Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh].

  • Walsh, David
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    any such remedy is barely conceivable in our present state of medical knowledge. Were such a nostrum capable of curing locomotor ataxy it would be hailed with instant acclamation by the medical profession, however doubtfully they might regard it at first. Or turn to the ointment advertised to cure cancer and all surgical diseases, and shown by the British Medical analysis to consist of coloured lard! (a2) Accordingly, when either vendor advertises his nostrum as being able to cure the complaint in question he is stating what is not true, and the money that he obtains for his nostrum is obtained from the public under false pre- tences. Now, the State has, since the earliest times, regarded that particular offence as punishable, so that under an active police system the vendor should come within the purview of the law on that score alone. But the State has further decreed since the days of Henry VIII. that the community should be protected against such false medical practice and false drugs. That position has been ratified by Parliament again and again up to the present day, but nevertheless the traders in such nostrums are able to carry on business in remedies of a transparently false, lying and injurious nature on a scale that is simply stupendous. This is owing to the laxity of the State, of the police, of the Home Secretary, and of the General Medical Council ; to the loose wording of Acts of Parliament; and to the neglect of their statutory duties by the Royal College of Physicians of London. Last, but not least, comes the agency of the newspapers and journals that share in the profits of this nefarious traffic, and hence are accessories in the offence of obtaining money under false pretences. As already stated, it is not intended to enter into a detailed examination of the extent of the evil, but illustrations will be found scattered through the following pages. Meanwhile, anyone who scans the reports of inquests, or who asks any observant medical man in a poor district for his views, or who consults the medical journals, will find no lack of evidence, grim, tragic, and ghastly as to the evils wrought by the greed of Capitalist nostrum vendors upon the credulous victim who buys these worthless and often deadly wares. Germany, which appears to have made up its mind to scotch the evil, has taken the logical step of correct definition. (6) The Australian Royal Commission Report (see below) says :— (a) ‘‘ Secret Remedies,” p. 180, (b) Report of the Royal Commission on Secret Drugs, Cures, me cl to the Commonweatlh of Australia. Vol. 1. 1907.