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

Date:: [1911]

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

129/522 (page 125)

$water. lien extracted successively with various solvents fractions were obtained which resembled such essential oils as sassafras, peppermint and eucalyptus. No alkaloids or other potent drugs were found. From the above properties “Ozonol” was assumed to be a mixture of aromatic oils resembling sassafras, peppermint and eucalyptus. The chemists’ report thus confirms what has been said over and over again, viz., that quacks and medical fakers use either absolutely worthless preparations or else endoiv well-known and commonly used drugs with virtues that they do not pos- sess. To suppose that rubbing an ointment of tallow and wintergreen on the chest would cure consumption is as foolish as to believe that taking sugar tablets internally or that sniffing the vapors of oil of peppermint or sassafras would accomplish the same end. The fact is the drugs sent out by Hill will not cure consump- tion, either in the first, second or any other stage of the dis- ease. That they may easily upset the digestive apparatus of the person taking them is evident to any physician, and the danger of such a result becomes apparent when it is remem- bered that the chief hope of the consumptive is an unimpaired ability to digest food. TESTIMONIALS—TWO KINDS With each of Hill’s follow-up letters testimonials are sent. These are of two kinds: One kind purports to come from “patients” telling how they were “cured”; the other emanates from “prominent business and professional men,” and are printed to show Hill’s “standing, both as a man and physi- cian.” Of the latter, four of the testimonials are purely per- sonal and not professional. The use Hill has made of them, however, practically means that they are an endorsement of his “treatment.” Hill is one of those pious humbugs who work their church affiliations to the limit in the exploitation of fake “cures.” It is said that he used to be in the ministry, and that even after opening his fakery at Jackson he was a pretty regular attendant at the weekly meeting of the Jackson Ministerial Association, where he not only participated in the discussions, but occasionally contributed papers. Even as recently as Dec. 18, 1910, a Jackson newspaper contained a “Christmas Sermonette” by John L. Hill entitled “Christ the Wonderful One.” These incongruous mixtures of pseudo-piety and quackery—and they are not uncommon—must make the thinking marvel and the religious grieve. The four pastors, whose endorsements Hill has used, were written to and their attention called to the use Hill was mak- ing of their letters. Here are some excerpts from the replies received: Says Rev. R. E. Macduff: “I knew then [at the time the let- ter was written] nothing about his quack nostrum, his method.$