Nostrums and quackery : articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Nostrums and quackery : articles on the nostrum evil and quackery reprinted from the Journal of the American Medical Association. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    17/522 (page 13)
    common-sense idea that physicians might testify to certain conditions as matters of fact within their knowledge and not merely as matters of opinion. There was much argument over this point, but the court finally ruled that a witness under oath could testify to matters of fact and that it was then up to the jury to determine the reliability of the testimony. On this basis the witnesses for the prosecution testified that they had examined the boy and that they knew as a matter of fact that he did not have and had not recently had an abscess of the prostate, and further, that he did not have and had not had a valvular disease of the heart; in the latter point even the “experts” called by the defense agreed that it could be determined as a matter of known fact, whether or not the boy had a valvular disease of the heart. The case went to the jury January 13, and after about two hours’ deliberation they returned a verdict of guilty. This is the first verdict convicting a physician who follows this criminal line of activity, of a felony ; that is, of attempt- ing to obtain money by false pretense. It is stated that the advertising quacks in San Francisco have contributed a purse of $25,000 to fight this case and it will undoubtedly be appealed to the Supreme Court. It is also the first time a trial court has admitted to the record testimony from physi- cians as to the condition of an individual as a matter of known fact and not merely as a matter of opinion. If the judgment shall be eventually sustained it will go far toward getting rid of the very worst type of quack—the licensed physician who has gone wrong. {From The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 29, 1910.) HALE, DYAR AND REGISTER Again the federal authorities have done the public a ser- vice by protecting it from the machinations of medical im- postors. W. H. Hale of Jackson, Mich., a quack with a penitentiary record, connected himself with A. S. Dyar and Roland Register, two “advertising specialists” who operated separate institutions in New Orleans. The scheme was to have Hale pose as a “noted London specialist” who was visiting New Orleans and who had offered to assist each of the local “specialists” in giving professional advice to such vic- tims as they might get as patients. The mailing lists of Dyar and Register were brought into service and a “strictly personal” circular letter was sent to several hundred past and prospective victims of these two “specialists.” The letters offered the “patients” an opportunity of getting the “noted” visitor’s opinion on their cases if they would call at the office of the local “specialist.” The details of the case follow: Dyar and Hale were charged and tried separately from Register and Hale. In each case the defendants were charged first, with having used the post-office of the United States