Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Excerpt from Revelations of Quacks and Quackery: A Series of Letters by Detector, Reprinted From the Medical Circular
An interesting disclosure of the practices of these gentry was made recently at Manchester, where a police officer, having consulted several of the fraternity, stated that he was directed to furnish specimens of his urine, and procured at a 'chemist's a bottle con taining six ounces of water, three drops of hydro sulphide of ammonia, and ten drops of syrup of saffron, after examining which very carefully, the patient was gravely informed it contained a large quantity of semen, and he was supplied 'with a mixture of sal volatile, quassia, cardamoms, &c.
Twelve of these men were convicted, and several hundredweights of obscene literature found on their premises ordered to be destroyed. It was stated that some of the defendants were connected with loan offices, from which their dupes were permitted to borrow money to enable them to pay the heavy fees for consultation, medicine, &c., &c., the managers of these offices being in a position to sue defaulters in the courts of law for the recovery of the amounts advanced, whereas the self-styled doctors could not recover their fees by any legal means.
The police having convicted many of these imposters in Manchester, a similar course will be followed in other towns.
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