57

THE LANCET.

London, Saturday, April 2, 1836.

ABOLITION OF QUACKERY.

THE Quacks, regular and irregular, are

well-nigh frightened out of their intriguingsenses, at the prospect of seeing institu-

ted an ANTI MEDICAL-QUACKERY SOCIETY.

Amongst others, the unfortunate RODE-

RICK MACLEOD * has taken the alarm,for he begins to suspect that HIS " Collegeof Health," like MORISON’S, both beinglocated in the same road, or street, is about

to fall into ruins. " MORISON’S VEGETABLE

PILLS;" "MACLEOD’S BREAD PILLS ;" bothhave had their day. The first have killed ;the others have let die. The first have been

proved an active poison ; the second, a pas.sive source of destruction; though it can-

not be the fact that bot7a have been em-

ployed as instruments of fraud and extor-tion. Aye ?

Somebody has just stated in print, thatbefore we can work with sufficient effect in

rooting out quackery from amongst the un-_ dipzomatised-arriongst the unlicensed hum-

bugs, a vigorous attack must be made atthe commencement, in the ranks of the" regulars belonging to our Colleges andCompanies. The suggestion-if it be con-sidered a new one,-we may state en pas- ,

sant, is by no means applicable to the’ ’’

Editor of this Journal, who has been en-’

gaged almost constantly during the last

thirty years in exposing the frightful systemof quackery which has been invented andsanctioned by our medical colleges. Had a

rational and an honest mode of govern-ment found its way into those institutions

twenty years since, quackery in medicinewould, by this time, have been as little known

and practised as witchcraft. Why is the

belief in the curse of the weird sisters

* One of the physicians of St. George’sHospital.

almost annihilated? Simply because the

knowledge which the people have acquiredwithin the last fifty years, has instructedthem, first, to view with doubt, and, se-

condly, to examine into, the possibility ofthe existence of events which have been

alleged to spring from mysterious or super-natural causes. The clown, in his dark-

minded superstition and ignorance, seeksto obtain relief from his own bodily suffer-

ings,-for the calamities of his relatives,-tocheck the murrain among his cattle,-byplunging a pin or a needle into the skin ofa defenceless old woman. His effort maybe the subject of derision with hundreds ofobservers. The finger of scorn may be

pointed towards him at the corner of every, street. But it is not laughter, or scorn, or

contempt, or even whipping, that can shamehim out of his belief in the power of the" curative" effort which his ignorance has

. led him to make. Imprison him for the

assault, and he regards the administrationof the law as persecution, believes that

he is a martyr, and denounces with

bitter curses the supposed powers of thefeeble and innocent being whom his untu-tored mind has transformed into a merciless

hag. Take this clown and give him the ad-

vantages of a sound education. Give him

even only an elementary knowledge of thecauses and effects of the unvarying, the un-deviating laws of nature. Does witchcraft

present any terrors to his new understand-

ing ? None. He laughs at even the suppo-sition of its existence. The mystery is dis-

pelled. He is enabled by his new positionto take a nearer and more correct view of

whatever objects are placed before him, andhe is taught to ratiocinate, and form justconclusions. In fact a mind is created out

of the operation cf his senses, and it is to

that mind that an appeal is made in all

matters which concern the human intellect.

Now, what happens in the odious, the in-fernal system of medical quackery ? Here

r a belief in a new kind of witchcraft is

called into existence, and the impostors

58 THE MORISON AND MACLEOD

who profit by the knavish inventions, direct of the materials of which the medicine must

all their appeals to the superstitious faith be composed, would prove that they couldof their victims. Are we not, there- not be applicable to all diseases,-that com.

fore, instructed by the frightful examples mon sense would instantly spurn the ideawhich we every where see before us, that a few grains of aloes, gamboge, creamthat every veil and cloud of mystery by of tartar, and asafœtida, could be applicablewhich the beauties of the ennobling, the to a scientific and safe mode of treating the

health-securing, mind-creating science of diversified diseases which afflict the human

medicine, should be at once and for ever body. The public, however, on beingannihilated; and often as we have called pestered with two systems of secrecy, havefor the means of giving the people demon- not sufficient discrimination to ascertain

strative information into the wondrously- which of them presents the least danger;constructed intricacies of the organized- and, moreover, on finding that THE COL-fabric of the human body,—often as we have LEGES exclude the general practitioners in

called for the extinction of the mysterious medicine from holding seats amongst them at

signs and symbols which are employed in the CoMme!7 tables of those institutions, themedical prescriptions, and for the discon- public are naturally led to consider them astinuance of the mystery which is created an inferior class, or, what Mr. BRODIE de-

by labelling drugs in a dead language, ne- nominated, " A SUBORDINATE CLASS," who,ver did we urge those demands with more therefore, are not entitled to the generalsincerity, than in repeating them on this confidence in the treatment of sick persons.occasion. What is the charge against the Is not such a state of things enough to as-

quacks ? Why that they employ SECRET tonish, to confuse, and to mislead ? Again,medicines. What is our charge ? Why, an then, do we protest against the mode of

accusation of the system that is sanctioned governing our colleges,-against the inter-

by our colleges. Why, that the terms which dictions to which the respectable body ofare in ordinary use in all medical shops, and the profession is exposed,-against the sya-in prescriptions, operate in some cases so as tem of secrecy which is practised and sane-to exclude the public entirely from being tioned by writing prescriptions in Latin,made acquainted with the medicines which and by labelling our drugs in that lan-

are administered to them; and in all cases guage?the system tends to produce the like results. The unfortunate RoDr;Rrcx MACLEOD, a

In the system which is sanctioned in the Licentiate of the London College of Physi-colleges and the profession, no secret terms cians, and a physician of St. George’s Hos-ur medicines are sanctioned, so far as the pital, is himself an authority on the subjectpract2tioners themselves are concerned. of quackery, as it is practised under the

Whatever is known to one is freely com- garb of secrecy. Aye; practised by himself.municated to all, for the advantage of What a pair! MORISON, of the College qfscience, and the benefit of the community. Health, New Road. MACLEOD, of the Asy-In the case of the quacks, on the contrary, lurn of Health, New Road,-tlis latter per-some mercenary intriguing fellow pretends son being, as we have already remarked, athat he has some wO1ldeiful medicine which Licentiate of the boasted Royal College ofis " a cure for all diseases," and the entire Paysicians in London, and physician of St.success of his contrivance depends on the George’s Hospital. No wonder that RODE-

quantum of belief which is capable of being RICK writhes under the prospect of esta-established relative to the potency of his blishirig an ANTI MEDICAL-QUACKERY So-secret agent. Without the secrecy he could ciety. No wonder that these two brother

accomplish nothing) because an exposition doctors of colleges in the New Road, make

59SECRET MEDICINE SYSTEMS.

common cause in denouncing such a scheme.But while MORISON, his pills, and their

effects, are notorious, MACLEOD, his pills,and their effects are not quite so well

known. Let us, therefore, copy a pre-

scription and a paragraph which are con-tained in a little book that is now lyingupon our table, entitled-

" FORMULÆ

USED IN HIS

MEDICAL PRACTICE,BY

R. MACLEOD, M.D."*

We give the extracts verbatim et literatim.

Not a word, not a syllable, not a letter, nota stop, have we altered. They are to befound at page 23 (formula 40) exactly asfollows :-

" PILULÆ EX MICA PANIS." Px. Micœ panis 5i.

’ ’ " Divide in pilulas xii, quarum una sumatur ’

ter quotidie."These pills are extremely useful in conva-lescence from almost all diseases, and withdue attention to diet and regimen will fr equently remove many obstinate complaints-such as hypochondriasis, hysteria, dyspepsia, and amenorrhoea. Some care, however,is required in their exhibition, as a con-

siderable number of instances have occurredat the Westminster Dispensary, in whichpatients have complained much of the

severity of their effects."

Such is the prescription, and such arethe comments upon the administration of a

drachm of crumb of bread, made into twelve

pills, which have been written by a personwho now holds the office of physician in St.George’s Hospital,fi and is a Licentiate of

the Royal College of Physicians in London.If MORISON be a quack and an impostor,what is RODERICK MACLEOD ? The publicshall answer, now that they have read theremarks upon his own bread-pills, and whenthey have seen the Latin prescription forthose pills placed in juxta-position with thetranslation of the prescription, which wehere subjoia :-

" * London: Printed by J. M’Gowan,Great Windmill-street."

t Situated at Hyde-Park-Corner.

" Px Micœ panis i.Divide in pilulas

xii, quarum una su.

matur ter quotidie."

RECIPE.—Pills fromcrumb of bread, one

drachm. Divide into

twelve pills, of whichtake one three timesdaily.

Having, for the benefit of the non-medicalreader, thus placed the prescription beforethe public, we entreat him to peruse oncemore the comments which were offered on

it by the author, who is physician, as

we have said, to St. George’s Hospital, in-timate friend of the president of the Col-lege of Physicians, and hired scribbler forthe corruptionists of the two medical col-

leges and the pure surgeons of the metro.politan hospitals. Had we not given thisnotice of MACLEOD, MORISON might havemost justly charged us with an unfair exe-cution of our duty as public journalists, anaccusation which it is our earnest desire on

all occasions to avoid, by dealing out thesame measure of justice to quacks and im.

postors of every grade. Is MORISON guiltyof fraud when he charges a shilling for

some drachms of secret medicine ? If there

be guiltiness in his conduct, it is in main-

taining secrecy in the system which upholdsl a continuance of the fraud. Assuredly,however, RODERICK cannot be a less guiltyman when he makes use of Latin terms in

writing these prescriptions, and receiving

guinea fees for directing his unsuspectingpatients to take five grains of bread crumbthree times a day. Alas for the profession,unless the practices of the MORISONS andthe MACLEODS, their Colleges and Asylumsof Health, if they be not subjected to generalreprobation and eternal discontinuance !

Whatever therefore may be stated by theseparties against the institution of an arrTt-MEDICAL-QUACKERY society, we can allegewith confidence, that if the government ofthe regular medical practitioners by the

colleges, be not wholly altered, and if theuse of mysterious signs be not abolished inour profession, through the intervention ofa well-organized society, or some other

equally powerful machinery, the degradation

60 EXTRACTS FROM

of the profession will persist, and humanlives will continue to be sacrificed.

THE conduct of some of the Governors of

Christ’s Hospital, in the case of Mr. TA.R-BUTT, must prove most injurious to that in-stitution. As the affair, however, is sub

judice, we refrain from saying more on thesubject at present,

GERMAN JOURNALS.

PERFORATION OF THE ILEUM BY A

LUMBRICUS ASCARIDES.—The Gazette Me-dicale for 1833, No. G2, contains an observa-tion of a case where a quantity of wormswere discharged through different parts ofthe body. In the No. for April, 1834, of

Hufeland and Ossan’s Joirnal, we find a caseof perforation of the intestines by ascarides.We also find a similar one in the June No.of 1835, p. 8.

Case.-A child, four years old, who hadall the symptoms of a worm affection, wastreated, during a period of fourteen days,with all the usual anthelmintic remedies,but without any effect; in a few days themother of the child informed the authorthat she constantly complained of a shortintermitting pain below the umbiticus, witha sensation of something biting or ptickingher there. The child was free from all

fever, but the abdomen continued developedand full ; the above-mentioned sensation iuthe abdomen also continued . and at lellgth atumour, about the size of the point ot thethumb, became evident in this part; the

tumour grew gradually softer, gave way, anddischarged a yellowish pus. The openingof the abscess was not larger than half apea in diameter; it gave issue to a largeascarides, but did not subsequently healup; a fluid of a thick, yellow colour con-tinued to be discharged from the orifice, andthe little patient died in a state of greatemaciation on the third week.

Autopsy.—On examining the body afterdeath, a small portion of the ileum, near itsorigin, was found adherent to the anteriorwall of the abdomen ; at the points of unionthe peritoneal tunic of the intestine and itsexternal coat appear to be rough, softened,and covered with coagulahle lymph ; :n themiddle of this adhesion the gut was pene-trated by a circular hole as large as a good-sized pea, while a similar opening communicated between the intestine and the ex-ternal surface, through the abdominal pa-

rietes. There was no trace of alteration orworms in any other part of the intestinalcanal; the pus had made its way extensivelybetween the layers of abdominal muscles.

This case does not prove that the intes.tinal canal, and the muscles and integu.ments of the abdomen &c., were perforatedby a worm; the communication was evi.dently the effect of chronic inflammationand abscess of the intestine and soft parts,proceeding from within outwards; the au.thor of the case, however, seems to tlainkdifferently, and cites in support of his

opinion the absence of all inflammatorysymptoms during life, and the peculiar cir.cular shape of the opening through whichthe worm was discharged. However, heconfesses it probable that destruction of thetendinous sheaths was rather produced byinflammation than by any action of the

worm.

HEMORRHAGE DURING PARTURITIONFROM VARICOSE TUMOURS.

The following cases of dangerous hemor.rhage from the bursting of varicose tumours,show the possibility of the occurrence of anaccident which we do not find mentioned, inthe manner it deserves, in any of our clas-

sical writers upon midwifery. It is related

by Dr. ELSASSER:-CASE I.-A strong woman, 41 years of

age, became pregnant of her fifth child.The pains commenced at eight o’clock inthe evening : the waters came away at mid-night, and the pains returned with increasedforce. The patient now complained ofgeneral uneasiness, and on examination adeep-blue-coloured tumour, as large as a

child’s head, was found occupying the rightlabium. This tumour suddenty burst, dis-charged a quantity of thick dark blood, andin a quarter of an hour the woman died inviolent convulsions.The child’s head was found in the middle

of the superior straight, and in the firstposition. The child itself dead and blood-less. In the centre of the labium was con-tained a cavity filled with half-coagulatedblood, evidently furnished by the burstingof a varicose vein. The vessels of this partand of the right lower extremity were verymuch enlarged and varicose. The outlet ofthe pelvis was considerably coutracted byprojection inwards of the os coccygis, which

was immoveable upon the sacrum.CASE 2. A woman died in consequence of

an hemorrhage occurring during a labour,which continued for twenty hours. Thephysician, who was not called upon untilafter her death, discovered that a tumour on