Cancer cures and cancer curers / by T. Spencer Wells.

  • Thomas Spencer Wells
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cancer cures and cancer curers / by T. Spencer Wells. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    ‘ When you had gained a certain degree of notoriety, did yon not obtain permission to exercise yonr system of curing cancer in the Hopital St. Louis F ’ ‘ Yes ; but when Dr. Bazin, of that hospital, saw that I was likely to succeed, he would not let me continue.’ ‘ We now arrive at an eventful period of your career. In 1858 you pretended that you cured M. Sax of cancer? ’ ‘ I believe that I did cure him.’ ‘ In consequence of the notoriety which you gained, medical men deemed it right to ascertain whether or not you really had the means of curing cancer, and Dr. Velpeau intro- duced you to the Hopital de la Charite ? ’ ‘ Yes ; and if I had been allowed to continue my system, I should have effected cures.’ ‘ Seventeen persons afflicted with cancer were there placed in your hands, and you undertook to cure them in six months : but at the end of two months seven were dead?’ ‘Hot one!’ ‘Dr. Velpeau and Dr. Fauvel affirm the contrary. The former analysed your remedies, and found in them nothing peculiar,—nothing that is not to be obtained everywhere. But as to your patients in the hospital, they are at this moment all dead, except two, and those two are dying! ’ ‘At the end of two months none were dead, and since then it is not I who have attended them ! ’ ‘ On the demand of Dr. Velpeau you were excluded from the hospital, and then you caused puffs on your skill to be inserted in the newspapers, and had your portrait pub- lished. You always told the people who consulted you that you were certain to effect a cure ? ’ ‘ The 'promise of a cure gives moral force to the patient.’ ‘ You always stipulated on being paid before you commenced operations, and you did not always adhere to the bargains you made. Thus, a Spanish lady came from her own country to consult you, and you undertook to cure her for 10,000f., of which 3,000f. were paid in advance. But after you had got this latter sum you learnt that the lady was rich, and you wrote to insist on having 40,000f. with 10,000f. down. She complied with your request, but she died ! ’ ‘I demanded payment
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