"THE GOLDEN" CHARIOT."

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9091, 27 June 1888, Page 6

"THE GOLDEN" CHARIOT."

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, —Your correspondents, while carefully refraining from answering my statements, have (in lieu of a better argument) impugned the honesty of my motives, and attributed the exposition of what was, in my opinion, a glaring fraud on the credulity of the people to jealousy. Such, unfortunately, is the present unhealthy state of public opinion in our democracy that no one can take action out of the common role bo the motive ever so good in con-' ception and honourable in purpose without having his very honesty attacked and condemned ere a thought had been given to the merit of the cause or the wealth of argument which supported it. To this debasement of public thought and sentiment in our political and social life is attributable the lamentable absence of patriotism in the councils of the people and the destruction of all public spirit in our communities.

To attribute a jealous motive in exposing a wrong inflicted on friends and neighbours is assuredly no answer to the specific charges advanced of wilful misrepresentation, and to those weakling spirits who could . credit a fellow-citizen with no higher ground of action than' that of envy of a travelling caravan.; I hurl back the charge with indignation and contempt for miserable minds incapable of conceding to a public man in a public matter nobler motives than those, the outcome of base selfishness or jealousy. The Golden Chariot and its accessories but. repeat what I have often seen carried out both in England and America during the last twenty years. In all cases a blazing equipage, expert teeth extraction, witn removal of superficial growths, became the cntr6 to the confidence of the masses. Then the wonderful cure - all drug is introduced and sold at an enormous profit. Sensational cases having been obtained, and wondrous tales circulated of so-called cancers having been removed, with paralysed people cured (and before sad truths have time to leak out), private consultations are started. Then, reports industriously spread announce that the new arrivals will remain for a long time,; which is fervently believed, until (the pool being scooped) some pressing emergency' takes the visitors away as hurriedly and as unostentatiously as they came, boldly triumphant, while the public arc left wondering that they had been so easily fleeced and befooled, blaming everything and every in their discomfiture and chagrin. It is true that in England and America the game is almost played out, and but the residuum of the working-classes, or an East end of London mob, would believe a tithe or subscribo a shilling in support of such pretensions. Hero, however, things are different, and among a people not hitherto tried in the fire of past experience, a splendid field is offered to the charlatan to trap the unwary. Having seen for myself, and knowing these things, I. deemed it a solemn duty, not only as a medical man, but as a citizen to sound the trumpet note of warning through the columns of the Press, and save, if possible, some poor suffering ones from being befooled, and the people from being victimised. It is true that I wrote on this subject, as I felt — strongly, — for the occasion was one worthy of a supreme effort. General depression prevails, and all are impoverished. When it is remembered that these people are taking openly, at the lowest calculation, some £3000 per month, with goodness knows how much in special foes from so-called pr /ate cases, and that this enormous income is extracted from the resources of those least able to afford, the most sceptical will admit that all will suffer from so severe a drain upon the masses of the people. The storekeeper, butcher, baker, and (contrary to the vulgar belief) to a lesser degree, the doctor, since be it remembered that the class of patients from which the money is taken are very rarely those under present medical care, but almost invariably victims to chronic diseases or to the prevailing excitement so cleverly created, and vialade imaginaire, the lawyer and the newspaper proprietor all suffer from this wholesale plunder of the little remaining ready money now in our community. Not only is commercial loss entailed by these sen-

sational visitations, but the injury done to poor sufferers is oftentimes cruel and irreparable. Incurable and hopeless cases, filled with new-born hopes by the suddenlyacquired fame of the pseudo-healer, come from long distances, enduring much bodily suffering and danger from exposure at such a season of the year, alas ! to return emptied in pocket, and every hope dashed to fragments! That dangerous and unfortunate consequences sometimes follow the simple operations which have been performed by Madame Duflot with so much gusto, has been exemplified during the past few days in cases which have come under my notice. One was a patient who had a small sebaceous tumour removed from the back of the head. Bleeding subsequently occurred to so alarming an extent that a well-known Ponsonby surgeon had to be called in and an artery tied before it could be effectually checked. Again, we have had several cases of retained stumps, and, at the Hospital, two examples in which portions of the jaw had been fractured on the Golden Chariot.

The case at present sub judice I shall not dwell upon, but that the spirit lotion, while acting (temporarily) beneficially in some cases by dissolving the wax, also at times inflames the ear, I have already had an opportunity of observing. And, lastly, no sane person can reasonably doubt that the excitement artificially created and undergone by hysterical and nervous persons on the Golden Chariot must, of its very nature, be injurious in the long run to a class of patients who, of all others, require rest and repose of mind and body. From the South, also, had already come reports from Dunedin and other places where prosecutions have been commenced by erstwhile patients, and in cases compromised.

Again, can any sane person reasonably doubt that if Madame Duflot could cure, as advanced, cases of medullary cancer, of advanced consumption, of confirmed paralysis dependent upon organic brain isoase, our poor little islands would afford too humble a resting-place for so great a benefactress to humanity. Should, indeed, she deign to come and visit us with such credentials, medical men who loved their profession would proudly draw her through the streets on a chariot of real gold, whilst the steamer which carried so precious a burden would be heralded to our shores as none before or since had been announced. But on the other hand, if pretenders come to our country and take from our people the little that they have upon the most flagrant misrepresentations, deluding poor suffering ones and degrading them by public exhibitions of their frailties, it is then the duty of all right-feeling men who know these things, whether they be doctors or citizens (bo the consequences what they may), to expose the fraud and denounce the imposture. That a member of the medical profession could be found to so degrade his cloth and noble calling by countenancing such pretensions, and capable of suggesting in the 19th century that a number of his fellow citizens should assemble to consider the possibility of a miracle being effected, or whether supernatural powers were possessed by these individuals, affords yet another sorrowful example of human frailty destroying the usefulness and reputation of a life which, under happier guidance, might have proved of some benefit to his fellowcolonists. The very mooting of such 'a proposition is degrading to our city, and if for a moment acted upon would make fair Auckland and her people the laughingstock of intellectual mankind. lor my own part I have done, and if these communications have been the means of saving one poor sufferer from the wiles of charlatanism I am more than rewarded, and lay down my pen in the full consciousness of having done my duty in protecting the public from imposition, and of seeking their good.—lam, etc., St. Leoer.