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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![from my patients according to their means.’ [The President here mentioned several cases where the patients died after the pretended cures of Dr. Vries.] Witnesses were then called. Several deposed that Vries had professed to be able to cure members of their families affected with cancer, but that he had failed, in some cases the patients dying. M. Pedot said that after the accused had treated his wife for some time, he (Pedot) had asked him whether he thought he could effect a cure. ‘ Certainly ! ’ said Vries, and yet at that very moment the poor lady was dead ! His (M. Pedot’s) servant was so exasperated at the man’s presumption that she had called him an ass and a thief. In his case, however, defendant had restored the money which had been paid. M. Sax was then called, and his presence excited much interest. He said that he had been afflicted with such a terrible cancer in the lip, that Dr. Picord had not only to^d him that an operation was necessary, but that it would most likely end fatally, and had accordingly advised him to put his worldly affairs iu order. Nevertheless, in eight days Vries had per- fectly cured him, and what was more, had taken 2,000f. instead of 3,000fl, which had been promised. Several other witnesses were then called, and among them was Dr. Fauvel, who described what took place in the Hopital de la Charite, and who declared that the defendant did not even know what a cancer was ; also, the director of the School of Pharmacy and some apothecaries, who deposed that the sub- stances which the accused had pretended were remedies from unknown plants, and to which he had given fantastic names, were simply alum, sulphate of potass, opium, &c. The evidence for the prosecution having been closed, nu- merous witnesses were called on behalf of the accused, and they declared that he had cured them of complaints more or less grave; one of them, a workwoman, who had been in the Hopital de la Charite, even said that he had cured her of cancer. At this stage of the proceedings, the further hearing of the case was adjourned for a week.”](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22358274_0076.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
