Inquiry respecting Mr. Charles Whitlaw's practice in scrofula and cancer : and the propriety of instituting an asylum, under his care, for these complaints, &c. / by A. Rennie.

  • Rennie, A.
Date:
1828
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiry respecting Mr. Charles Whitlaw's practice in scrofula and cancer : and the propriety of instituting an asylum, under his care, for these complaints, &c. / by A. Rennie. 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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    public; and for the same reason, after inquiry, silence is unpardonable. For either Mr. Whitlaw is an impostor, or he is able to do what he professes—to cure scrofula and cancer:—there is no alternative. If he does possess new remedies capable of curing these diseases, inquiry will make his merits known, and both he and society will reap the benefit; but if he is an impostor, and holds out promises to the cre- dulous victims of these complaints, which he cannot fulfil, merely for the purpose of picking- their pockets and filling his own, the sooner he is unmasked the better will it be for society. I am sensible the task I have undertaken is an arduous one, for every one knows how easy it is, in such a place as London, to procure poor unprincipled wretches who for pay will swear to a cure, and how difficult it would be in the present instance to detect such, even al- though they did exist. Besides, it is a common game with quacks and charlatans, when a cure does take place under their hands, to take to themselves the full credit for it, Avh^her they be entitled or not; to blazon forth the report in all directions, and to keep the solitary case in constant recourse as a reference; while the hundreds treated without benefit, are quietly and disingenuously permitted to glide unnoticed into the mass of society, where their own reluctance to confess themselves dupes, their false delicacy in exposing even the ignorance and knavery of one to whose treatment they have submitted, induce them to cover their chagrin in studied concealment. The quack himself is hoisted into notice as a centre point of notoriety, where his scanty cases of fortuitous success are kept in constant and prominent display, and the same alleged cures are made to operate new belief on every successive inquirer, while the magnified accounts are trumpetted forth, making fresh impressions on the credulous wherever they find their way. In the present instance, I have had many disadvantages to con- tend with in tracing out cases to their issue; and not unoften after having, at much expense of time and trouble, obtained the address of an interesting case, have I been mortified to find prepossessions t^o strong against me, in consecjucnce of misrepresentations industriously circulated, that I have been unable to obtain the necessary particulars to afford any conclusion. Notwithstanding all the influence of those who have endeavoured to baffle and to counteract my efforts at inves- tigation, 1 have at length succeeded in accumulating such a weight of evidence as to go far in enlightening the public mind. My procedure will, at least, have this good effect, it will force the Conmiittee to adduce cases as evidence in return; and when these are adduced, it shall be my business to strip them of all adven- titious a])pcndages, and to exhibit them in their naked simplicity. In 11)15 way, llic interests of the public will be safe, for Mr. Whitlaw will l)e thereby compelled to go through the ordeal of, I hope, a cor- rect medical investigation, which he should have been required to submit to, before receiving a single patron. Well would it have been for the numerous disappointed individuals, whose cases I have