The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, July 21, 1887. QUACKS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 17, 21 July 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, July 21, 1887. QUACKS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy countk/s, Thy God's, and truth’s.

Those simple minded folks who are in the habit of consulting every ignorant, vulgar quack who by hook or by crook gets his advertisements into the papers, should “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest ” the facts recently disclosed in the case of McKenzie v. McLennan and Renaud, tried at Auckland a week or so ago. About a year or eighteen months ago, an individual calling himself “Signor Renaud the celebrated French specialist,” made a tour of New Zealand. He was a quack of the very worst kind, preying upon the ignorance and credulity of afflicted persons, and, unfortunately for the latter, found plenty of victims upon whom to ply his disgraceful devices.

These latter arc well known. Young men and others, who, through vice and folly, have contracted hateful and malignant disorders, are frightened by agroundless fear of publicity of their folly and wrong-doing, to go to a properly qualified practitioner, and being attracted by the announcement of “strict secrecy ” entrust themselves to the care of such men as Renaud. Once in the quack's hands they are ruthlessly bled. Exposure is threatened if exorbitant prices be not paid and in some cases, it has actually occurred, incredible though it may seem, that the complaint has been wilfully aggravated by vile drugs so as to gain additional profit from the deluded and Unfortunate sufferer. Renaud,. after having travelled the colony in grand style, living at first-class hotels, and plying his hateful trade unmolested, at length settled for a time in the Northern capital, which city, when it got too hot to hold him, he quitted hastily for Sydney, or'Frisco, or Timbuctoo, or somewhere else, completely omitting, however, before leaving, to pay for the printing and advertising liabilities he had incurred in various parts of the colony, But although he left, his business was continued by one McLennan, who under the name of Renaud continues to practise his calling in Auckland. This worthy was, up to a short time ago, a barber’s assistant in the city, but considering, and no doubt correctly, that the business of an “ Eminent Specialist" would be more profitable than handling the soap pot and the razor, he launched forth into the quackeiy line and has done well. The editor of the Auckland Bell, a journal ever to the front in exposing chicanery and evil-doing, has shown up the iniquity of allowing such individuals, unlicensed and uncertificated, ignorant and dangerous to the community, to practise unmolested by the law, and has drawn the attention of the Medical Association to the fact. To show the cheek of these quacks and the gross credulity of their victims we will quote from a letter sent by McLennan, late Renaud, to a country settler who had written to the so-called doctor and asked for an opinion on the ailments from which the writer suffered. Back came the following remarkable epistle After giving careful consideration to your case I am of opinion that it can be healed by written correspondence quite as well as by a personal visit. Please answer questions on enclosed memo., and I will forward medicines suitable to your case. I guarantee to effect a cure in your case for /5 ss.— Yours faithfully, Renaud, per A. V. McLennan.” Here is a proof positive of an ignorant fellow practising as a full-blown and properly qualified practitioner, and, what is more, charging just five times as much as if the patient had consulted a genuine medical man. There is little doubt that after the Bell’s “showing up” of thi fellow, he will have to pack up his phials and pamphets and seek other shores, or else return to the scissors and shaving pot. The Medical Associations throughout the colony should lose no time in prosecuting every one of these vile quacks who batten upon the simplicity of so many of our colonists. More than this, respectable newspapers

should ruthlessly exclude from their columns the advertisements of these gentry and thus deprive them of their main chance of pushing their business. As for the patients themselves, they should learn wisdom by these exposures and beware of advertising quacks, hail they from Auckland, Wellington, Dunedin, or even Melbourne and Sydney. Let them go to properly qualified meh and confide in them. Their health and their pockets would be the gainers.