QUACKS AND QUACKERY.
_Specimen Advertisements--The Bait Held Out, and the Fish who are
Expected to Bite._
The vile practices, the monstrous impudence, the cruel rapacity and
enormous gains of the obscene tribe of quacks, together with the
mischief they do, and the ruin they work, would require much more space
to adequately ventilate than we can devote to it here. The healing art
is a noble one, and duly qualified men, interested in their profession,
are public benefactors; but the despicable race of charlatans not only
rob their victims, but frequently ruin their health, and drive them to
the verge of insanity. There is probably hardly a reader of this page
who has not met, within the circle of his or her acquaintance, some
unfortunate individual whose hopes in life have been wholly or partially
blighted by the adroitly-worded insinuations of those advertising
quacks. We all know that "fools are the game that knaves pursue," and no
well-informed member of the community needs to be informed that the
victims captured by quack advertisements are not among the wiser portion
of the community. Many of them, however, lie open to be allured into the
quack's net, not by mere congenital and absolute folly, but because of
the inexperience of youth or lack of knowledge of the world, or perhaps
in some cases from a natural deficiency in the faculty of deciphering
characteristic expression. There are some who fail to recognize a quack
advertisement when it meets their eye, from a defect in perception
similar to that which incapacitates certain persons from distinguishing
a pocket-book dropper, or a bunco steerer, or a billiard sharp, or a
sporting "gent."
Of course, there are degrees and varieties of quacks, as well as in the
character of their announcements. The street-vender of a "magic
pain-reliever," who, by dint of talk and manipulation, convinces some
credulous sufferer that his rheumatism is banished, is a quack. So are
those who advertise such preparations as sarsaparilla, blood-mixtures,
and a variety of pills, potions and lozenges too numerous to mention. So
also are those marvelous discoverers of "hair restorers," "removers of
freckles," and so on. Most of these do little harm beyond lightening the
purses of the purchasers, and in some cases the administration of an
inert substance, by exciting the victim's imagination, produces a cure.
But the great injury, so far as these innoxious preparations are
concerned, lies in the fact that they prevent the sufferer from seeking
proper professional treatment. Still this class of quacks is rather to
be reckoned among swindlers who obtain money under false pretences, than
among the _bona fide_ medical quacks that we have in view. The great aim
of this pernicious class is to get people in fair, ordinary health to
consult them by means of newspaper advertisements, almanacs, pamphlets
and circulars filled with details of the character and symptoms of
various diseases, scattered broadcast through the land. We will not
contaminate our pages in giving samples _in extenso_ of this prurient
and abominable literature, but a few of the typical advertisements to be
met in even respectable newspapers, can hardly be omitted if the
exposure is to be thorough:
*MEN ONLY*. A quick, Permanent Cure for Lost Manhood, Disability,
Nervousness and Weakness. No Quackery.
*TO WEAK MEN,*
Suffering from nervous debility, weakness of body and mind, loss of
memory, mental and physical exhaustion. On receipt of stamp we will send
you a valuable treatise upon the above diseases, also directions for
home-cure. Address
* * * * * *
*ANY PART OF THE BODY*
when deprived of growth, weak and undeveloped, lacking in proper size,
form and vigor, may be enlarged, developed and strengthened by simple
scientific self-treatment. We will prove this free to any honest person.
Write for sealed circulars, description, references.
NERVOUS DEBILITATED MEN.
You are allowed a free trial of thirty days of the use of -------'s
Celebrated Voltaic Belt with Electric Suspensory Appliances, for the
speedy relief and permanent cure of nervous debility, loss of vitality
and manhood, and all kindred troubles. Also for many other diseases.
Complete restoration to health, vigor and manhood guaranteed. No risk is
incurred. Illustrated pamphlet in sealed envelope mailed free by
addressing Voltaic Belt Co.
NERVOUS DEBILITY, weakness of body and mind, loss of memory, nervous and
physical exhaustion permanently and quickly cured. I will send you a
valuable treatise upon the above diseases, also directions for
home-cure, free of charge.
Address * * * * * *
*WEAK MEN*
Can be promptly and lastingly cured, secretly and without nauseous
drugging, by the
FRENCH HOSPITAL TREATMENT.
Board of six regular physicians. Consultation free. Full restoration to
vigor and strength, however lost.
The list of lewd and brazen manifestoes might be indefinitely extended,
but as they all bear the same disgusting ear-marks, the foregoing must
suffice. As for the pamphlets sent through the mails in "sealed
envelopes" by these harpies, the following titles will sufficiently
indicate their character: "The Friend in Need;" "A Medical Work on
Marriage;" "The Tonic Elixir;" "The Silent Friend;" "Manhood;" "A Cure
for All;" "The Self Cure of Nervous Debility;" "The Self-adjusting
Curative;" "New Medical Guide;" "Debility, its Cause and Cure;" "A
Warning Voice;" "Second Life," and scores of others of a similar stamp.
This disgusting literature corrupts and pollutes the mind and morals of
a large class of people who have not the courage to disbelieve its
monstrous exaggerations, or the good sense to despise its revolting
indecencies. Nor is this strange, when we reflect that the reading of
even a standard medical work has a tendency to excite belief in the
reader that he is afflicted with the malady whose grim description he is
perusing. His apprehension being alarmed and his imagination excited, he
has no difficulty in detecting all or a great many of the symptoms in
himself, although at the same time none of them may exist. The quack, in
his advertisements and publications, frequently warns the reader against
quacks and quackery, as, for instance, take the following cheeky
extract:
"The object in writing these pages is to teach the public at large to
discriminate between the legitimate, duly-qualified practitioner and the
legion of charlatans who infest every important city and town of the
United States, and particularly New York. That this is a subject of the
gravest importance cannot for a moment be doubted when it is considered
that, dating from our entrance into the world, 'from the cradle to the
grave,' we too often require the valuable services of the accoucheur,
doctor, surgeon, or physician, in consequence of departing from Nature's
laws, increased state of civilization, and overtaxed condition of the
mental and bodily systems, necessitating from time to time the knowledge
and attendance of the medical man. Under these circumstances it behooves
each individual to be placed on his guard, so as to be made cognizant of
the means to detect the nefarious, unqualified, and dishonest
charlatans, in order to save the one in search of health from falling in
their meshes, and thus jeopardize the welfare of his nearest and dearest
objects. The laws of the country, public opinion, and private
information, have and are doing much to save the reputations of those
who have made choice of the medical profession, thereby exposing
themselves to be placed on a level with some with whose names we will
not soil our pages, _nor indirectly offer the advantages of publicity_,
for it has well been remarked that to be mentioned with disparagement is
to these preferable to not being mentioned at all, and thus it very
often happens that the veil to hide a motive is so flimsy that even the
uninitiated are unable to catch a glimpse at the mystery within."
Here are the strains of another disinterested Mentor in the same field,
who once had an office on West Twenty-second street in New York City:
"Country patients are informed that they can have the necessary remedies
sent to any address, or directed to be left at an Express Office _till
called for_, in a portable compass. The medicines are carefully packed,
_and free from observation_; and may be taken without confinement or any
restraint. Patients should be as _minute_ as possible in the details of
their symptoms, age, general habits of living and occupation in life.
_The Communication must be accompanied by the usual_ CONSULTATION
FEE OF FIVE DOLLARS, which may be sent in bank note, or by
Post-office order, without which no notice can be taken of the application.
In all cases _secrecy is to be considered as inviolable_, all
letters being, if requested, either returned to the writers, or destroyed.
"Dr.---- begs to impress upon patients the importance of ONE personal
interview, even when resident at a distance. The advantages are
manifold, when compared with mere correspondence. A single visit will,
in most cases, enable Dr.---- to form an instantaneous and accurate
judgment, _and thus expedite the patient's recovery_. In the first
place, many important questions affecting the patient are likely to be
suggested by a personal interview, which might be lost sight of in
correspondence. Secondly, more correct diagnosis of the disorder and a
better appreciation of the patient's constitution can be arrived at,
_whilst a microscopic examination of the urine, where necessary, will
render any mistake impossible_, especially in cases of Spermatorrhoea.
And thirdly, where the patient is laboring under urethral discharges,
which may or may not be produced by impure connection, one personal
visit with a view to a urinary examination is eminently advantageous. In
a word, the correspondent will be more than repaid for the trouble and
expense of his journey by the increased rapidity of the cure.
* * * * * * * *
"Such patients, although they may be reaping the rewards of their own
folly, are, nevertheless, the very ones who have special need of correct
counsel, and are, for the most part, in just the frame of mind to
appreciate advice fitly rendered by a judicious medical man. In my
experience, it has always appeared strange to me why the treatment of
this affection should remain abandoned by respectable members of the
profession to the benefit of quacks and those vile harpies who play on
this class of victims.
"Medical men are too apt treat the complaints of such patients lightly,
making no effort to allay their anxiety--a course which often leads them
to apply for aid in illegitimate quarters, and to become the victims of
unprincipled men."
In some instances it is a clergyman who is the reputed advertiser, who,
as in the following unabridged "Ad," widely circulated in the country
papers, wishes to communicate to suffering humanity "the recipe that
will cure you free of charge":
*A Card.*
To all who an suffering from the errors and indiscretions of youth,
nervous weakness, early decay, loss of manhood, etc., I will lend a
recipe that will cure you, FREE OF CHARGE. This great remedy was
discovered by a missionary in South America. Send a self-addressed
envelope to the Rev. * * * * Station D, New York City.
Then there are the "Retired Philanthropic Physicians," and the "Patients
Who have been Cured," _et hoc genus omne_, who, with such rare
disinterestedness, incur large weekly expenses in advertising their
willingness to forward to sufferers the means of self-cure "on receipt
of two postage stamps." In a word, one and all of these pirates have
only one common aim and aspiration--to fleece the fools who are
credulous enough to seek their aid.
The main point to attain in this business is to decoy the victim to the
advertiser's den or office. Once there, he is impressed with the
multifarious engagements of the human decoy-spider who is probably
appraising his prey through a peep-hole. By and by, the patient's
anxiety is dissipated by the appearance of the pretended Medicus, and he
proceeds to give all the painful details of his case, while the
listener, by looks and words, does everything to increase his alarm. The
history finished, questions will be asked him as to his avocations,
position and income, all apparently with the view of elucidating the
points of his case, but in fact for the purpose of estimating the "size
of his pile," with the object of ascertaining to what extent he can be
"bled." This essential information obtained, the quack at once sets his
moral rack to work. Everything will be said not only to confirm the
patient's fears, but to increase them. A pretended examination of urine
will be made, and he will be gravely told that the quack's worst fears
are confirmed, ocular demonstration being offered the dupe. The effect
of this ordeal may be imagined. The unfortunate victim believes that he
has received "confirmation, strong as proof of holy writ," of his
dangerous condition. Glibly the quack discourses on the consequences of
neglecting the terrible symptoms, and the great difficulty of combating
them. He is told that he will be liable to spinal disease, softening of
the brain, or insanity. Sometimes a collection of plates, containing
hideous representations of dreadful eruption, and sores covering all
parts of the body, are submitted to the patient's horrified inspection.
Frightened by the hideous pictures before him, and at the same time
soothed and charmed by the high-flown encomiums which the quack
pronounces on his particular "non-mercurial mode of treatment," the
patient becomes anxious to submit himself to the process. The quack is
equally ready to take the case in hand, and the only stumbling-block
likely to be in the way, may be the patients' inability to pay the large
fee demanded. When the victim, however, is manifestly pecunious, the
remedy employed in the treatment is correspondingly expensive. In some
cases "a preparation of gold" has been used, and the patient has been
instructed that it would be absolutely necessary for him to remain in
bed for the six weeks during which he would have to take the remedies,
and that he must have a nurse to sit up with him at night, in order to
wake him and give him the medicines regularly!
We presume no intelligent person need be told that the pretensions as to
the "golden" and other "secret and valuable medicines" which these
quacks boast themselves to possess, are absolutely without foundation.
They no more possess such remedies than they possess any legitimate
right to the names and medical titles which they too frequently assume.
In cases of indiscretion, the quack treatment is always with
mercury--notwithstanding denials. Sometimes serious mercurial poisoning
results, and not unfrequently, through the charlatan's ignorance of
proper treatment in complicated diseases, irreparable injury ensues.
The quack advertisements and pamphlets are the source of incalculable
evils to youths between the ages of seventeen and thirty. They are
impelled by fear to visit the quack's den, where they are "played" as
long as practicable. Sometimes exciting drugs, like cantharides, are
given in the medicine, and thus intensify the evil. The quack, of
course, ascribes the result to the patient's alarming condition, who is
growing worse, in spite of his medicines, and who can only be cured by
more powerful and costly drugs. Sometimes a seemingly candid but equally
misleading offer of "no cure no pay" is offered. In this case the
patient is usually required to sign a statement of his condition, in
which his symptoms and his previous bad habits are fully set forth. It
is stipulated that the "doctor" is to be paid a certain round sum when a
cure is effected, and while the case is under treatment the patient pays
for the medicines. If no pay is asked for the "stuff," the quack is
seldom or ever a loser. Such a document few persons, with characters to
lose, would care to run the risk of publishing, and hence they generally
acknowledge themselves cured, or pay the doctor handsomely to redeem the
document.
While wading through this dark morass of deception and fraud, the
"anatomical museums" must not be overlooked. These Priapean
establishments, in which is an exhibition of wax models of different
organs and parts of the human body, are too vile for description.
"Lectures" are delivered with the design of furnishing patients to the
quack practitioners in whose interest the place is run. Thousands--we
might have said millions--of copies of disgusting little books on
"Marriage," or the "Philosophy of Marriage," or some cognate obscenity
are distributed gratis, and it is no unusual sight to see a score of
nervous, hollow-eyed patients waiting for treatment.
We have endeavored to speak plainly and to the point in dealing with
quacks and quackery, because it is a topic of sovereign importance and
urgency. Hundreds upon hundreds of our population are plundered and
poisoned by these medical pests of society, and if we have not made it
plain that it is dangerous to have anything to do with the advertising
doctors of New York or any other place, we have failed in our purpose.
Their advertisements, their pamphlets, and their rascally little books,
penetrate the remotest corners of the land. Curiosity leads the farmer's
son or the apprentice to send for some advertised book to satisfy a
craving for information, or to pander to an already diseased
imagination, and the bad seed is sown. He is surprised, startled, and
finally alarmed; and he writes. He is told in the reply that "I seek my
remedies in far-off climes; some in the distant prairie, some in the
ever-blooming balsam; in the southern climes, where eternal summer
reigns, and on the top of the snow-clad Himalayas." Accompanying the
reply is a recipe calling for articles having no existence, or for
decoctions from plants unknown to botanists. But in whatever form the
response comes, the result is uniform. Plunder, always plunder, in the
first place; sometimes this is supplemented by murder; whole families
are destroyed, insanity is engendered, and the victims of these vile
knaves are driven headlong to destruction and an early grave.
It has always been the dearest wish of a quack doctor to possess a
diploma of some sort, no matter where or how dishonestly procured.
Sometimes it was forged; sometimes second-hand; but however or wherever
procured it was framed and conspicuously displayed in the "consulting"
room. By the recent and entirely wholesome amendment of the law,
however, those beguiling documents are no longer available. It is now
imperative that the certificate of every physician must be filed with
the County Clerk. Until this provision is observed, no doctor--no matter
how eminent or well-qualified--can practice in New York. Many a quack,
flourishing like a green bay-tree, was summarily brought to the "end of
his tether," by this most wise legislative enactment.
We would be derelict to the duty we owe to the public did we not here,
and in this connection, state our emphatic opinion that the editors and
proprietors of newspapers, as a rule, have hitherto looked too leniently
on this subject of quackery and its baleful announcements. Happily some
of our journals will not publish such advertisements, and no editor can
excuse himself by saying that he is ignorant of the character of such
announcements. It must be known to every man of experience that such
advertisements are unfit for the perusal of young men or women, and it
is surprising that the heads of families should permit newspapers
containing those advertisements to enter their houses. As a well-known
English author some-time since wrote:
"It is pregnant with matter for grave reflection, and this not only in
reference to patients themselves, but also in regard to the
reprehensible conduct of parents who so recklessly admit into their
family circle newspapers which insert the obscene advertisements of the
quacks. As I have said before, these advertisements are traps for their
sons and an offense to the modesty of their daughters. Well assured am I
that many cases of unaccountable suicide in youths and young men, which
cause so much surprise and misery in families, are due to these
unfortunates having become the dupes of quacks."
This is a very terrible picture of the evil wrought through the abuse of
the advertising columns of the press, but experience has shown us that
it is not by any means overdrawn. The responsibility of the health and
comfort--even of the lives--of many of the rising generation thus rests
with the newspapers. How careful, then, ought publishers to be that the
columns of their journals should in nowise assist in disseminating that
which pollutes the minds of the young, renders them unfit to fulfill the
duties of society, or to enjoy its pleasures, and, in short, makes their
whole life a burden and a misery.