CHARLATANS AMONG SAVANTS

Evening Star, Issue 19020, 15 August 1925, Page 19

CHARLATANS AMONG SAVANTS

HARLEY STREET HUMBUGS PATIENTS WHO WERE “ STUNG « Harley street has always been a grave, rather gloomy, thoroughfare, lined by dull and not too imposing buildings. Of late year?, however (writes Dr Arthur Lynch, in the ‘ Sunday Chronicle ’), modern methods of hustle have invaded these quiet sanctuaries, Gradually at first, and npw with accelerated pace. Formerly it was usual to find each house inhabited by a noted light of the profession, oithei' surgeon or physician, who lived on the premises. Harley street is, however, becoming a business street, where the houses, full of bustle during the day, are deserted at nights by the inhabitants, who live, some of them, miles out of London* The motor car has helped in the changes of this Mecca of the profession. All this, of course, is but,parA and parcel of the development of the capital itself, but unfortunately the modern changes, all depending ultimately on a, financial basis, have brought about a new ethical outlook. The morals of the profession have suffered, and this is the pith of my communicatioru A STAGGERING BILL. A friend of mine from overseas recently saw a distinguished ear and throat specialist for some slight trouble, and he received the necessary attention. He had made no stipulation whatever about fees, for being fairly well-to-do bo could look _ with equanimity on a hill for ten guineas, or twenty, or even, ,as he thought if he was dealing with a hardy customer, thirty guineas. Ho was completely carried off his feet when he an account for £l5O, with a polite intimation that as my friend was not a resident an early settlement would he welcome. He paid, hut since then ho Las placed no restraint on his language in describing the proceedings. The practitioner in question was certainly a competent man in his specialty, but there was nothing to distinguish him from scores of others. He had been harried by the increasing difficulties of making both ends meet, and ho had acquired the habit of sending in exorbitant bills, and this in turn had lessened his practice, and at length he had become desperate—and, as it seems to me, dishonest. MAGIC WORD “ RADIUM.”

Another in the same branch of the profession was visited by a lady who had suffered for years from deafness. She had seen various specialists, had submitted to a great number of examinations, and had tried a series of remedies, but all without real improvement. Then she went to the Harley street light, who told her that though she had tried everything else she had not been tested for radium. Now the very name of radium meant something magical to this lady, and she agreed for twenty guineas to allow the aurist to place a little tuba containing radium in her ear for five minutes.

The effect was nil, except for the transference of the twenty guineas from her pocket to his. It is true that radium has wonderful qualities, but the use of this marvellous name in such a way unconnected with any therapeutical theory, or founded on any probability derived from anatomy or physiology—that, I say, was (indistinguishable from charlatanism.

Another case, not very dissimilar, and depending, in fact, on tho influence of like suggestions, was when another friend of mine, a literary man holding an honorable but not too brilliant position, began to suffer from the effects of over-work. w SIMPLE CURE. Acting on advice, he went to a wellknown Harley street physician, who examined him by the prescribed methods, and told him that he would like to see him again after an interval of a few days. My friend returned and submitted to an examination again resembling that of the first visit. For these consultations he paid tho modest fee of £3 Ss each time, and that, indeed, is the usual and fair honorarium. The specialist took a grave view of his case, and said that ho himself could do very little for him, but that he would recommend him to take a course of “electric baths” at an establishment which ho described.

Tho patient was rather struck with the candor and magnanimity of the specialist, who had passed him on to another. The course of electric baths, continued, with intervals, over three weeks, landed him into a tremendous bill, of which I fear to state the exact figure from memory’, and, moreover, did no particular good. My friend did not know that this electrical establishment was under tho control and ownership of tho practitioner, who, while giving him advice that was apparently disinterested, had obtained from him an inequitable fee. The patient went to a humble medical man in tho suburbs, who gave him a few pills and sent him to the country for a week, whence he returned completely cured. So far I have recorded cases which are deplorable, but to do justice to Harley street not frequent. Of recent years,' however, ‘a new kind of practitioner has arisen who bears hut a remote relation to the good old learned family doctor or the scientific specialist such as our great medical schools and Hospitals turn out. THE UNQUALIFIED “ PROFESSORS.” These are the psycho-analysts and the suggestion is ts. Certainly 4 do not decry the value of suggestion, and, indeed, its therapeutic value has been recognised for a generation. It was extensively used by Charcot long before Cone, but it should he used by a competent man as an adjunct to other remedies based on physiological conditions. In the hands of some of the Harley street practitioners it is sheer quackery. A good proportion of these men are not even qualified; some of them are not even Englishmen, as wo have had occasion to observe in the records of a recent court case.

Most of these make play with the socalled new psvchology, introduced by Freud, but which oven in the bands of this master is singularly lacking either in scientific foundation or proper medical method. The dangerous features of this system is that when used by unscrupulous men—and hez‘_e I expressly exclude the qualified practitioners—it opens the way to the most abominable social abuses.

Freud himself attached an exaggerated value to the sex-associations of disease.s, and it is sox that is continually and persistently introduced in the methods of the “ professors ” of the art. The practice demands an even greater confidence between patient and medical adviser than usually obtains, and it requires no expert to discover how far this may lead in the way of abuses, and in some teases of blackmail.

In this review of the morals of a section of Harley street practitioners I have written only on the basis of facts known to mo, and I have touched only tentatively on serious evils. It is with regret that I am compelled to use the name of Harley street itself, for, in despite of its black sheep, It is, of course, still the home of the most eminent and admirable men of the medical profession.