ELIXIRS AND QUACKS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1931, Page 14

ELIXIRS AND QUACKS.

FRUITFUL FIELD IN UNITED STATES. STREAMS OF MONEY FOE FAKIRS. U.S. MAIL LAW IS WEAPON". ' (By a Special Correspondent.) WASHINGTON, October 30. The elixir of life, the alchemist's secret potion, the magic ring and the miracleworking necklace still are popular with the American people. During the last few months the Post Office Department, after investigating advertisements, has put the vendors of many of these out of business, at least so far.as use of the mails is concerned by the issuance of fraud orders. But the mail order doctor, boundless in his claims and also in his expressed contempt for the practising physician, is a hydra-headed monster, and the legal sword of the Government can chop off only a few heads at a time.

The usual procedure is for a post office inspector to write to one of these advertisers, giving the symptoms of some chronic or' incurable disease, or eome disease that never existed. When the remedy is received, it is submitted to the proper Government scientific laboratory for.- analysis and tests—to the Bureau of Standards if it is a mechanical contrivance, or to the chemical service of the Department of Agriculture or, Public Health Service if the claims regarding the constituent's of the remedy are in question. Ridiculous Claims. Rarely do the mail order doctors fight back. It is easier to drop out of busi : ness for a time and then reappear under some other alias, /and many of the perpetual crops of fakirs are'old acquaintances of the Post Office inspectors. That the. business is extremely profitable is shown by the vast sums which, the investigations disclose, are spent for advertising, usually in magazines of the type which circulate • among ignorant people. .

.Most of the claims made for the medicines are .ridiculous, but apparently tfye more sweeping and bold the assertions the better the market. A "professor" in Atlanta was seljing by mail for £1 two pieces of zinc cut in the shape of heels. They are ordinary sheet zinc cut out with shears as the orders came in. The U.S. Bureau of Standards found that they _ had no properties whatsoever not possessed by any piece of zinc. -. . ■But, the "professor" advertised, they were guaranteed to cure "hardening of the arteries," high blood pressure, enlargement of the heart, kidney trouble, hardening- of the prostrate gland, rheumatism and dropsy." This was accomplished, by the in the ~ ..if':-.- : ; ..,. ; . : ■ ■'.. ' ..-, "..: •' :

.:, j .;. : A Tuberculosis Cure. ■■ ;,T;h.e..discoverer-; of 'a sure-fire tuberculosis cure,-whoi warned his patients against exposing themselves to fresh air and sunlight, the JPost Office inspectors found, had some testimonials from persons who said they had been cured by his treatment after;the doctors had given them up. These were traced down. Two of the grateful individuals, it was found, had been dead of tuberculosis for some time. Others were in the employ of the quack. ; : : I This., man advertised "a home cure amid home surroundings," and promised noticeable improvement in ten days and disappearance of all the characteristic symptoms of tuberculosis in thirty days. Fresh air and sunshine, he said, were theonly .weapons of the medical profession against this disease, and were expensive, often involving sanitarium treatment. But "only two per cent recover in this way." His treatment ctfst £2 a month. * i: A Mexican in. El Paso was offering to cure all, sorts of diseases by mail. Tests of his pills, the same for everything, showed that they were only sugar. "Sure Cures" at Usual Fees. A Chinese in San Francisco offered to cure by mail any disease whatsoever, regardless of distance, for £2 a.week until the cure was completed. He treated every case on its individual merits. A Post Office inspector asked for treatment for "chronic appendicitis in the gall bladder." Such a trifling confusion of organs didn't bother the doctor. He wrote, warning the inspector against surgery, and accepting the case for his customary fee. ' '■:-.■■:■.■' •■• ■'.-

One of the most potent remedies sold through the mails, the inspectors found, "was born 150 years ago in the laboratory- of a great physician in northern Westphalia,, .who had given his secret compound to the family of the 1 advertisers." It was a sure cure for "cancer, tumours, goitre, all internal-'ajtid external swellings, blood diseases, piles, boils, gallstones and mastitis." ..

This -remedy was made in Germany and sent to Chicago. It was put up in various forms to be taken, according to the particular pathological condition being treated, "at the full moony the new moon or the first and last quarter phases of the moon." ,

Analysis showed that the medicine was composed of the powdered leaves of the wood garlic, a common herb in -North Germany, which had been in use for years among the German peasantry for the'cure of all sorts of ailments, espe,r ciallj? cancer, although it had no therapeutic value whatsoever. Its only legitimate use is as a moth'poison. It has been sold extensively in the United States as a powder for .cleaning metals. " Guaranteed Tasteless. A necklace consisting of fifty-six yellow beads was advertised as a sure goitre cure, giving a mild and constant galvanic current during sleep. Even if this were : true there is no. reason to believe that it would have any effect on goitre. The Bureau of Standards tested the necklace for an electric current, as slight as one ten-millionth of an ampere land couldn't.find it.

Perhaps the greatest fraud. uncovered by the Post Office inspectors was, that of. the ,man. v wh6 was selling bottles of. water-r-just-plain' drinking water—as a sure cure for high blood pressure, rheumatism and constipation. The patients were warned against taking;it. in large quantities^just a teaspponful in a glass of hot water three times a'day. It was guaranteed.'.to b6 .tasteless.— (jSLA-N.A.).