact that Coffee had gone into voluntary bankruptcy. His heaviest creditor was Arthur Cappar, at that time Governor of and now Senator from Kansas and a publisher of newspapers that have long been known for their easy virtue in the matter of quack advertising. His mail—order eye—cure failing, Coffee turned his talents to the itinerant field and moved from Des Moines to Davenport. . . . Gradually, from curing eyes, he switched over to the deafness cure field. Still more recently he has abandoned itinerant aural quackery and has gone back to the easier and possibly equally lucrative branch of mail order quackery, still, however, as an aurist Auckland is nearly 10,000 miles from Davenport, lowa, and if any of his local victims, are dissatisfied with the result of their dealings with Coffee, it will be hard to get redress.

Deaf persons who are determined to spend money on quacks would be better advised to pat-

ronise local talent. The result may be the same, but the money will be retained in the country.

In the meantime, we think that the Attorney-General, who is responsible

for authorising proceedings under the Quackery Prevention Act, should look into the mail order business of Dr. W. O. Coffee, of Davenport, lowa, U.S.A., and take such steps as may be necessary to protect the foolish people who might be tempted into r his net.