QUACKS AND QUACKERY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13238, 19 March 1907, Page 3

QUACKS AND QUACKERY.

In the course 'of his presidential address at the opening of the Medic.": Congress at Dunedin, ]Jr liarnett said : Can a man practice as .a latter or as' an engineer without registration? No. Would the Government of New Zealand allow, a man "to run any kind of engine without a certificate of 'competence? No. Yet, where disorders of (lie most delicate and intricate machineiy in the world are concerned, the sacred human body, which admUe.Uy tikes a jieiiort of at least five years to begin to understand, then according to the laws of this country, any half-educated dabbler in the ■-cienceN any ignorant' adventuier, -can proclaim himself competent to cine, 'and can work his will upon those who are nmvi' c- enough or unlucky enough lo seek hi-, ministrations. "Ilie»only limitations to unqualified practice in this colony are two —namely, the inability to recover fees in a court of law, 'and tihe inability to sign a death certificate. IJj.it what is the value of' such lestiictions? Pia.et'caHy 'nil. lhe unqualified practitioner is", as-.we nil , know, in the habit of demanding and obtaining payment in advance—usually a lump sum of fine proportion". He has no occasion to seek the &< of the law in obtaining his fees. As to signing a death'' certificate', the unqualified practitioner, "scenting an inquest, promptly abandons his ' pa'ient if he sees the illness is threatening a fatal termination. The duly qualified doctor has to be sent for, and if,, "the, patient becoming s-o ill that recovery in impossible, the qualified man fs called upon to attend at. the final scenes audio furnish a death certificate. ) y :/ i. " There are -.il.irge numbers of people including not only the ignorant, but the lovers of the the neurotics, the half-crazy -crank, the faddists, uho' prefer' /the treatment? of the quacks, to that of .the* orthodox, practitioners. You may have hearcl of,the famous Paris quack who carried on a highly lucrative practice / amongst', this cltvr of people. Iho police being Instructed to suppiess quackery, raided his house and arrested him for practising / without it diploma. Hr took them .secretly into ■ a back room mul 'chew from its hiding place his .diploma, showing that he had genuine pualifications, bun with fear and trembliDg he implored them.'-not to betrnv his secret,, or his 'would be ruined. There is a brisk demand for qu .ck treatment; there always will be, and the sup- | ply will meet the demand. Now, [ i,doubt whether, my active crusade on the part of the medical profession against I this class of practice is called for. Ho I long as the public understand that it is quackery, I suppose they 'can choose it if 1 tliey wi.-h. We can point out. lo them that they will probably waste much money, and, worse' than that, they may let the favourable opportunity for ladieal treatment, i lip, 'by, and incipient cancer •or consumption may have 'established itself too "deeply for successful interference by the time the unfortunate or foolish dupes find themselves released from •the coils of^ quackeTy.' We may quote the confessions of victims who have left the hands of "'quacks .adder, wiser,'and poorer men; ne may ridicule the electric belts which are sold at pi ices ranging from three or 20 guineas and possess asj much electrical virtue as a dog' collar; we may prove to demonstration that the much vaunted cures of hernia, cancer, epilepsy, goitre, asthma, dy-meno'nhea, amenorrhea,, nervous debility, and what not, aie in nine case-- out of 10 ignorant frauds. - Our denunciations fall upon unsympatheiic' ears; we ai'c legarded as biassed, ■as jealous, as self-iuteie- j el. We can and point out to the public the they run in entrusting their pi-edoo' bodies 'to the care of quack-.. J doubt whether we ought, to do moie. If the , public wishes to protect fhe'ignoitant and the' silly from- falling victims t« the alluring snares of the irregular praeti:ioner it can demand legislation to that end, and .it can be suie of the sympathy and co optiation of tin medical profession "