QUACKERY AND ITS RESULTS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 2 September 1907, Page 4

QUACKERY AND ITS RESULTS.

Dr. Mason, Cbief Health Officer, deivered a lecture the other evening in )une<lin on •'The Gullibility of the Uiit■L Public." We take the following porions I'rom the tar's report:— GI'LLIXU THE PUBLIC. I'ublicatioua of all descriptions, particuirly the Home magazines, were tilled

ith advertisements containing offers to ' tie public on the something-for-nothing 1 rinciple. He had recently noticed that ' London man, who lor a great m;riy ' ears advertised hunter watches in llm alonial papers for a fabulously small rice, liad been arrested by the London oiiee, and was now s-rving a term of mprisonraent. Trusting persons in the olonies sent money to him, and heard lothing more of it. When the police earched his effects, they found thouaudo of letters from colonial people sking for an acknowledgment of hey had sent him: A man, well known n Europe and America, advertised a |uite reliable method of becoming till; udicious inquiry revealed the fact that lis method lay in the cut of the clothes, ■"urther inquiry showed that he was the irigimtor of a number of other "inelhds" and "systems," and that he was the lead of a ju-jitsu school in Now York, lis address was accompanied by a picure of his magnificent offices; an in|uiry agent found that the address was hat of an insignificant working jeweller, fho took charge of the advertiser's correspondence. There was a man in Sydley who undertook to give a certificate ,o anyone qualifying as a hypnotist after it least two years' study. The speaker, ifter beating Hie "professor" down to 10s fid, had purchased one of these documents, seal and all, without any preiminary study. The thing was a fraud. Many advertisements might be seen in the papers lauding the efficacy of antifat preparations. These were absolutely iangerous. He was acquainted with a case in which a young girl made use of jne of these concoctions, and nearly lost her life through heart failure. Compounds were advertisenis a means of removing superfluous hair; nine-tenths of many of these were composed of lime, and were similar to the mixture used for scouring wooloff pelts. A mixture la»gely advertised was nine-tenths vitriol, while a certain preparation much used by ladies was nearly all wood-alcohol and gum. Another swindle was that adopted by those who advertised things as "free." The advertisement was answered, and in reply a prescription was sent which no ordinary chemist could understand. On complaint being made, the inquirer was referred to a certain firm who could provide the mixture—on payment. Cures for drunkenness were largely advertised; none were genuine. It was absnrcT to expect to reclaim a drunkard by surreptitiously dosing him with powders dropped into his coffee. By careful reference to the addresses shown In the advertisements, it would often 1* found that one man is responsible for several patent cures and systems. One person, for instance, appeared

[rom the advertisements to run no

less than eight. There was one aspect of fraudulent advertisements so vile that it was worth special consideration. Unscrupulous persons announce themselves as specialists in certain complaints, "and invite corre-

spondence, stating that such will be strictly confidential A boy will write for advice and enter into a contract with them. They will take every penny fro-u him, and then, if he endeavours to break off the correspondence, will write saying that they feel it their duty to advise the lad's father of the position. Naturally the boy will not stop at stealing in order to gain the wherewithal to pay, that his secret-may be kept. This was an extensive system—few people had any conception of its extent. Almost every doctor had in his possession some of these letters written Jf>y these scoundrels to

unfortunates whom they had drawn into

their net. The letters written in answer to such advertisements were kept and classified, and if the writer were worth anything he would be communicated with by all manner of so-called specialists, into whose hands the letters had come. In America a regular trade was done in such letters —one thousand nervous debility letters might lie hired for a month by any one of these impostors seeking clients.