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

Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

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

    250/522 (page 246)
    24G cally sealed and had attached to one end a cord with a disc, buckle and strap similar to those of the older instrument. To “operate” the Oxydonor, it was placed in cold water and the disc was attached to the wrists or the ankle of the peison using it. When these conditions were met, the instru- ment was supposed either to force oxygen into the body, or to cause the body to absorb oxygen—according to whichever falsehood seemed the easier to believe. THE FOECE OF DIADUCTION One might imagine that the ease with which the gullible were separated from their money, by means of the Oxydonor, would have satisfied even the get-rich-quick propensities of Hercules Sandie, but this shrewd, old dispenser of modern magic thought he saw still greater possibilties in his nickel- plated piece of gas-pipe. No one, he argued, had ever real- ized before that by attaching a piece of nickel-plated brass tubing to the body by means of a flexible cord, the system could be made to absorb oxygen. If this could be done—a large if ’ then it seemed reasonable to suppose that a new force had been discovered. Such was Sanche’s proposition. Ergo, having discovered’’ a new “force,” why not capitalize it? Sanche, therefore, christened his force “Diaduction,” While discussing the commercial use to which the exploiter of the Oxj^donor put his new force, Diaduction, it may be interesting to see what unprejudiced and intelligent men thought of it. Mr. Justice Shiras, who later became a mem- ber of the Supreme Court of the United States, said of “dia- duction”: “t am entirely certain that I do not understand the working of this so-called force, if any such exists, and I greatly doubt whether Dr. Sanche has any clear conception of the force or prin- ciple which he seeks to describe under the name of ‘diaduction.’ ” Still other judges have had something to say on the matter. Said one: “From the record evidence we have tried to get some intelligent idea of ‘diaduction.’ We have failed utterly.’’ And again: [The_ theory] “is a mere pretense, that is to sav, a theory not entertained by the inventor in good faith, but put forward as an imaginary hypothesis merely for the purpose of obtaining a patent on a very simple contrivance, which was not patentable unless the claim was reinforced by some such pretended discovery.’’ It would be interesting to know, but it is impossible to learn from a study of the records, whether Sanche invented the force of diaduction for the purpose of dignifying his gas- pipe fake or “invented” his nickel-plated humbug so as^ to capitalize his imaginary force. At any rate, both fakes were worked to the limit.