LECTURE.

Timaru Herald, Volume XIIC, Issue 13657, 28 July 1908, Page 2

LECTURE.

"SIDELIGHTS OX QUACKERY."

A lecture was given in St. Mary's School Room last evening, by Muson, cluef health officer, on "Some Sidelights on Quackery." There was a gratifying attendance of members of the Society, and of recipients of invitations. 11. I I. W. Marchant, who presided, apologised, for the absence of Archdeacon Harper. lfr Mason opened with the remark that since the beginning of history there had always been "dupes and dupers." They were" constantly hearing of the evils of quackery, but the Legislature had not yet passed "any effective anti -quackery Bill, thougli last .year an unsuspicious and perfectly harmless-looking amendment, to the l'ostal Act was passed and by its means correspondence with quacks had been very materially reduced and the Post Oftice was now able to stop the practices of some of them. In New Zealand they had now fewer human leeches than in any other country in the world. The firstfrayd touched upon was the electric belt. He stated that, it was now liaid to get certain belts and the last lot that he saw was a load of 300 being carted to the Wellington destructor where the}' were burned, they having been distrained for lent.' They could not always blame the seller of quack medicines for the influence -_f r< ,\tktriy; from the earlie.it times there had been medicine-men in whom people believed, and some of the old-time tohungas of the Maoris were skilled herbalists, but. now had forgotten liici.' science and merely remembered the incanta'-ions. He dwelt at length on the gullibility of the public, and quoted sumo magazine advertisements guaranteeing to make short people tall, to make stout people thin, to -make thin people stoutt-r, etc., and he asked was there any place outside of a lunatic asylum where they could get anybody to believe these statements, which were addressed variously to the woman with wrinkles, to the man who had mis-spent his youth, to the woman with hair on her face, etc. These people Ave could smile at, but' the class of lnen we could not smile at were those who showed in the advertisements their bleary-looking faces, and said they could cure consumption with medicines, who took money from their dupes whose children starved in consequence. The dupe was trying' to find a short cut, where there was none, and all tire time his complaint was becoming worse. Particularly was this so in the case of cancer, which'often grew from a small pimple and looked harmless, but) became incurable while the quack was tampering with it. What were they to think of the man who not only took liis patients' money, but their hopes of salvation? He was nothing less Than a murderer, and should have no pity, and should ha stamped onfc. There" were many of these in existence, and he knew of one in particular wno practised: and fooled his dupes under tit least h.ir» different names. They used all manner of lures to obtain customers and having once got them they threatened, blackmailed and in many cases extorwd money from the sufferers, especially in cases following upon ignorance. The speaker urged any youth wanting advice to fight clear of certain persona (named). In the advertising portion of' one magazine he had counted as many as 98 appeals tio the short, the tall, the hairy and the hairless and ia most of these appeals it wa3 the same quack speaking. The lecturer ihen gave a list of bust improvers, superfluous hair removere, antifat cures, Grecian culture moth ids, c'c. and quoted some published remarks by Mr Labouchere and other exposers to show the utter worthlessness of the so-called cures, the methods and the characters of the quacks, men who knew nothing of what they purported they could cure, who could not be found in their offices, but who merely called there for lexers »>i'd money orders. Dr Mason named frauds that had been exposed, and said that while there was a comic side to this quackery business there was also a very sad one, for besides increasing the pain of sufferers the quacks made use of confidential letters for purposes of blackmail. Why vhe speaker started his campaign was to get at the leeches M ho destroyed the minds of boys and girls ; and he was pleased to say that he had succeeded in getting nearly all the papers : ; o cease, advertising certain quacks, with the result that the press of New Zealand was now one of the cleanest in the world. If young i-ur- w. re in trouble they should not resort to quacks, who were not out to help the public, but. to help themselves —financially. Several times during his in^'"--'..i.:'-and instructive discourse Dr Mason was applauded, and again ai. the conclusion; and Mr Marchant, the chairman, had his audience with him when he eaid that this

thing that Dr Mason,was attacking should have the support • of, all. On the motion of Mr R. W. Simpson a very hearty vote of thanks was accorded the speaker.