No More Learning

Letter VI--"It has been and is now a matter of no small wonderment to me why you so persistently neglect so important a matter as the treatment and cure of your affliction. I have cured many cases similar to yours. My professional honor is at stake, and I am not going to make a false or misleading statement to secure you as a patient. " Terms--$25 cash, or $15 cash and two monthly payments of $7. 50 each.
Letter VII and last--"Fortune is now knocking at your door," and Dr. Powell makes a "special and confidential price of $15," to secure "a cured patient in your neighborhood right away," and for this, gives me "the most positive assurance of a rapid and complete cure. "
This is the Complete Letter-Writer of quackery. Of the seven epistles six are form-letters, sent exactly alike to every patient, and abounding in general promises, equally and fallaciously inapplicable, to every cases. Dr. Guy Clifford Powell's "Electro-Vibratory Cure for Deafness" isn't worth $100, or $30, or $25, or 25 cents, except as its patent right, owned by the "discoverer," is an asset in his swindling operations.
Another member of the Powell clan hails from Boston. He must be a thorn in the side of Discoverer Powell, this Dr. J. Rider Powell, as he not only has a vibrator of his own, but he offers to sell it, together with a five months' treatment, for the low price of three dollars, which is cutting under the market with a vengeance. Considering the cheapness of Dr. J. Eider, I hesitate to criticise him too severely, but his "literature" fills me with misgivings that he is brother in art, if not in family, to Guy Clifford. Boston shelters also "Health Specialist Sproule," who occasionally styles himself "Catarrh Specialist Sproule. " "Deafness Conquered" is Sproule's headline. "I shall let you know whether the case is one I can con- scientiously accept for treatment," he writes me, and when I send him the details of a case which anyone but an imbecile or a quack Avould recognize as hopeless, he cheerfully accepts it. The Doctors Gardner of West Thirty-third Street, K'ew York, run a fake concern, on a basis, of false and ridiculous claims.
The Deaf Not Neglected.
Small instruments at large prices, exploited as aids to hearing, may still be found advertised in some of the most careful magazines. These are quite moderate in their claims, and as long as the prospective buyer understands that it is ten to one against his deriving any benefit from them, they are, perhaps, legitimate enough. Seldom do they do any harm, though the introduction of foreign substances into the ear is not the most prudent of processes. An extreme type Avas the late Help-to- Hear Company (not in the legitimate category), which sent out circulars
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stating that the inventor had been deaf for twelve years, during which time he had spent a small fortune on cures, before perfecting a device which was a certain remedy and which he would sell to the blessed public for the small price of $2 each. Investigation by the Post-Office authori- ties developed the fact that the "device" was a small sheet of hard rubber to be held against the teeth, that it was wholly inefficacious, and that it cost about seven cents; after admitting all which, the Help-to-Hear Com- pany gracefully retired from business.
Easily first among the mechanical fakes is Actina, made by the New York and London Electric Association of Kansas City, which also manu- factures "Magneto-Conservative Garments" (supposed to cure anything from indigestion to locomotor ataxia) and other bunco devices. Actina itself is alleged to cure deafness and blindness, also catarrh, nervousness and a few pathological odds and ends of that sort. Its religious backers
are the St. Louis Christian Advocate and the Central Baptist. Its booklet
WONDERFUL ACTINA.
"Cures" eye troubles at one end, ear diseases at the other and all by means of a bad smell valued at ten dollars.
is a weird jumble of pseudo-physiology and bad English. The Actina itself costs ten dollars. It is a small steel vial with screw stoppers at both ends. One end cures eye ailments and the other ear troubles. They work simultaneously. I live in hopes of seeing the Actina concern give a test, applying Blind Mary to one end and a deaf mute to the other, and curing both at one stroke of business for five dollars apiece. The Actina, upon being unpacked from the box in which it is mailed, comports itself life a decayed onion. It is worth the ten dollars to get away from the odor. "Can be used by anyone with perfect safety," says the advertisement, but I should regard it as extremely unsafe to offer it to a person with a weak stomach. Its principal ingredient is oil of mustard, an active poison, regarding which the United States Pharma- copeia prints this emphatic warning: ''Great caution should be exer- cised when smelling this oil. " So the "perfect safety" guarantee is hardly sound. The Actina contains also oil of sassafras, representing pre- sunmbly a brave but hopeless attempt to kill the inexpressible odor| and
? Ill
some alkaloid, possibly atropin. So far as curing any genuine eye or ear disease is concerned, the sufferer might just as well--and with "far more
--
blow red pepper up his nose, and get his sneeze cheaper than by
safety
sniffing at a ten-dollar evil smell. The whole contrivance costs probably about twenty-five cents to make.
Space lacks to consider at any length the get-thin-quick frauds, but the following letter regarding the "Obesity Cure" of F. J. Kellogg of Rattle Creek, ^lichigan, puts the case so justly that I quote it as applying to all this class of fakes:
"Co^rANCHE, Texas, Feb. 7, 1900. "Editor Collier's, 'New York City, N. Y. :
"Dear Sir--As one of ycur subscribers I take the liberty of sending you the within Tetter.
" 'Turns fat into muscle' is the slogan of this fake. Everyone having
the slightest knowledge of physiological metamorphosis knows that such '
a change is impossible.
"This vulture sneaking into the homes of those suffering from fattv
degeneration, or (which is more frequently the case) enjoying good health and fat because of a family characteristic, and, b}^ a process of mental suggestion, swindling and despoiling them of remaining health, should be held up to public scorn till the world may see that there are better men in every prison containing an inmate on earth.
"Yours truly,
"J. W. Reese. "
Mr. Reese is right. Nothing supplies muscle where fat was, but hard physical effort, and the man who pretends to achieve this result by medi- cine or "health food" is lying in the face of a fundamental law of nature. The treatment that reduces your fat by mail reduces your health by mail. There are also cures for leanness, addressed mostly to women, and promis- ing- perfection of figure. It is, perhaps, enough to say that any woman who tries the "bust developer" treatment is playing with fire, and that the vultures who conduct it fatten on the carrion of ruined morals and wrecked lives.
Some "Ways of Knowing a Quack.
In one department of medical practice a layman may be justified in giving advice, and that is in pointing out what pitfalls to avoid. Here are a few of the more conspicuous and unmistakable indications of quackery among the specialists : The advertising doctor who, having a "cure" to sell, is "editorially endorsed" by any publication, particul-^' in the religious field, is a quack. The doctor who advertises secret powers, or newly discovered scientfic methods, or vaunts a special "sys- tem" or "method. " is a quack. The doctor who offers to sell, at a price, a cure for any ailment is a quack, and if he professes a "special interest" in your case and promises reduced rates, he's throwing in a little extra lying for good measure. Finally, the form-letter is a sure sign. You can tell it because it begins "Dear Friend," or "Dear Mr. So-and-So," or "My Dear Correspondent," and contains promises that will fit any case. If, however, you are determined to give a trial to one of these "specialists," suggest these terms: that, since he promises to cure you, you will deposit to his account the full price of the treatment, to be paid him as soon as you are cured, or substantially benefited, and not laefore. Then and there negotiations will cease. The promising quack will never stand behind his promises. Through this simple expedient one may guard him- self against the whole army of medical scamps, for this is the final test of quackery which none of the ilk can abide.
? Reprinted from "Collier^s Weekly/' September, 22, IDOG.
IV. THESCAVENGERS.
rHIS article, which is the last in the series that has been running under the title of ''The Great American Fraud'' for the past year, deals with those fakers who claim to cure the drink habit
or the drug habit by mail. Mr. Adams has made an interesting collection of facts concerning the methods of these quacks, which are Uere set forth in detail. It is shown that the so-called drug ''cures'' merely aggravate the drug habit, and never cure it.
At the bottom of the noisome pit of charlatanry crawl the drug habit specialists. They are the scavengers, delving amid the carrion of the fraudulent nostrum business for their profits. The human wrecks made by the opium and cocain laden secret patent medicines come to them for cure, and are wrung dry of the last drop of blood. By comparison with these leeches of the uttermost slime, the regular patent medicine faker is a pattern of righteousness. He can find something to say for himself, at least. The leading citizen of Columbus will advocate the faith-cure vir- tues of his Peruna with a twinkle in his eye; the higliiy respectable legal light wlio is now jjresident of Chicago University Club will manage to defend, with smug lawyer talk, the dollars he made out of Liquozone; even the menacing trade of the Antikamnia folk is excused (by the owners) on the ground that it does give relief in certain cases. But the creatures who prey upon drug fiends are confessedly beyond the pale. They deliberately foster the most dreadful forms of slavery, for their own profit. They have discovered a money-making villainy worse than murder, for which, apparently, there is no legal penalty. Equally deep in degra- dation I would rank those thugs who, as "specialists" in private diseases, ruin the lives of men and extort their pay by daring blackmail.
The drink curers are on a somewhat difi'erent plane. They are swindlers, not panders. Time was Avhen the "cures" for alcoholism consisted in the substitution of the w'orse morphin or cocain habits for the drink habit. This is done, if at all, very little now. The "^Icoholists" give some "bracer" or slow emetic, and try to persuade the victim that he is cured, long enough to get their pay. I group them with the drug cure wretches, because they prey on the same class, though with a less degree of vicious- ness. They may be compared to the petty shore thieves who furtively strip the bodies of the drowned,: the opium-morphin-cocain-cure quacks are the wreckers who lure their victims to destruction by false signals.
No Effort Is Made to Save a Patient.
No more vivid illustration of the value of the patent medicine clause in the Pure Food law, requiring that the amount of habit-forming drug in any medicine be stated on the label, could be found than is furnished by the "drug habit" cures. Practically all of these advertised remedies are simply the drug itself in concealed form. No effort is made to save the patient. The whole purpose is to substitute for the slavery to the drug purchased of the corner pharmacist the slavery to the same drug, disguised, purchased at a much larger price from the "Doctor" or "Insti- tute" or "Society. " Here is a typical report from a victim: "When I tried to stop the remedy, I found I could not, and it was worse than the morphin itself. I then went back to plain morphin, but found that I requierd Ucice as much as before I took the cure. That is what the morphin cure did for me. " Another victim of a "No pay, no cure" sani- tarium treatment writes:
? The Purdy Cure Maplewood Institute
St. James Society Cure . O. P. Coats Co. Cure . Harris Institute Cure Morphina-Cure Opacura
Prof. M. M. Waterman Drug Crave Crusade Denarco
C. HofFman Cure . .
Dr.
Dr. B. M, Woolley Cure . .
Dr.
J.
J.
Edward Allport System
(J.
L. Stephens
. .
)
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"Xo, he never rotuvii? tlie money, for the poor sufferers are glad to get fuvay witli what little life they have left. You board at the house at $1. 25 per day, in advance. You also pay every cent of your $100 before ))eii! g treated. You are then at his mercy, if you can stand it. They give you a certain length of time by treatment, and they stop and tell jv^ou to kick it out, and that you will be all right in a few days, and the misery is so great that most any preacher, who never told a lie, would say he was all O K in order to get away, seemingly, cured. Some few get as far as Cincinnati before they are back to the habit, while others get the stuff before leaving Lebanon. "
The Cure. Richie Painless Cure
. . . ,
What It Contains.
Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin
Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin Morphin
St. Paul Association Cure . Tri-EIixiria (Charles B. James)
. . . .
THE PRINCIPAL QUACK MORPHIN CURES.
When the Pure Food Law goes into effect these vulturous enterprises will go
out of business, as each "cure" must be labeled with its full content of morphin. This dainty advertisement decorated the New York billboards to the dismay
of the cure's clerical endorsers.
This refers to the MapleAvood Medical Institute of Lebanon, Ohio, run by the Dr. J. L. Stephens Co. , of which more hereafter.
Investigations into the mail order drug cures have been made on the basis of a pretended morphin addiction. In eA^ery case the "remedy" sent me to cure the morphin habit has been a morphin solution. Some- times the morphin was mixed with other drugs, to produce greater effect and fasten more firmly upon the unfortunate the TtaMt of the remedy, as substitute for the original drug habit. All these concerns advertise to cure also the cocain habit, the chloral habit, the opium habit, etc. As they covertly give morphin to their morphin victims, it is a just infer-
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ence that they treat the cocain habit with disguised eocain, the opium habit with concealed opium, the chloral habit with hidden chloral, and so throughout the list.
Surrounded by the best religious influences, in the Presbyterian Build- ing at 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City, the Rev. W. N. Richie, D. D. , holds forth. Here, in pious words, he invokes the aid of Heaven upon his transactions. He has another address, 105 St. James Place, Brooklyn, where he does the work of Hell. By his catch-word^ "for the sake of humanity," he has inveigled a number of well-meaning and otherwise intelligent gentlemen into supporting his scheme with their names. As high-minded a man as the late Rev. John Hall was duped, and his picture is now used on the cover of one of the Richie circulars. Rev. Dr. Burrell, the late Rev. S. S. Baldwin, Rev. C. A. Stoddard, and the editors of the Independent, Christian TForfc and other religious journals appear as en-
MAPLEWOOD MEDICAL INSTITUTE OF LEBANON, OHIO. Issues a "Morpiiiue Cure by Mail," which is itself full of morphine.
dorsers of the Richie "cure. " The "literature" gotten out by the reverend exploiter reeks of a smug pseudo-piety. He recommends his nostrum as a '"Painless cure for all drug habits.
Only cure endorsed by the secre- taries of Foreign 'Mission Boards, Interdenominational Committee, etc. " He claims that it will cause "actual destruction of the desire for nar- cotics. " On his letter-head appear conspicuously the words, "Supports better than the drug. No substitute. " Mark that "No substitute. " This means that in the remedy no drug is substituted for the one used by the victim. It is a lie. The Rev. Dr. Richie knows it for a lie. So well does he know it that his employes dare not back it up in their cor- respondence. After procuring a sample of the output, I wrote, under an assumed name, saying that it produced the same effect as morphin, and
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asking if it contained any of that drug. Here is the reply: "There would be no special advantage in our denying or asserting the use of morphin or opium in the remedy. " "No special use," indeed! Their sam- ple, on analysis, contains 2. 12 grains of crystallized morphin per dose.
An Ordinary Dose Would Kill the Average Man.
I am invited to cure myself by taking this stuff four times a day. If I lived through the first dose, the second would kill me, or any of my readers who is not a morphin fiend. The ordinary dose is % of a grain, heavy dose % of a grain. But the Richie Company supposes I can stand more, so the. y endeavor to foist their concoction upon me in place of my supposed addiction. How does this comport with their "No substitution"
r^
'Tlie sufierirg C3u$jd by tbe Joimtown Fi^'cd . ': Boitobe compared to ih&t caused by Drug licli:- The Richie Cu-re Is an elfeciive remedy for tti. Drug Habit,"
Late Rer. WJuhn Hall, D. D. , LL. 1> - Sth Avc. ,P. C. X,
*
RICHIE CO. \OS5t^amcsPlace, Brooklyn. "^. ^ 7.
Capitalizing an honored name for the profits of scoundrelism.
claim? This and other questions I put in writing to the Eev. Dr. Richie. He has not answered it. His silence is not surprising. It is the part of wisdom--or, at least, caution. I'm not certain just how to place this reverend gentleman. It may be that he has been fooled into believing in the "Richie cure," and that he is an exemplar of a type of . asininity so baneful and deadly that its possessor ought, for the sake of the public, to be permanently established in an asylum for the dangerously imbecile. But I think not. I think he can not be ignorant of his traffic in ruined lives. This alternative implies flat criminality. Nor has the divinity doctor always eluded the clutch of the law. He has been convicted and fined for practicing medicine without a license.
1
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There is a religious tinge to the twin organizations, the St. James Society of Xew York City and the St. Paul Association of Chicago. I call them twins because their letters are identically worded in several important particulars, suggesting vividly a community of interest. M. E. Cowles, M. D. , Medical Director of the St. James swindle, publishes a pamphlet called Plain Truth, from which I cull the following warning against his competitors:
"Substitutes are also extensively advertised, and in taking these the patient is merely paying some imposter about $5 for morphin he could buy in pure form of his druggist for $1. " Quite so! An admirable description of the transaction of the St. James Society. "This is not a reduction cure," he informs me. (A reduction cure is one in which the trccitment consists in a gradual reduction of the drug, from week to week. It is successful only when the patient is under the close surveil- lance of the doctor--and seldom then. ) And when I write him the test letter, saying that the remedy acts like morphin, he replies: "We scarcely think you experienced any of the reactions of morphin. " The average man would experience a promptly fatal reaction if he took the prescribed dose containing 1. 75 grains of morphin six times a day, and half the dose five times more. (It must be remembered that those addicted to drugs can take a dose which would be fatal to the normal person. ) I know of two unfortunates who got the St. James habit more firmly fixed than the original morphin habit. The only satisfaction they received, on complaining, was the advice to "begin the system all over again"--to the profit of the "Society. "
The St. Paul Association also writes me: "This is not a reduction cure," the letter being signed by Dr. I. W. Rogers. In reply to my query as to whether the sample sent me contains morphin, he writes: "We find that your trial is prepared, containing a small amount of [ ] narcotic to each fluid dram. " Evidently the original intention to fill the blank was abandoned. It was filled, however, when I wrote demand- ing the figures of the "small amount," and the name of the blank nar- cotic. The return mail brought me the information that it was "neces- sary to put 1 1/3 grains morphia in each fiuid dram" for my treatment. At the prescribed dosage of a dram six times a day and half a dram between times, I should have been getting about 11 1/3 grains of mor- phin a day instead of the 12 grains, which was my supposed habit. "Not a reduction cure," indeed. Very little reduction in the St. Paul method. A nice, Christian concern, the St. Paul Association, fit com-
panion for its brother in villiany, the St. James Society.
Many Quacks Are Themselves Opium Fiends.
In a former article I had occasion to describe at some length the quack cancer cure of Dr. G. M. Curry of Lebanon, Ohio. This pained the Lebanon new^spapcrs extremely. Having waxed fat upon the Curry cash, they rose in their might and denounced this weekly as a vicious slanderer of good men. Therefore it is with tremulous reluctance that I tempt the shafts of Lebanon's editorial thunders, by taking up another of that enlightened community's standard institutions, the Maplewood Institute for the Cure of Drug Addictions, which is supposed to be rvm by Dr. J. L. Stephens, deceased. Among the endorsements of the sanitarium I find one from Dr. Curry. The institute also issues an editorial endorse- ment by the fake American Journal of Health, for which it paid cash. It refers the inquirer to the Postmaster of Lebanon, any of the newspapers, the city and county officers, etc. , just as Curry does, from which I con- clude that Lebanon must be a lush, green field for the quack harvester. "There is no danger, whatever, in our remedy. It is perfectly harmless,"
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writes the Institute, regarding its sure cure for morphin by mail. Two grains of morphin to the dose is the Stephens notion of a ''perfectly harmless" treatment. "Physician, heal thyself is not a doctrine prac- ticed at the Lebanon Institute of Iniquity. Within recent years three of its "medical directors" or "medical advisers" have been under treat- ment at a reputable and prominent Eastern sanitarium for drug habit. It is an interesting and significant fact, by the way, that a large propor- tion of the morphin and opium cure quacks are themselves "fiends. "
One K. F. Purdy runs a little cure of his own at Houston, Tex. , and issues a pamphlet in which he warns the reader, with owlish solemnity, against quacks and frauds. "The Purdy Cure," he states, "eradicates crave, desire for thedrug,andCauseforitsuse. " Thecause,of course,is the demandof the enslaved body for the drug, and Dr. Purdy satisfies this demand by fur- nishing the required drug secretly. In reply to my request for enlight- enment as to whether his morphin "cure" contains morphin, he replies ingeniously: "I do not think it is to the interest of you or any other patient, to inquire particularly in regard to the character or make-up of the remedy. " Admirable solicitude! Further he assures me that his
DR. K. F. PURDY.
Dr. Piu-dy operates in Houston, Texas, and has quite a trade in drug-cure quackery thVougliout the South.
treaisnient is "absolutely harmless and under no circumstances or con- tingencies will it leave a habit. " As the treatment consists in . 57 grain of morphin per teaspoonful, most authorities would disagree with the claim of absolute harmlessness. Dr. Purdy is simply another of the human ghouls who fatten on drug fiends.
Dr. Coats of the 0. P. Coats Co. of Kansas City labors under the sin- gular delusion that he is not a quack. "T do not advertise in any news- paper," he says proudly. Somebody does it for him, then, for I find his advertisements in the Sunday papers: "Opium, morphin, cocain habits absolutely cured. " The Coats firm is purely a mail order concern. You send them your money for morphin cure and they send you their remedy, containing the very drug that you are striving to discard, in the quan- tity which you have been taking. The Coats "cure" contains 2. 5 grains of morphin per dose, a terrific quantity--and it bears no poison label.
Poison Sent Out Unlabeled.
Something of the nature of the agile grasshopper inheres in the Opa Specialty Co. , which sells Opacura. " It answers my first letter from
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Chicago, my second from San Antonio, and my third from South Haven, Michigan. Possibly it operates on the sound economic principle that it is cheaper to move than to pay rent. "Opacura," the reader is informed, "is very palatable and easily taken, and positively contains no belladonna, calomel, enabis indicis [cannabis indica? ] or atropin in any form. " Nor ice cream, nor dish-water, ncr dry Martini cocktail ! But it does contain morphin, in. most formidable proportion. The Opa Company informs me modestly, replying to my desire for information as to the presence of morphin in the "cure:" "There is a little to give support while the Tonic acts upon the system. " A little! Nearly two grains per dose. "It will not injure the patient in any manner/" declares "^he scoundrel who writes me, and he distributes this deadly poison unlabeled. Mor- phina-Cura, which is advertised as "A Reliable Cure for Opium" is itself morphin. It must be credited with the merciful precaution of labeling its poison wdth skull and bones.
How much there is in a good name ! "Drug Crave Crusade" is almost worth the money. Their advertisement, signed D. C. C. Co. , appears in the Bmart Set, which offers an eager hospitality to this class of villainy. "Our remedy forms no other habit whatever," writes the Dr. Baker, who runs the foul business. Certainly not. It simply keeps up the same h^bit. The patient is encouraged to take all he can stand of the stuff. "Enough to give comfortable support" is what I am encouraged to take. Thus Ihe poor victim who supposes himself to be conquering the morphin habit is really continuing his habit, and paying the Drug Crave Crusade a big price for the privilege. Their "cure" runs to about a grain of mor- phin per dose.
"The sedative which is in the remedy is to take the place of morphin," is the Drug Crave Crusade's reply to my query. "We are enclosing here- with an extract from the New York Health journal, which we feel sure will settle any doubt in your mind as to the remedy containing any opiates. " It does. It would settle any. doubt in my mind, were there any. as to the nature of the Drug Crave Crusade. Any enterprise en- dorsed by that ghost of a journalistic prostitute, the New York Health Journal, is, by that very token, damned for a swindle.
"Denarco" is the nostrum of the Comstock Remedy Co. of Lafayette, Indiana. Having filled out one of their blanks Avith the description of a case taking 12 grains of morphin a day, I receive, via form-letter, the encouraging though somwhat astonishing information that "your answers show there is nothing serious the matter with you. " Nothing serious the matter with a man Avho takes in twenty-four hours enough morphia to kill a dozen normal men! There is something the matter with the Comstock Remedy Co. . and this is it, that they are a band of murderous medical pirates. Their "Denarco," described as "reliable and absolutely harmless," contains . 19 grain of morphin per dose, which I am invited to take day and night, if I need it. Of course, the prominent bankers and the Postmaster of Lafayette are used as backing in the advertising matter of the company.
The Amazing Contrell.
It is always a pleasure to meet a straight-out whole-souled liar. As such R. G. Contrell, M. D.