Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh].

  • Walsh, David
Date:
1909
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quacks, false remedies and the public health / [David Walsh]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The abolition of the patent medicine duty is one of the first duties of a Chancellor of the Exchequer who. has the national welfare at heart, and who wishes to draw his revenue from sources that are wholesome and untainted. A ROYAL COMMISSION, One of the best methods of gaining a thorough knowledge of the facts of the case and of educating the public thereon is undoubtedly by way of Royal Commission, with full power of summoning witnesses and of otherwise obtaining information. That plan has been adopted with extraordinary success by the Commonwealth of Australia, which is flooded with quacks and quackery of the same pernicious kind that devastates the British Isles. Recognising the advantages of this step, the General Medical Council have lately petitioned the Privy Council in favour of a Royal Commission upon irregular medical practice. Such an inquiry, however, would be of little use were it to exclude secret remedies, which, in point of fact, constitute one of the most deadly and injurious forms of false medical practice. That fact was fully realised by the sturdy logic of King Henry VIII., whose charter created a College of duly qualified medical men on the one hand, while on the other he conferred on that body the duty of suppressing false practices and false drugs by powers of a summary kind. A Royal Com- mission, then, if it is to fulfil its functions adequately, must investigate the sale of secret remedies as a part of the larger question of irregular medical practice. HOW TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM BY EXISTING LAWS. Since the stalwart days of Henry VIII. there has been little or no efficient legislation against quacks and quackery, save a pious affirmation of the powers. of the Royal College of Physicians of London in various reigns up to the year 1860. The restraining powers have been in existence, as regards London, for nearly 400 years, but have been poorly applied. The Medical Act, 1858, which, under Section XL., should have extended similar penal powers to the whole Kingdom, has proved a failure, not so much on account. of its inherent weakness, as of the interpretation put upon the Section by magistrates’ and judges. As regards this particular kind of legislation, indeed, there appeats to be a peculiar leniency in legal administra- tion, and on that account alone it would be wise to make use as far as possible of existing laws, short of the attempt to secure fresh legislation. If, as some-