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.

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    tage to medical or other Practices over the Practice of Scientific or Popular Diaduction . . /’ “I will ever be mindful of the importance ... of obtaining the enactment of now laws in every way favorable to the spread of both, Popular Diaduction. and Scientific Duxanimm by Diaduc- tion . . .” “I will do everything in my power to extend to all accessible human beings the benefits of this. Fraternity and of the School and Practice of Duxanimse by Diaduction.” ‘‘I abjure all ceremonial performances, religious, political, social and fraternal . . .” “I abjure medication and every kind of treatment founded on medical ideas or theories, for the prevention or cure of disease in any form, or of any ill, or ailment. . . .” These few paragraphs, while hut a small part of the com- plete vow which Sanche’s dupes were supposed to take, give some indication of the scope of the fraternity. Out of the mass of verbose and inconsequential twaddle that made up the seventy-six-page book devoted to the Fraternity of Duxa- nimrn, one fact stands ont with a fair degree of clearness— the exploitation of the Oxydonor. DONATIONS TO THE CAUSE Nor was Sanche satisfied Avith the iron-bound voav, which he was able to exact. Printed forms were Sent out entitled: “Donations to the Cause of Duxanimse by Diaduction. In Trust with Dr. Hercules Sanche, its Discoverer.” The money asked for was to be used in part as folloAvs: ”... the undersigned . . . donate to Dr. Hercules Sanche, of 261 Fifth Avenue, New York City, U. S. A., . . . amounts that we write on the same line with, or on the line next to our signatures, for Ms own use in paying Ms personal and other expenses in travel and other incidental costs incurred ty Ms pro- moting the general cause of duxanimw hy diaduction . . . to be used by him to the best advantage, according to Ms own best judg- ment and discretion, upon his honor which we trust implicitly here- with.” [Italics ours.—Ed.] In order, apparently, that the individuals making these donations might feel that their money was not altogether throAvn away, they were told that the money donated might, at the option of the donors, be “convertible into loans” and Avould be refunded in the form of ^kredits for cash payment to the proportion of 50 per cent., or for the full amount lolien current expenses are well provided for.” [Italics again ours. —Ed.] The donors, it seems, Avere not to receive their dona- tions back in real money, but Avere merely to be credited, to the amount stated, “on dues for the diaductive treatment of any case of disease ... or on the regular retail prices of any diaductWe instruments [Oxydonors] or devices that, as the head of the firm, I manufacture, or of any books that as such I publish . . .” A study o-f this very elaborate and ingenious method of separating the fool from his money indicates that here, in the form of Hercules Sanche, we have the original J. Pufus Wallingford.