WHY QUACKERY THRIVES.

Evening Star, Issue 10391, 12 August 1897, Page 4

WHY QUACKERY THRIVES.

A Bordeaux medical journal is responsible ' for the following:—A certain individual who. called himself Alexis, having been accused of signing prescriptions, besides otherwise trespassing on the prerogatives of the medical fraternity, the police commissary of the district—which is described as one of the most selected in. the French capital—received instructions to investigate the charge and, should he find cause, arrest the delinquent. The official accordingly proceeded to the house where it was said that the medical canons were habitually violated, and a single glance sufficed to satisfy him that he had surprised his quarry in flagrante delicto. Magnificently installed in a suite of sumptuously furnished apartments, with, three spacious waiting rooms filled to overflowing by well dressed and evidently moneyed crowds of patients, the reputed quack submitted to the intrusion of his inauspicious visitor with dignified calmness. " You will continue to admit callers," he observed to his janitor as he wns preparing to accompany the commissary to the police station, " tor I shall be back* in a few minutes." The officer did not actually smile j when he heard this remark, for while on duty the smiles of-an agent de police are as rare as black swans (!), but the case was as clear as daylight, and a close observer might have detected some indications of incredulous merriment near the corners of his mouth. " You will do me a very great favor, sir," said the accused when they had reached their destination, " by according me a moment's private audience." «• For what purpose ?" inquired the man of law. " There is something most important that I wish to communicate to your ear alone;" replied the other. The commissary, for all his apparent sternness, had an obliging "Clear the room," he exclaimed, and the pair were left free from witnesses. Upon this, M. Alexis drew forth his pocket book, and extracting therefrom a parchment diploma he spread the document out before the eyes of his astonished interlocutor. "I beg of you," he cried in imploring accents, " not to betray me. I should lose every single patient I have got if they knew that I was a properly-qualified practitioner. When first f obtained my degree I set up in the Faubourg Saint Antoine, fixing a fir)e brass plate on my door and carrying out all details secundum artem, but in six months I had spent all my money and was starving. I consequently removed the plate, suppressed my surname, and established myself yonder, as a bonesetter. Since then my affairs have gone on wheels, and I am in a fair wav of making my fortune. I can advertise freely now, and knowing something about the business have succeeded in avoiding fatal mistakes. I implore you again to be merciful." For a little while the commissary felt perplexed, but his doubts did not last long. Whena reboideur posed as a medical man it was his duty to pursue him, but the converse did not hold good. There was no law to prevent a practitioner turning bonesetter if he liked; and so M. Alexis, the qualified quack, continues to flourish.

Mr 3 Flora Steel, the well-known novelist of Indian life, was born in Harrow in 1847, and has lived in India from the time of her marriage in 1867 uutil about eight years age, when she and her husband went to* England. In India Mrs Steel filled the important post of provincial inspectress of Government and aided schools in the Punjaub, and was a member of the Educational Committee. With her white hair, warm coloring, bright eyes, and deeply lined face, Mrs Steel makes a very arresting and picturesque figure.