THE DOCTOR AND THE QUACK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13523, 22 August 1907, Page 6

THE DOCTOR AND THE QUACK.

TESTIMONIAL FROM DR.

BAKEWELL.

A REMARKABLE STATEMENT

[BY TELEGRAPH.- -OWN CO-RESPONDENT.]

CHKiSTCHtRCH, Wednesday. At the request of Mrs. Stanton, wife of the unregistered practitioner who was sentenced last week to four months' imprisonment, the Press prints an. affidavit purporting to be signed by Dr. R. H. Bakewell, of Auckland, testifying to the benefit he received from Stanton's treatment in his own case. He says: —

In the year 1897 I vas suffering for several months from severe cough and uuakiness of the voice, tor which I was treated by a medical friend. Finding that 1 was not improving, in spite of severe local treatment. I consulted anotne'r medical triend, who, on examining mc with the laryngoscope, pronounced that I was suffering from an ulcerated tumour in the interior of the windpipe. Two other surgeons corroborated this diagnosis. Of the three consulted, two at once pronounced the tumour to be of a cancerous nature. The third said it might he a papilloma. Walking home in a state of despair that I cannot describe, I passed by Mr. William Stanton's consulting rooms, and resolved to see what ho could do. 1 had seen several cases of cancer treated by Mr. Stanton which had !;c"en discharged or stated to be incurable by Qualified surgeons, but which had been successfully removed by Mr. Stanton. On stating my case to Mr. Stanton, and asking whether lie could, do anything for me. he replied in a confident tone. "I can cure you. I then nut myself entirely under Mr. Stanton's treatment. This consisted in ♦.he taking of a solution of a white powder in water every hour during the waking day. After a couple of days' treatment 1 told Mr. Stanton that to take a dose every hour would involve giving up practice. Thereupon Mr. Stanton told me to take double the dose every two hours, 'this was done during the whole course of the treatment. The cough •was very much relieved at once, and at toe end of a fortnight I applied to the three surgeons who had examined me with the laryngoscope 10 re-examine me. One of them declined to do so, on the ground thai I was under the care of an unqualified ~practitioner.' The other two both declared that the.. ulceration had healed, and that the tumour "had diminished by one-half. At the end of four weeks' treatment by Mr. Stanton, the report of the tiro surgeons was that the tumour had entirely disappeared, and nothing but a slight mark remained to show where it had been. At the end of six weeks' treatment all trace of. the -tumour had disappeared. "■•■"■..'•' Since then I have been carefully examined bv several surgeons, including two military medical officers in South Africa, who have all pronounced the larynx to be free from any tumour. I cannot sufficiently express my gratitude to Mr. William Stanton for the cure he has effected of one of the most horrible diseases that can afflict any .human being.

The affidavit was made on the Bth inst., before Mr. E. G. Allswortb. J.P., at Onehunga.

" BEYOND COMPREHENSION." ■ Commenting on this document the Press remarks: "We cannot say that it shakes in the slightest degree the opinion we have held regarding Stanton ever since he came under our notice, but it deserves to be preserved as one of the curiosities of the literature associated with quacks and their dupes. Like the unfortunate subject of the Into inquest Dr. Bakewell was treated with a white powder. If it was icing sugar that was used in his case it is evident that that simple, harmless substance possesses valuable' therapeutic properties of which it has hitherto been little suspected. Dr. Bakewell is to be congratulated that Mr. Stanton did not employ the far more violent remedies which he used in his treatment of cancer patients in Christchurch. We confess, however, that the attitude of mind which could lead any medical man to go to a person of whose qualifications he knew nothing, to swallow a white powder of whoso constitution he was equally •ignorant, and to believe that, he had thereby been cured of cancer in the throat is to us something beyond comprehension. In future we shall regard with even more Sympathy .than in the past the poor ignorant labouring people who are gulled by quacks.", . "". '~.". ,'".-; DR. BAKEWELL INTERVIEWED "AN UNDOUBTED CURE." HYPNOTISM IN MEDICAL SCIENCE.

•■' .Interviewed last ..evening at Onehunga with reference to the affidavit given by him referring to his cure at the hands of Stanton, the Christchurch cancer doctor," Dr. Uakewell said he had not the** slightest doubt- lie.was really cured of cancer by Stanton, through hypnotic suggestion. As far as. the white powders. given him' by Stanton were concerned, he (Dr. Bakewell) did not for a moment think they had anything to do with the cure, or, in fact, that they had anything to do with the case, except* that taking them constantly kept up the suggestion. Anyone who laughed at the idea of hypnotic suggestion in medical science must be very ignorant of what had been going on in the scientific world, for it was well known many diseases had been cured by hypnotic suggestion. "And there is no doubt you were cured of cancer?" asked the "interviewer.

"Not the slightest doubt,'' returned the doctor.., "Three well-known medical men, Dr. Purchas, Dr. Girdler, and Dr. Scott, all ! diagnosed my case' as cancer tumor in the throat. • As one of them said, 'What could it be but cancer at your age, Bakewell?' 1 was then 68 years of age. I was under Stanton's treatment six weeks: I might have continued two or three weeks longer, but not- regularly. At the time it was either Stanton or deliberate suicide. I had I made up. my mind I could not possibly face the awful death I knew would be my lot; 1 was not going to face it. ' I was in utter despair, knowing that the disease meant '.certain death, arid i was in that slate of mind when suicide seemed the only course, the only escape from what I knew was com!ing." . ;. ... '"And then you went to Stanton?" -'■ "Yes; and I never could repay him for What he did for me. 1 had come into con'tnct with some of his cases, and I went .to him. His piercing look gave me confidence from the Start, mid when J. said, 'Can you cure, me?' and explained the whole case to him, and he replied, 'I can cure you,' I felt some hop*. ' I was lifted up in mind fit once from the state of despair into which I had reached. The disease had then been on me for some months, and was giving me a great deal of trouble, and the cough was bad. Afterwards many medical men wrote to ask me about it, ami the British Medical Association in Wellington wrote. I replied that I was cured by Stanton, and said, I ' Before you blame me for going to him, 1 wait till you feel yourselves condemned to death, as I was.'""

In further conversation, Dr. BakeweU said, ."T had an idea of writing on this subject. A man is not endowed with superhuman wisdom because he lias passed the examinations of some medical corporation. Look, for instance, at the old ' bone-setters,' who used to cure diseases, particularly of the joints, in the most marvellous way, and they effected cures of long-standing complaints. Then look at. the old type of doctor, the jolly, hearty old soul, who hadn't much skill, but who used to tell his patients they were getting on marvellously, and so on, and they used to get we!! too. It was often jnsr. the doctor's breezy, hypnotic suggestion, just the confidence the patients had that the doctor knew all about it. That kind of doctor is disappearing, the examinations are doing away with him. Then, take thought transmission, or telepathy, in India, "what is that but hypnotism? I have read of many well-known cases, too, There was one in which a patient was told, while under the influence, that at two o'clock next morning words written on his arm by the operator in pencil would be outlined in blood, and a committee which watched all the time found it actually true, and saw the blood ooze through the skin. Then there are the cures at. J.onrdes. ' am perfectly well satisfied they aio nil through hypnotic BU"ijestioii. Women have gone there suffering from great cysts, and com? away cured" if it wasn't hypnotic suggestion, what was it?" , Speaking about Stanton s cases. Dr. Bakewell went on to say, " The man has got his punishment. I did not uphold him for practising in medicine without the requisite knowledge. I warned him

about it, but his hypnotic power was won ; derful. Now, when I was over in Hokitika I had 23 cases of diphtheria, and cured them all. In Christehurch I had a case, after that, ;i little girl, and she, wasn't very bad at first. In spite of all I could do the child got worse. I fought the discare night and day, hut the child died. If I had not been a registered medical practitioner I would have been charged with manslaughter in that case, perhaps. There was something in th.v child's constitution that resisted all cures. Supposing the cafe for which Stanton was convicted was one like that ! All I know, and all I -can say, is that Stanton absolutely cured me."