QUACKERY.
The reader is now prepared, by the facts and considerations presented
in the previous chapters, to see in what way quackery, in its various
forms, has obtained such a hold upon the community. If results in
medical treatment could always be traced to their real cause, there
would be no room for the arts of the empiric. But the reader has
seen that, in the progress of every case of disease, there are many
causes acting together in the development of results, and that many
of these act secretly; and that there is, therefore, special need of
caution in our conclusions, in regard to the operation of remedies.
And yet, notwithstanding the manifest necessity for caution, there is
no subject to which the ‘_post hoc propter hoc_’ mode of reasoning
is so frequently, and so incautiously applied. It is the erroneous
reference of effects to causes, consequent upon this mode of
reasoning, which is the great source of quackery.[7]
Let us see how this result is produced.
Take any remedy, no matter what it is, whether it be positive in
its character, or entirely inert, and it can be made to acquire
an extensive reputation for curing disease. Suppose that it is of
a positive character. Let quite a large number of persons in a
community be persuaded to take it. It would be appropriate to a
few out of the whole number of cases, just as a man firing into a
crowd of men at random would be apt to hit some of them. Then there
are some, who, through the recovering power of nature, get well
while using the medicine, perhaps even in spite of it, and falsely
attribute the cure to it. The _many_ that are not benefitted soon,
give up the use of the remedy, and the fact that they have taken it
is known to but few, and is soon forgotten even by them. But the
few that _chance_ to derive benefit from it, or that are cured by
nature while taking it, proclaim everywhere the virtues of the remedy
with the ardent gratitude of restored health, and willingly give
certificates of their cure for the benefit of suffering humanity.
All this helps to get the new remedy in vogue in other places; and
wherever it is introduced, the same result, for the most part, is
realized. The consequence is, that the remedy comes into extensive
use, and continues in the popular favor, till some other remedy, by
the same process, supplants it.
Even if the remedy be not of a positive character, but wholly inert,
enough of the whole number that take it will get better, from the
curative power of nature, and from mental influence, to give it,
for a time, the reputation of curing disease. Many examples might
be given. An amusing instance of the celebrity sometimes gained by
inert remedies, occurred in Paris. A man who had sold to great profit
an eye-water, at length died without communicating to any one the
composition of it. His widow regretted the loss of the profits which
came from the sale of the eye-water. Without telling her trouble to
any one, she filled up the phials from the River Seine, and went
on to sell the eye-water as usual. Cures occurred as before, and
everybody believed that her husband had bequeathed the recipe to her.
On her death-bed her conscience was much disturbed on account of the
deception which she had thus practised upon the community, and she
made confession to the physician who attended upon her. He, however,
quieted her mind by telling her, that he was sure she need give
herself no uneasiness, for her medicine had at least done no harm—a
consolation which most venders of secret medicines could not have.
The variety of both active and inert remedies, which have enjoyed,
in the way that I have indicated, a temporary popularity, is very
great. Even calomel, which now seems to be especially despised by all
empirics and their followers, has had its hey-day of popular favor.
It was one of the chief remedies of Paracelsus, who has been styled
the prince of quacks. And some years ago an empiric, in the staid
city of Boston, acquired a great reputation for wonderful cures, by
giving calomel in very large doses, even by the teaspoonful. His
reputation was, of course, short-lived; for, though he seemed to
make some capital hits, so glaring an abuse of a good remedy could
not but be attended with bad results, occasionally of so palpable a
character, as to undeceive even the credulous public.
The most prominent quack medicines are principally of _three_ kinds.
1. Evacuants. To this class belong the almost numberless varieties of
pills advertised in the newspapers. There is a great similarity in
the composition of these pills, although each kind is ushered into
notice with all the pretensions of an entirely new discovery. Aloes,
gamboge, &c., medicines in common use, form the basis of nearly
all of them. They are simply good cathartic preparations, and have
none of the extraordinary virtues attributed to them. And, as those
who are ailing are commonly benefitted by producing some amount of
cathartic effect, these different pills actually do some good to
quite a large proportion of the cases to which they are applied.
The difficulty with them is, that used indiscriminately, as they so
generally are, they in many cases do injury, and in some to a fatal
extent.
2. The second class of quack medicines are those which are supposed
to act upon the system slowly, producing a change in its general
condition. The general term _alterative_ may be properly applied to
them.
The various preparations of sarsaparilla belong to this class. The
same remark can be made in regard to these that was made in relation
to the great variety of popular pills. They are all very much alike,
although the proprietor of each claims for his preparation that it
is entirely new in its combination, and that it is pre-eminently
successful. A single fact, which came to the knowledge of the author,
will show what kind of imposition some of these discoverers of
_new_ preparations of sarsaparilla practice upon the community.
Twenty years ago, Carpenter’s Fluid Extract of Sarsaparilla had a
high reputation, both with the profession and with the public. No
secret was made of its composition. A student of medicine copied
the formula. A few years ago he furnished an apothecary with this
formula, who forthwith came out before the public with what purported
to be a _new_ preparation of sarsaparilla, which, by the usual
machinery of quackery, obtained extensive popular favor, and made
a fortune for the apothecary. His preparation was not a new one,
but was made according to Carpenter’s formula, with some slight
additions to alter the taste and the appearance of the medicine.
The sale of this once famous preparation of sarsaparilla has, with
that of its rivals, almost, if not wholly gone by; and others are
now the candidates for fame and _money_ with their entirely _new_
preparations.
3. As consumption is the most common of all chronic diseases,
there is a very large class of remedies which are supposed to act
especially upon the lungs. Each one of these is claimed by its
proprietor to be a _certain cure_ for this formidable disease. They
are generally combinations of articles which are in common use among
physicians in affections of the lungs. In the indiscriminate use to
which they are put by the empiric, while they benefit some cases
to which they _happen_ to be appropriate, in the great majority of
instances they undoubtedly do harm; and in the forming stage of
many cases, they fasten the disease irrecoverably, when a judicious
and discriminating treatment might have saved the patient. These
nostrums, therefore, add much to the mortality of consumption in the
community.
It is well understood by any one who proclaims the discovery of
a new medicine for any disease, that his day of prosperity must
necessarily be short. He knows that his medicine, whatever amount of
popular favor it may acquire, will soon be supplanted by some other
_newly_-discovered preparation. He must, therefore, make the most of
his time. Accordingly, as soon as he succeeds in getting his name up
by certificates, advertisements, &c., he throws as large quantities
as possible of his medicine into market, and has but little care for
the quality of the materials of which it is made. Great quantities
of sarsaparilla and other articles which have been damaged, or have
become inert by age, are constantly used up in this way, furnishing
a profitable outlet for the refuse, which accumulates annually in
the shops of the dealers in such articles. Large amounts, too, of
adulterated articles are used in the manufacture of quack remedies.
Another imposition of a kindred character deserves a passing notice.
When any particular article is high in favor with the public, every
empiric incorporates it into the _name_ which he gives to his
medicine, in order to ensure its popularity, though there may be
little, perhaps none, of the article used in its composition. If
the article command a high price, or if there be any difficulty in
obtaining it in sufficient quantity, other substances can supply its
place—the _name_ is all that is essential to secure a profitable
sale of the medicine. Much of the sarsaparilla which is sold, has
little or none of the real Spanish sarsaparilla in it; and as the
Canchalagua of California is now rising into notice, there will,
undoubtedly, be much sold as the genuine article, which will be
composed of substances that Californians never saw.
The fact that the quack’s advertisement is not only ridiculously
pompous and grandiloquent, but palpably false, does not seem to
injure the sale of his medicine, even with quite sensible people. A
medical student in Boston amused himself with writing a burlesque
quack advertisement. An apothecary, to whom he read it, proposed to
buy it of him, and said that he would prepare a medicine, which,
he had no doubt, could be sold in large quantities by the aid of
that advertisement. The young man was astonished that his friend
should suppose that any such use could be made of what he intended
should be so exceedingly ridiculous. But the bargain was struck,
the advertisement was put forth, and the medicine was, for a time,
among the prominent quack remedies. Ridiculous as was this burlesque
advertisement, it has since been surpassed by many of those which
occupy so large a space in the newspapers.
The certificates of cures, which are so important in giving currency
to quack medicines, may be divided into _four_ classes.
1. Some of these certificates are forgeries.
2. Many of them are essentially, sometimes wholly, untrue. Some of
this class are written by the local agents of the proprietor; and
the individuals are persuaded to sign them, because the medicine
had been gratuitously furnished, or for some other reason. I know
many facts which I could adduce in proof of this statement. I will
mention, however, but one case. One who had been an apothecary, and
had sold large amounts of quack medicines, stated, that in one year
he sold three thousand dollars’ worth of one medicine—that he had no
satisfactory proof of its having cured a single case of disease—that
he had obtained, however, many certificates of cure, but not one from
any person who had paid for the medicine.
3. Another class of certificates are obtained in this way. Invalids
are very apt, on taking a new medicine, to imagine themselves for
a little time to be benefitted; but after a while they find that
it is mere imagination. Many certificates are obtained of such
persons at the time when they feel encouraged in regard to their
prospect of recovery. The empiric understands that this is the golden
opportunity for him, and he will have no delay if it can be avoided.
It is astonishing what sensible people are sometimes caught in
this way. A deaf gentleman once asked me my opinion of an empiric,
who pretended to have uncommon skill in the cure of deafness. He
found, among the published certificates, a letter from a gentleman
of his acquaintance, of the highest standing both in character and
intellect, expressing great gratitude for the relief which he had
experienced from the practice of this ear doctor. He wrote to his
friend a letter of inquiry. His friend replied, that when he returned
from his visit to this quack, he thought himself to be somewhat
better, and was so much delighted that he magnified the improvement
in his imagination, and in this condition wrote that certificate;
and that he was now satisfied that he unwittingly made in that
certificate a really false representation of his case.
4. Another class of certificates come from those who are really
relieved while using the medicines, in regard to which they certify.
The inference, according to the ‘_post hoc propter hoc_’ mode of
reasoning is, that the medicines, of course, cured them. I need not
stop to show that this inference can by no means always be a correct
one. I trust that the facts presented in the previous chapters are
sufficient to satisfy the reader on this point.
No class of men have done more harm by giving certificates of
cures by quack medicines, than clergymen. They are so situated in
the discharge of their parochial duties, that they are apt to be
drawn into the signing of such certificates. They hear the glowing
statements recited by patients and their friends. They, of course,
sympathize with the relieved sufferers. They do not sift and examine
the statements, for it seems almost unfeeling to doubt. They often,
therefore, give these statements full credence, and furnish the
empiric with certificates. Certificates from such sources are highly
prized, and are, therefore, eagerly sought for. But clergymen should
consider what they are doing by this course. The facts which I have
stated show, that by such acts they uphold a system of impositions,
and help quackery to destroy the lives of their fellow men.
The feeling which physicians manifest in regard to empiricism, is
very commonly supposed to be prompted by self-interest. This is far
from being true. It would not be at all for the pecuniary interest
of physicians to have quackery suppressed; for it is continually
furnishing them with patients, in whom disease has been created or
aggravated by the use of empirical remedies.
I trust that it is obvious to the reader, from the facts which I
have stated, that the medical profession are right in the ground
which they have for the most part maintained against secret and
patent medicines. The rule which they have adopted, in regard to
themselves, on this point, is thus given in Percival’s Medical
Ethics: “No physician or surgeon should dispense a secret nostrum,
whether it be his invention or exclusive property; for if it be of
real efficacy, the concealment of it is inconsistent with beneficence
and professional liberality. And if mystery alone give it value
and importance, such craft implies either disgraceful ignorance or
fraudulent avarice.”[8]
This rule recognizes a very just distinction between inventions in
medicine and all other inventions. As medicine has to do with such
important interests as health and life, the principles of benevolence
demand, that any invention or discovery in this art, should be
promulgated without any hindrance. And this is the more necessary,
because nearly all of the so-called _new_ medicines, put forth from
time to time, have nothing new in them, and mystery alone gives them
their value and importance in the eyes of the public. The claims
which are set up for the great mass of popular remedies, blazoned
forth in newspaper, pamphlet, almanac, and handbill so profusely,
are gross impositions; and an exposure of the formulas, according to
which these medicines are compounded, would show them to be so.[9]
The only way in which this imposition, so constantly practised upon
the community, can be guarded against effectually, is to oblige every
one who sells a medicine, to make the composition of it known on the
wrapper in which each parcel of the medicine is enclosed. Such a law
is now, I understand, in force in the State of Maine. I hope that the
law will be sustained, and that so just and noble an example will
everywhere be followed.
If it be objected that the inventor in medicine should, like other
inventors, have something more as a reward than the consciousness
of doing good, and the reputation which his invention gives him,
this can be provided for without any difficulty. Let a board be
constituted, whose duty it shall be to examine all medicines offered
to them, rejecting all that have nothing new in material or in the
form of combination, and recommending all that are really valuable.
Let it also be the duty of this board to award to the proprietor of
every medicine, which they approve, as being a real invention or
discovery, a suitable sum to be paid him out of the public treasury.
Such a board, constituted on the most liberal principles that any one
could desire, would find but few among the multitude of remedies now
before the public, of which they could conscientiously approve; and
there would be no ground for fear of any great drain upon the public
treasury, by the awards which they would make to inventors.
Quackery has, at length, come to be so monstrous an evil, that there
will be great difficulty in removing it. The credulity of the public
is so great and so extensive, that the plainest and strongest facts,
brought out even in multitudinous array, are almost powerless before
it. Then, too, the capital invested in this vast system of imposture
is large in amount. It has become one of the great interests in
the community,[10] and is so linked in with other interests in the
relations of business, as to have a strong hold in this way upon
the public. It has even subsidized the press; and it has done it
so thoroughly, that it has not only muzzled it, so far as speaking
out the truth on this subject is concerned, but it has compelled it
to utter freely the falsehoods which it demands for its purposes.
I speak of our secular newspapers. If there are any that are not
guilty, they are exceptions. There may be a few. I know of not one.
Not content with advertising quack medicines, they, for a liberal
fee, admit into their columns, articles which have the appearance
of editorial recommendations; and these are copied as such into
advertisements in other newspapers. And besides all this, respectable
editors have often refused to publish any exposure of the impositions
of quackery. Our legislators, too, are afraid to move in any way
against a system of impostures which has so strong a hold upon the
community. Still, though these formidable obstacles are in the way
of a radical reform on this subject, let the facts continue to be
brought out, and let the truth be told fearlessly; and this evil,
grown now to be so monstrous, will at length yield to our efforts.
I have thus far spoken of only one form of quackery—the sale of
secret medicines. It appears in various other forms. I shall give
some examples of only a few of them.
Many empirics have become itinerant lecturers. They, of course,
always have something to sell—books, medicines, braces,
breathing-tubes, &c. Their lectures are partly, sometimes wholly,
gratuitous, which, certainly, looks like being somewhat benevolent.
The lectures are made up of some very plain truths, borrowed from
some medical works, which, mingled with some popular errors, and
spiced with the prevailing ultraism of the present day, in order to
make them interesting, are urged upon the audience as being both new
and important. A variety of illustrations and analogies, some of
which are true and some merely plausible, are made use of to effect
the lecturer’s purpose; which is, to convince the audience that he
has examined the subject particularly, and is a thorough master of
it. If he succeed in doing this, there is a great rush of invalids to
his rooms in the intervals of his lectures. His remedies are costly,
but his advice is gratuitous; and this is commonly a very successful
bait for the poor invalid. He receives a large amount of money from
his numerous patients for what cost him but very little. For the time
being, he is the great medical lion of the place. But great as he is,
when he is once gone, he is gone never to return to that place again:
his vocation _there_ is ended.
Some of these empirical lecturers have, as a special attraction, one
or two lectures particularly for the ladies, to which no gentleman
can be admitted; and one or two also for gentlemen, from which the
ladies are excluded. I will only say, that in every case in which I
have known this to be done, the character of the lectures has been
such as no virtuous community should tolerate.
Animal magnetism, as applied to medicine, has made quite a figure
in the world of quackery. Miss Martineau, and many other people
reputed to be very sensible, have been entrapped by this delusion.
The magnetized subject, or clairvoyant, who attends the lecturer on
this “science,” in his travels, is said to be able to look into the
sick, and see exactly what is going on there. If this be so, animal
magnetism must be capable of rendering essential aid in investigating
disease—more essential, indeed, than any other means which we have
at our command; and every physician should have his clairvoyant to
attend him in his daily visits. The hits which are sometimes made
by clairvoyants, are said to be astonishing; but they are so for
precisely the same reason that the hits of the fortuneteller are
sometimes truly wonderful. The clairvoyant has ears, and can hear
what may be said aloud or in whisper about different invalids; and
the magnetizer can hear for her.
I will give an example or two, to show what convenient use can be
made of ears by these clairvoyants.
I once heard a lecturer state the case of a young man, who, he
said, had for a long time suffered severe pain, and had applied to
many physicians without obtaining any relief, or any satisfactory
explanation of his case. His clairvoyant at once directed that a
particular tooth be removed, and said that an abscess could then be
opened above it, the discharge of which would relieve the pain. This
was done, and the patient was relieved. Every one supposed, from
his manner of relating the case, that no one had ever hinted at the
real seat of the disease, and that it was a fresh discovery of his
clairvoyant. It was found, however, that physicians had taken this
view of the case, and that it had been talked about in the family.
The clairvoyant, probably, got her knowledge by her ears, before she
was put into the ‘magnetic state.’
A very shrewd lady accompanied a friend on a visit to a clairvoyant,
in Boston, whom she wished to consult in regard to her child, who
had, by a fall, injured his side. She watched the proceedings of
the parties very narrowly. The clairvoyant was for some time quite
in the dark about the case, and used very indefinite language in
regard to it. At length her mind became suddenly clear in its views;
and it _seemed_ to be done by a whisper uttered by one of the party
to another, in relation to the fall. She at once said, “The child
must have had some accident—he fell down, and as he stretched out
his hands, he struck on his chest, _and the bones have shot by each
other_.” The clairvoyant went a little too far. There is no such
thing as the shooting by of any bones in the chest, at least in any
ordinary accident. These clairvoyants, that see right into people,
often have an anatomy of their own.
We sometimes have an opportunity of testing the clearness of the
medical vision of these clairvoyants. One of them, a few years since,
on examining the case of a child, saw in its intestines three kinds
of worms, which she described with great exactness. It was a very
clear and distinct vision. The child died two days after, and I
assisted in its examination after death. The worms, so distinctly
seen, were not to be found. The magnetizer and his clairvoyant
immediately left for another field of labor.
Some names have become quite celebrated in the annals of quackery. I
will give a passing notice to a few of them.
Paracelsus has been called the prince of quacks. He flourished
in the beginning of the sixteenth century. In order to give
himself dignity, he assumed the names of Philippus, Aureolus,
Theophrastes, Paracelsus, Bombastes de Hohenheim. He discarded all
the commonly-received doctrines and modes of practice, and pretended
to have been searching after the truth for many years. He put forth
a pompous proclamation of his travels and researches, and pretended
to have made great acquisitions in medical science. The remedies
which he used were mostly of the _heroic_ kind; and though he killed
many by his rash practice, he stumbled on some great cures, (and
what quack has not?). These were proclaimed in the most bombastic
manner. The result was that his practice was immense in amount and
extent. The magistrates of Basle engaged him, at a large salary, to
fill the chair of medicine in their university. At his first lecture
he burned the works of Galen and Avicenna, and asserted that there
was more knowledge in his _cap_ than in the heads of all physicians,
and that there was more experience in his _beard_ than in all the
universities. “Greeks, Romans, French and Italians,” said he, “you
Avicenna, you Galen, you Rhazes, you Mesne—you doctors of Paris, you
of Montpelier, you of Swabia, you of Prussia, you of Cologne, you of
Vienna—and all you throughout the countries that are washed by the
Danube and the Rhine, and you who inhabit the islands of the sea,
Athenian, Greek, Arab, and Jew: you shall follow and obey me: I am
your king—_the monarchy of physic is mine_!”
Though he did not long retain his professorship, and though he was
grossly intemperate in the last years of his life, he maintained
his reputation for extraordinary cures even to his death. Great and
learned men were among his patients, and even the noted Erasmus
consulted this arrant charlatan.[11]
It is but a few years ago that St. John Long had immense multitudes
of patients in London, though his notions were of the most ridiculous
character, and were attacked with the shafts of reason and ridicule
on every side. His theory was, that all diseases were produced by a
semi-mercurial fluid, and that in order to cure the disease, the seat
of this fluid must be found, and the fluid must in some way be got
out. He had discovered a very summary way of doing this. He used a
liniment, which he applied over the seat of the fluid, and extracted
it at once. Though this liniment had such wonderful power, it would
produce no effect when applied over a part which was not diseased—so
that in any case, in which the seat of the disease was not obvious,
instead of going through with a strict and long investigation after
the vulgar way of regular doctors, St. John Long only had to apply
his liniment here and there, till he found that the disease was
extracted. One would hardly suppose that such nonsense could be
believed in any civilized community; but the theory of this painter,
who had thrown aside his brush and dubbed himself doctor, ridiculous
as it was, found such favor with the public, that the prominent
journals came out with weighty articles against it. Reasoning was
not only in vain, but worse than in vain. The wonder grew—it was not
put down. Quackery never yet was _killed_—it always _dies a natural
death_, and so did the quackery of St. John Long. After running the
gauntlet amidst the heavy blows of wise and powerful enemies, and
coming forth unharmed at every heat, it at length laid itself down,
and died the most quiet death imaginable. It fell asleep; and this is
the end of all quackery.
Who has not heard of Perkins’ Tractors? The inventor, Doctor Elisha
Perkins, was born in the town where the author resides. He was the
son of a physician, who was for forty years in extensive practice,
and was himself, for some time a respectable physician in the town
of Plainfield in this State. He was undoubtedly an honest man.
He duped others, it is true, but he duped himself, too. He was a
deluded enthusiast, and died a victim to his enthusiasm only three
years after he published to the world his grand ‘discovery.’ He had
conceived the idea that a free use of salt as an antiseptic would
cure the yellow fever. He therefore went to New York in the year
1799, when this disease was raging, and, full of confidence in his
mode of practice, offered his services most generously to the poor
as well as the rich. At the end of four weeks he himself caught the
fever, and being exhausted by his labors he survived but four days
after his attack.
The promulgation of Dr. Perkins’ ‘discovery,’ which occurred in 1796,
was preceded, it is said, by a long series of experiments, which were
suggested by the supposition, that metallic substances might remove
disease by some electrical or galvanic power. The Tractors, which
were the final result of these experiments, are two pieces of metal
about three inches long, blunt at one end, and running to a point at
the other. One of them appears to be brass, and the other steel, but
what their real composition is, is not known, as the invention was
patented.
The fame of the Tractors spread with unaccountable rapidity, and
marvelous cures were everywhere reported. Certificates came in
from all quarters, and from all kinds of dignitaries. Not only
captains, and colonels, and generals, and ’squires sounded the
praises of the Tractors, but clergymen and senators and doctors
and professors. And their fame was not confined to this country.
Benjamin Douglass Perkins, a son of the inventor, went to London to
obtain the patronage of the British public for the Tractors. Great
cures were forthwith effected all over the kingdom, of which there
were multitudes of certificates from the wise and good, and, what is
better, from the titled and wealthy. Similar cures were also reported
from other countries in Europe, especially from Denmark.
To prove that imagination had nothing to do with these results, there
were related many instances of cure in infants and in horses. It was
found by some sage observer that, though horses could be cured by the
Tractors, they had no influence at all upon sheep. He supposes that
this is owing to the unctuous matter in the wool, and he remarks that
“even pomatum, it is well ascertained, prevents the Tractors from
relieving pains in that part of the head over which the pomatum is
used.” A lame crow, supposed to have the cramp, was operated upon so
successfully by the Tractors, that though he had not been able to put
his foot to the ground for a week, he walked perfectly well the next
morning after the application.[12]
The multitude of cases which were collected from every quarter were
occasionally published. I have in my possession a volume of nearly
two hundred pages published in London, containing a great number
of these cases. The testimony is of the most decisive character.
Pain was relieved in a trice by a few strokes of the Tractors;
inflammations were drawn out; swellings were dispersed, and, in some
cases, with such rapidity that they were _seen_ to lessen during the
application; rheumatism, which had baffled the best medical skill was
removed; the paralytic was made to walk—such were the reports which
were constantly put forth.
The success of the Tractors was attested not only by multitudes of
wealthy and titled and learned men, but even by many of the medical
profession; and selfish motives were unhesitatingly attributed
to all physicians who were unbelievers. A physician, who was of
sufficient respectability to be a president of a medical society,
said of such unbelievers, that “like _infidels_ to the gospel,
they admit of no mysteries, and refuse to believe what they do not
readily comprehend.” Dr. Haygarth, an eminent physician of Bath, and
some others, drew down a storm of public wrath upon their heads,
because they asserted that a pair of wooden Tractors, painted so as
to resemble the real metallic ones, had produced in their hands as
marked effects as those which were purchased of Mr. Benjamin Douglass
Perkins, at five guineas a pair. So strong was the hold which ‘the
new science of Perkinism,’ as it was called, had obtained upon the
public favor, that the son of the inventor of the Tractors was spoken
of as being most unjustly persecuted by a large proportion of the
medical profession; and his name was often associated with those of
Galileo and Harvey and Jenner, who, it was said, had suffered like
persecution before him, from the stereotyped hatred of everything
that is new.
The efficacy of the Tractors was almost universally acknowledged; and
the only difficulty seemed to be to account for their operation. Many
ingenious electrical and galvanic theories were broached by learned
men in England and in other countries. Perkinism, as it was called by
acclamation, was hailed as one of the greatest of discoveries, and it
was supposed to form a new era in medicine. The Tractors were sold in
abundance at five guineas a pair. That the poor might be benefitted
equally with the rich, the liberality of the British public was
appealed to, and not in vain. A ‘Perkinean Institution’ was formed
under the patronage of the first men in the kingdom. Lord Rivers was
president, and there is a long list of titled vice presidents.
A pamphlet, giving an account of this institution was published,
of which I have a copy. The regulations were evidently based upon
the idea that it was to be a permanent establishment. One of them
prescribes that a donation of ten guineas constitute a governor
for _life_. As many ladies were very enthusiastic patrons of the
Tractors, as they are now of infinitesimal globules, one of the
regulations was, that “ladies have liberty to vote by proxy, given to
any governor of the institution, or by letter to the chairman.”
In this account it is stated that the published cases of cures by
the Tractors up to March, 1802, amounted to about five thousand.
“Supposing,” the author goes on to say, “that not more that one
cure in three hundred, which the Tractors have performed has been
published, and the proportion is probably much greater, it will be
seen that the number, to March, 1802, will have exceeded one million
five hundred thousand. It is believed that no medical remedy ever
yet discovered has been supported by so many well-authenticated and
important cures, performed in so short a time.”
And now, I ask, where is the Perkinean Institution, with its troop
of governors for life, and where is the Perkinean practice, with
its list of five thousand published cures? The institution expired
while the governors for life were almost to a man in the land of the
living; and in less than ten years after the summing up of the five
thousand cures, Perkinism was only thought of as a thing that was
past, and the far-famed Tractors were almost forgotten.
And what became of Benjamin Douglass Perkins, who suffered for the
cause of science and humanity such persecution as Galileo and Harvey
and Jenner suffered before him? He returned to his native land with
ten thousand pounds of John Bull’s money, as a reward of his patient
endurance of persecution, and his active benevolence!
I might extend this notice of names which have been famous in the
history of quackery, but it is not necessary. Those which I have
noticed will answer as illustrations of the mode in which medical
delusions obtain their hold upon the public mind, and of the
facility with which each in its turn is supplanted by some other.
The essential materials of quackery, as I remarked in the Preface,
have been the same in all ages; and its history would be only a
description of the endless forms into which these materials have been
moulded. Great as is the variety in the series of phantasmagoria
with which quackery has excited the wonder of the world, they have
all been produced upon the same canvas, and by the same old magic
lantern.
And busy and multiform as quackery has been, and lofty as have been
its claims, I know not that it has ever made a _single discovery in
medicine_. It may possibly have _stumbled_ upon some discovery, but
I am not aware that it has done even this. On the other hand, all
the discoveries which have been made in the medical art, so far as I
know, have been the results of a truly scientific observation, and
fairly belong to that ‘regular’ profession, which so many consider as
being opposed to everything which is new.
FOOTNOTES:
[7] The following anecdote of an ignoramus, who set himself up as
a doctor, furnishes a good illustration of this erroneous mode of
reasoning. His first case was that of a butcher, who recovered. As
he gave his patient beefsteak and wine quite liberally, he referred
the cure to these articles, and put down in his note-book—beefsteak
and wine will cure a _butcher_. His next case was that of a tailor,
which, under the same treatment, resulted unsuccessfully. He,
therefore, added to the above note—but will kill a _tailor_.
You laugh at the use which this man made of the ‘_post hoc propter
hoc_’ mode of reasoning; but, after all, his inference is no farther
from the truth than many of the inferences of wise dabblers in
physic, promulgated in the newspapers, or even of learned doctors,
gravely recorded in the annals of medicine. The only real difference
is, that among the many preceding circumstances, to which results
might be attributed, he chose one, and they chose some other, a
little more plausible, perhaps, than his, but no nearer the truth.
[8] The whole course of the medical profession, in regard to
discoveries in medicine, has been open and generous, and not secret
and mercenary. Dr. Stevens, in his eloquent address before the New
York State Medical Society, thus speaks on this point: “Was the
introduction of inoculation for the small-pox a speculation? Was
the discovery of the preventive power of vaccination, (the labor of
close, unremitting, and careful research during a period of several
years,)—was that made or conducted with a view to personal emolument?
As a matter of course, Dr. Jenner, as soon as he had completed his
discovery, published it—made it free to all mankind. When quinine
was first discovered, the mode of preparing it was immediately made
known. Recently, when some feeble attempts were made to obtain
a patent for the use of ether, and to conceal the process of
etherization, the indignation of the profession was aroused from one
end of our country to the other. The money changers were driven from
the temple of humanity.”
[9] For example, the famous _Balm of Gilead_, which, in its time, was
said to cure all manner of disease, is nothing but brandy spiced with
cardamoms and other like seeds, and made a little more stimulating
with Spanish flies. The use of this medicine, therefore, was really
only one of the modes of dram drinking.
Louis XV. purchased, for a considerable sum, of Madame Nouffleur,
a nostrum for the cure of tape-worm. The medicine proved to be the
powder of the male fern, which was used for the same complaint
by Galen in the second century, but which, in spite of the
recommendations of this illustrious physician, and the princely
reward paid to Madame Nouffleur for her discovery of it—in, shall I
say, some musty book—it has somehow lost its reputation.
Examples of the same kind might be given almost indefinitely.
[10] A few facts will show the present enormous growth of this
interest. Ten years ago, the revenue of the English government,
from the sale of patent medicines, was only a little short of fifty
thousand pounds sterling. The cost of advertising quack medicines in
the United States, was estimated at that time at 200,000 dollars.
But it is vastly more now. Dr. Stevens, in his recent address
states, that the advertising outlay of some of the most notorious
patent medicine proprietors, is reckoned by its fifty and hundred
thousand dollars per annum. Quack advertisements occupy a large space
in our newspapers. In the twenty columns of a country political
paper published tri-weekly, I once counted eleven filled with such
advertisements, while only nine were devoted to other advertisements,
news, miscellaneous matters, editorials, &c.
[11] After he left his professional chair, he wandered about the
country, generally intoxicated, seldom changing his clothes, or even
going to bed. And though like other quacks who have succeeded him,
he boasted that he had discovered a _panacea_, which would cure
all disease at once, and even prolong life almost indefinitely,
this prince of empirics died after a few hours’ illness, in the
forty-eighth year of his age, at Salzburg in Bavaria, with a bottle
of his panacea in his pocket.
[12] At one time live toads were a popular remedy for hemorrhage,
tied behind the ears, or under the arm pits, or to the soles of the
feet. It was supposed by some that the effect was altogether mental.
But, as in the case of the Tractors, it was contended that this could
not be so, because the same effect was produced upon animals. Michael
Mercatus asserts that “if you hang the toad round a cock’s neck for
a day or so, you may then cut off his head, and _the neck will not
bleed a single drop_.” One cannot help being reminded by this of the
experiments with the _Brocchieri water_ a year or two since upon
animals, which, though reported as perfectly successful, have not
saved this remedy from going to the tomb of the Capulets, to which
all its predecessors have gone before it.