The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1906. THE ANTI-QUACKERY BILL

New Zealand Tablet, 13 September 1906, Page 21

The New Zealand Tablet THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1906. THE ANTI-QUACKERY BILL

iraJpSJ^-'-P^ many years we have been out upon the^ vJk \Mj* V^. trail after the quack. As a missionaryy)J F^gta <" priest, we have had all too, abundant' op.^%£f/' portunities of studying *the brazen fraud, fjjlKy^ " utter callousness, the inhumanity, and the , devouring greed of that , noxious ' creature, ■; -that our legislatures have so long allowed^ with little or no restriction, to prey upon -society. The poor are nowadays the chief "sufferers from the wiles and ways of the quack. Most of_ the fraternity ' would be in appropriate surroundings if, placed under lock and key in gaol for obtaining money under false pretences 'by conveying drugs' of-. . which they know-nothing (as Voltaire pHrased-"* it) into 'bodies of- which they knew less. Others amonc" the pesttilent tribe would-be^ fair subjects -for. the flagellator's ' cat ' or' the hangman's moose. Among - these last we number the purveyors of certain ' elec- . trie ' remedy ' literature,' and the horde of :manufac- • turers, dealers, so-called .' specialists,-'! and others who 7 Pjgur into innocent ■ and unsuspecting victims those. • deadly "pain-killers,.' ,' headache" powders,' 'bitters,' ' bracers,'' ' sarsaparillas,' • tonics,"* and 'icures ' for . ; consumption, cancer, epilepsy,, and paralysis, that are heavily laden . with alcohol, or with' such dawgerous drugs

as cocaine, codeine, and morphine. Such ~* nostrums and drugs infernal ' have created untold evils in families by introducing the drink . and drug habits under an -unsuspected shape, and brought physical and moral ruin to women and even ohildren in many a helpless and too trusting family.

Eight years ago we pressed upon the notice of our legislators-^with specific warning instances'— the need of legislation to protect a too confiding public from those harpies, and to prevent the press of - the. Colony from being made (as it is to so large an extent) the sounding-board of . a peculiarly odious and heartless ~ form of fraud. Legislative action has at -last been taken. Mr. Hornsby's" Quackery and "Other Frauds Prevention Bill is now before the House. Its main provisions are suoh as make it worth' while waiting f0r... -Its defects (and it has its defects) will, we. trust, get rubbed off in its passage through Parliament. It the support of the Ministry, and altogether it seems as if New Zealand will soon cease to 'be a happy hunting-ground for the ignorant cure^ alls and of the blatant, charlatans, whose claim of occult power is put forward with .as calm assurance ' in the advertising columns of the secular press as it was from the stage in Elizabeth's days by vo»luble adven- • turers of the type of * Doctor ' Dee. Here is a summary of Mr. Hornsby's drastic measure as given by our local evening contemporary :—: — ' The Bill makes it unlawful for any person to sell any medicament (other than those prescribed and supplied b,y a duly qualified registered medioal practitioner or by a registered chemist) without first- obtaining the consent and _the certificate of the Chief Health Officer ; and any- bottle or package containing"""* such medicament must- bear the- certificate of the Chief Health Officer on it when sold. Provision is made for chemists who desire to apply for authorisation to sell any medicament, and it is further provided that ' any unregistered practitioner within the Colony may make application to the Health Officer for' the righit to advertise any medicament or treatment for any disease or complaint ; and the Chief Health.,- Officer may, if reasonably satisfied as to -the efficacy of such treatment ' or medicament and the bona fides of- suoh unregistered practitioner, issue . his certificate for any such treatment or use of medicaments. In cases - where authorisation is refused applicants are entitled to be heard in the ' Supreme Court. The provisions* of the Bill relating to the publication of advertisements concerning, quack nostrums are particularly drastic Clause 7 sets, out that '_« any person who publishes any advertisement or other notification relating to any qiuack nostrum, and any unregistered practitioner who publishes any advertisement or notification offering; advice to sufferers or patients, -or to cure diseases or complaints either with or without fee, and the publishers and proprietors of any publication in which • such advertisement or notification appears " shall be guilty of an offence under the Act. Similarly proprietors or publishers of newspapers, -books, magazines etc., whether within or without the Colony, are prohibited from publishing advertisements, relating to alleged free packets or-, jewellery or" other like '•' gifts " m return for the sale of " scented^ packets, medical remedies, or unauthorised medicaments."- For a' first breach of these provisions a -fine not exceeding £6 is stipulated ; for a second, one month's imprisonment may be inflicted ; and for any subsequent offence "not less than six nor more than twelve months' imnrisonment. ■

By the time the Bill has- passed through Committee it will,, we opine, be amended so as to take the" grave responsibility _of examination and decision re^ garding medicaments from the Chief Health Officer to a B^ard, under the Health Department, consisting of, skilled analysts and medical men.

The schoolmaster is very much abroad, in our day and country. Nevertheless, a sufficient portion of our adult population are still, in regard to the claims of " the quack, in a state of baptismal innocence and in- ° f.antile credulity that demand the^ protection of Jfoe law. Despite the known impossibility of ' guaranteed cures ' in . large numbers,, of oases, brazen impostors

who trade upon these fradulent premises - are always .sure of a plentiful clientele. 'Twas ever thus. Bartholin professed to cure all 'manner of * disorders, "and especially epilepsy, by repeating rhymes— and very poor rhymes - they were, too. Paracelsus— or; to give him his full jprocession of names: Aurelius Philippus;Paracelsus : Theophrastus Bombastus. de Hohentoeim— set people crazy , through the: power he . claimed of making them immortal by dosing, them with- liquid gold. Hebelied Ms cure by dying iat forty-seven. And did not - Kenelm Digby set all England by the ears with his - new system ot curing all -human disorders with -a shake of his. * sympathetic powder ' % We have our Bartholins and our Paracelsuses, and; our Kenelm Digbys in our own day -and at our -own door! There is merely'' a difference of names and methods and extent of ■ imposition. Ages of diminished religious faith have ever been (as Lecky, himself a . rationalist, pointed, out) ages -of greatest superstition and credulity.-:' Our materialising time is the golden age' of" qiuackery. The legislator can do much to" protect the victim from the impostor—the lark from,- the"" "Tiawk. But th-e preacher's voice is, ultimately, ■ the mightiest power for the suppression of this odious , form of, parasitism that has grown to such dimensions upon our social life. -