A QUACKS TORTURE CURE.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5558, 8 April 1905, Page 12

A QUACKS TORTURE CURE.

Tho Courts at St. Louis, U.S.A., have been called upon to decide whether the Knoipp cure, as administered by a St. Louis doctor,, is a cure or just simple torture. Two women, who declare they have undergone indescribable torture in taking tho Kneipp “cure,” appealed to the city authorities, and the matter quickly got into tho courts. Mrs Valerio von Tolkacz, of No. 3949 Washington avenue, and Mrs Ada Parrand, of No. 1405 St. Ange street, are tlie women who wont to the Ivneipp institution, seeking strength and health.' Both were afflicted with rheumatism, and Mrs Farrand was also of the opinion that Mie was becoming too stout. Reports of tho cures wrought by Father Ivneipp and his apostles had readied the St, Louis women. The benefits to be derived from the “cure” which lias so many followers, appeared most alluring. They hoard that- Dr Hechter was an apostle of Father Ivneipp and sought him. After taking baths in ice-cold water, reclining in becks made of piles of cracked ice, sleeping in sheets saturated with ice-cold water, walking untold distances, and eating but a tride. tho women decided they had not been cured and appealed to the Board of Health. A warrant was issued. FROM ICY BATHS TO BEDS OF ICE. “I was prepared for rigorous treatment,” declared Mrs von Tolkacz, “but I was unprepared for the tortures to be iieapcd upon me. I was more than willing to stand much to get rid of the rheumatism, but I was not prepared for the strenuous measures resorted to. “Water was the basis of his treatment, and it was served in its most unattractive forms. I was made to bathe in water when it was near the freezing point. No sooner had I recovered from tho shock incident to reclining an indefinite period in a tub of ioo-cold water, than I was taken and laid in a bed of cracked ice. “One who lias never lain in a bed of this sort cannot appreciate its true import. But I did as directed, and for eternities, it seemed to me, X was reclining on these bods of ice. Even when I was permitted to leave this ice pack there was no relief, for no sooner would I get my breath that he would place mo between sheets that had been saturated in ice-cold water, and I was told to go to sleep. This sort of treatment was not conducive to sleep, but. I managed to lose consciousness at times and get a brief respite from the treatment.

“Then would come the awakening. Then it was to walk. The ‘doctor’ insisted on me taking long walks in the early hours of the -morning, and I did this walking in my bare feet. “Another feature of Dr Hechter's cure was placing me on a diet. I could have all the fruit I wanted. Apples, or any other fruit that came handy, it was proper for me to ©at, ho said, but under no circumstances was I to eat meat or drink any tea, coffee, chocolate—nothing but water. “I complied faithfully with all his requirements. If it did me any good I could not notice it. The rheumatism was as troublesome as ever. I began to suspect that the treatment was not the kind that good Father Kneipp had cured his followers with. “An official or tho Board of Health called on mo. X told him what had happened. I was requested to continue the treatment to accumulate sufficient evidence to make n oa&e against tho doctor. I did so. My prosecution of the case was voluntary. It was not until after I had been requested to appear against the doctor that I learned that there was another woman who felt as I did in the premises." FITTED FOR* MANCHURIAN CAMPAIGN. Mrs Ada Farrand, of No* 1405 St. Ange avenue, sought relief from physical ailments. “Tho treatment I got," said she, “should equip mo for a campaign in Manchuria. In fact, I doubt if the Russians in the frozen north, have to undergo more rigorous treatment than I underwent. I could stand the cold baths, for I had been accustomed to them all my life. But to be packed in a couch of cracked ice and be made to lie there until it seemed that life was frozen out of you, and you became as rigid as those statues out at the World’s Fair, was too much. After recovering from these attacks I would be compelled to walk until I was exhausted. “And then to think that all that I endured was in vain. The treatment did not do any good at all. I began to investigate the treatment before I heard of Mrs von Tolkacz figuring in tho case." Information issued by Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Dalton charges Dr Redder with practising medicine without a license from the Board of Health and without having been examined by the Board. Dr Hechter says that he is not violating the law, as he makes no claims to being a doctor of medicine. He says he does not practise medicine and never administers any drugs. He says that the Kneipp cur© is a species of bath and not a medical treatment.