Quack doctors and their doings : a warning to invalids : being an exposure of the frauds of medical impostors upon their suffering and credulous victims : compiled from information supplied by persons who have been duped / by James S. Garrard.

  • Garrard, James S.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Quack doctors and their doings : a warning to invalids : being an exposure of the frauds of medical impostors upon their suffering and credulous victims : compiled from information supplied by persons who have been duped / by James S. Garrard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and so he induced me to send him £2. 10s. more. I took the stuff he sent me, but instead of being any better I was now worse than I had been before commencing to take his medicine. “ I wrote and told him this, and that his medicine (which I had now taken for six months) had quite disordered my stomach. He then wrote stating that if would be necessary for me to have a silver solution which he would prepare for me to use externally; this he said was often necessary after taking the medicine in long-standing cases, and that this solution would cost £5, but if I remitted that sum to him he would send me the “ Renovating Essence of Azilica,” to be taken at the same time, for which latter he would make no extra charge. 1 had now been under his treatment a long time, and had paid him altogether £8. 10s., so after thinking the matter over I did not accept his offer, but decided to cut him, which I accordingly did. “ Shortly after this I received by post from Birmingham, a circular re¬ commending in glowing terms what was called the “ New French Remedy,” a species of lozenge, warranted to cure the worst cases of nervousness, ifcc. I decided to try it, and took box after box until I had spent £± in the so- called remedy without any good result.” At this juncture the narrator of the above sketch found the desired relief he had so long sought for, and thus his career in the hands of the quacks came to an end; but only after he had been swindled out of the sum of <£10. 10s. by them. When he penned the above description of his dealings with the quacks, he was under the impression that the two swindlers, last-named by him, were two distinct firms, but such is not the case. The proprietor of the wonderful “ Renovating Essence of Azilica,” and the proprietor of the “ New French Remedy,” are one and the same firm, although advertising from two distinctly different addresses. Therefore after plying him with the essence until he would bleed no more, they forwarded him the circular about the “New French Remedy,” which new bait entrapped him again, so that he paid this firm alone £T2. 10s. for their precious services. This firm of Birmingham quacks are probably the most rapacious and unblushing rascals out of jail. They have successfully carried on their nefarious operations for many years, and are said to have amassed a large fortune. I should not be doing them full justice unless I gave the reader some further details of the multifarious operations of this notorious gang. Besides carrying on a Museum, or as they please to call the place, where the medical members of the firm are supposed to see patients, at the “ Institute of Anatomy,” they have a place in another street called the “ Patent Medicine Depot,” from which the “ New French Remedy ” is supposed to be dispensed. Then they have, or had until recently, a loan office or money lending establish¬ ment, where patients, who had securities or could provide good sureties, were accommodated with loans at an enormous rate of interest, to enable them to pay the exorbitant fees charged by the medical part of the same (though apparently different firm) for their so-called medical assistance. I have also been creditably informed that this firm were, in addition to their other avocations, extensive carriage builders and cab proprietors. Be this as it may, they carry on their swindling operations in grand style still, much to the discredit of the local authorities, who unlike those of Man¬ chester and some other large towns, where they have at different times dealt some severe and telling blows at quackery within their jurisdiction, though they have as yet failed to extinguish it altogether. The firm of charlatans just described advertise very extensively indeed, and their adver¬ tisements appear in all newspapers whose proprietors will insert them. The following are two examples of the newspaper announcements adopted by this firm :—
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