ELIMINATING QUACKERY

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 78, 1 April 1936, Page 6

ELIMINATING QUACKERY

AN AUSTRALIAN VIEW

Co-operation between the .Government, the medical profession, and the public, with a view to eliminating quackery, is advocated in a leading article in the current issue of, the "Medical Journal of Australia."

After discussing the attitude of overseas countries towards lay treatment of disease, the article concludes: "If= charr latanism is to be defeated in Australia, if the people are to be turned frbm the worship of false gods, the-State and the medical profession must work, together to that end. The State must protect the people from their own foot ishness. In the Federal Capital Territory a medical Act has been proclaim-^ ed that is complete and ideal in its prescription of medical treatment by un-., authorised persons. If such an Act was' adopted by the several States of th» Commonwealth and if, being adopted,1, was,administered without fear or-fav-our, a great deal of the-charlatanry., that is rampant might:. be,checked.' Even if the State Governments" werd courageous enough to do this a certain' amount of charlatanry would still:'be" undiscovered; it would remain to: b«" seen whether the people;;of*'Australia;: in the face of couragebus'Goverhment; action, would be different from' the people of other lands.-, ■■•' ■ ' •"' '" "Possibly most hope lies with 'th'« medical profession." In 5 the first placed medical knowledge • must be extended' and therapeutic weapons must;be rendered more efficient; : In ■ the second ■' place the standard of medical training must be kept at-a high Jevel, md: medi-' cal training must include tra.ining; iaV psychology, both'theoretical and practical; In the third' place the medical profession must see that provision/is'; made for every member: of the coiri— munity to receive adequate preventive and. .curative treatment. One last ph*" viso remains:" Medical practitioner* must set their faces against every-? thing iii their 6wri practices that savours of quackery; there must b€: no pant, no hypocrisy, no unnecessary' treatment, no use of elaborate method* when simple methods, wiH'suffice.''