Revelations of quacks and quackery / a series of letters by 'Detector'.

  • Courtenay, Francis Burdett, 1811-1886.
Date:
1885
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Revelations of quacks and quackery / a series of letters by 'Detector'. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    29/164 (page 5)
    LETTEK 11. Sir,—In my last I exposed the disgraceful part hitherto and still played by a majority of the newspaper press in con- junction with the quacks, and I showed that in one instance alone one of the newspapers which had thus prostituted itself would derive thereby an income considerably over .£3,000 per annum from the insertion of the advertisements of only some five or six of the quacks. That these mauvais sujets can afford to submit to this outrageous levy of black mail in the instance of one paper only, is of itself a frightful and melancholy evidence of the extent and the success with which the quacks carry on their frauds and extortions. In the face of such facts, I fear it is in vain to appeal, either to the sense of honour, decency, or shame of the newspaper proprietors referred to. Their greed appears to have deadened within them all these qualities, if indeed, they ever possessed them. Were it otherwise, I would ask if there are among them any occupying the position of husbands, fathers, and brothers ? If so, do they not tremble, and should they not blush, when they see the female mem- bers of their families perusing the contents of their journals, at the imminent risk of having their attention drawn to, and their curiosity, if no worse feelings, excited by the perusal of such advertisements as those headed Manhood, The Silent Eriend, and others of a cognate nature ? But supposing them to be regardless of the mental purity of their own families, I would then ask how they can recon- cile it with their position as public journalists, or, in other words, custodes morum thus to assist in disseminating the moral poison contained in these disgusting announcements ? Eurther, do they think such conduct a fit and appropriate return for the support and patronage which they enjoy from the heads of families ? But even apart from all considera- tions of public morals and decency, there are other reasons, no less cogent, to be urged against this traffic in obscenity and fraud, and not unfrequently murder, carried on by the newspaper press, with few exceptions—mri nantes in guryitc