He Wiles of The Quack

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 53, 25 May 1927, Page 11

He Wiles of The Quack

PUBLICS SHORT MEMORY GET-RICH-QUICK rogues (Written for THE BUN.) ptiHE exposure by THE SUN o£ the A no torious American quack, “Dr.” , o Coffee, who, notwithstanding hat hia Charlatanism had been dealt «ith by the reputable Press of America had the audacity to buy space in , \ew Zealand newspaper, should earn the appreciation of the public. We have quacks enough in our midst without sending money abroad for fake cures. There are always people ready to trade on the credulity of the sick and suffering for their own enrichment, regardless of the harm they may do. Very often these harpies of the underworld of quackery are entirely ignorant of physiology or of the very rudiments of medicine, their sole asset being a supreme cunning in imposing on the credulity of the afflicted. These neople are a menace to public health, not 90 iauch for the direct harm they may do, but because they very often delay a sufferer from obtaining efficient treatment until it is too late for cure. AMAZING CREDULITY The credulity of the public is amazing, especially in the case of the sick, who. clutching at any hope of a cure, as the drowning man clutches at a straw, will absorb the pretentious bluff of the quack with the same avidity as they will swallow his nauseous draughts, or affix to their suffering bodies his mechanical "regenerators.” The more fantastic the cure, the more popular it Is, and the higher the reward of the enterprising inventor. It is very fortunate that the majority of the patrons of these men suffer from nothing more serious than hypochondria, or “imaginitis.” It is from these that the quack reaps his richest harvest. Then it is merely Isgal robbery; in the case of the really sick it often amounts to manslaughter. The quack easily dupes the imaginative. A man organically sound is told by one of these miraculous "healers” that he has consumption, cancer, or some other deadly disease—diagnosed by a humbugging and showy method, well-embellished with “mysterious” portents. He “gets the wind up" and takes the quack's word for it that there is only one cure—the “panacea.” When he has had a certain number of “treatments” (the length of the “course” depending on the length of his purse), he feels better, and finally accepts the suggestion that he is cured. He goes away rejoicing—and possibly leaves a testimonial regarding his “marvellous recovery” (from nothing). But there are no testimonials from those victims who, really ill, go from bad to worse under a charlatan's treatment, until they are .beyond the power of skilled aid, and lie at last in the cemetery. SHORT MEMORY The public has an unfortunately short memory. It reads of evils resultant on quackery (Auckland has had its share), but soon forgets and turns with the same unreasoning faith to the next sensational promise of the. impossible in the way of a “regenerator” or cure-all. There was a man in Australia a few years ago who was making £IO,OOO a year out of “electric belts.” He obtained and published hundreds of testimonials from people whom he had induced to believe had been cured of the most desperate dis eases. Experts investigated the belts and proved them to be without a trace of electricity. Then the police took action and “electric belts” went out of fashion. Despite all advice to the contrary, there will always be people who are prey for the quacks. Some believe no cure possible without mysticism—skulls, incantations and crystal-gaz-ing. There are others who will not be persuaded by expert opinion that there is nothing radically wrong with them, and who rush in their disappointment to quacks who will give them any disease they fancy—and charge them handsomely for it. It is not upon these that we need waste sympathy; but we should by every means possible endeavour to drive the quack out of business because of the damage and death he deals out to those who are-seriously afflicted. F.X.T.