VILLAGE OF BLISTERS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 97, 27 April 1933, Page 11

VILLAGE OF BLISTERS.

An-' unusual case, involving 150 accused charged with insurance fraud, is to be tried in Upper Silesia. The trial follows the investigation by insurance companies of a district in Silesia, where everyone had body blisters. A miner from a Silesian village was attached to a horse depot during the war. He there discovered that a certain ointment used on horses caused large blisters when applied to tho skin of human beings. The blisters lasted some time, and necessitated treatment, hut <Qid not leave any permanent ill effects. The man insured himself against sickness and accident, rubbed himself with the ointment, duly got blisters, claimed compensation from the insurance company, and was paid. Inspired by this success he began operations on a large scale. He got all his friends to insure themselves against illness, and anointed them with the ointment, and tho insurance companies paid. The news of this " easy money " spread to neighbouring villages. People rushed to take insurance policies, and bought the miner's wonderful ointment at twenty times the'price he had paid for it.