Weekly Trinity journal., 1870-07-09
QuNcks and Quacking In San Francisco.

for some years in being blessed with succession
of medical luminaries; who instantaneously
flush into brlliancy by persistent advertising,
batten for few months on the purses of the
chronic sick and then retire into the obscurity
of private life with first lottery prize banking
account These medical meteors have not been
confined to any nationality or to any particular
branch of the curative art. Cinnamon, and
Irishmen, Russians and Poles, Englishmen and
Americans Christian, Infdel and Jew meet on
common ground for common purpose, each
one working the inexhaustible mine of public
credulty, with persistence that seems to be the
chief virtue OF humbug. The panaceas of these
Esculapian wolves are as various their birth
places. Ii Po FAILS pharmacopGia consists Of
spotted snake tea, centipede decoction, eliusion
Of hornee-toad, and similar preparations o!
Juicy reptile; Josselyn, of abortion fame, cures
all ills with an electric machine, Louis Jacobs
Jordan dttdS kahan, proprietor Of the London,
New York and San Francisco Anatomical mu-
seums doses his patients with sweetened colored
soapsuds Benton magnetzes disease, and the
Indian herb doctor, who like Wike Collins
heroine, has no name, restores health to the
sick by " preparations of herbs culled from the
fields and forests ''-otherwise EPSON salts var
iousy disguised. This last worthy is at present
]
ment, and his Office is crowded from morning to
| night with searches after Gods greatest gift OF
/ health. lie dawned upon society with a mild
! ei1ulgence, some few weeks ago, as a pimple
banisher his glories being somewhat obscured
| by the setting radiance of the " King OF Pain"
When that monarch of medicine took unto him
self the wings OF the locomotive and fled over
the mountains. Tupperish odes announced the
rising of the new luminary, quickly followed by
the usual testimonials of cured conSumptyes
and renovated dyspeptics with special certificates
from the proprietor of the sore leg of fifteen
years standing. Having opposition to con-
tend against his success as money maker has
been wonderful, perfect stream Of coin flowing
into his Golfers from the rising of the to the
! going down thereof But it is the fate of all
! great men to have enemies. Even Moses was
called quack by some of the uubelievers when
he held up the serpent and told the afflicted to
look and be healed, and our Indian herb doctor
must have been more than mortal if be expected
to escape detraction, so it is whispered on the
Streets and rumored at the police office, that
many complaints have been made by impatient
patients because be obtained their money with
out any resulting benefit, and the dispenser of
Indian drugs is more than likely to come to
grief.
The newly created Board of Health has struck
a blow at quackery that will be severely felt even
| by some physicians Of supposed responsibility by
| requiring every certificate of death to state at
what college the attendant medico graduated.
1t is almost pity that this resolution was
passed as was preparing an article on the ecu
| riosites of death and am not likely to meet
with any more such gems g Ded from rapture
of the head " and "Suffrocated by eating poi
son, both of which on file in the COroners
| office.
That Californians are more credulous than the
rest of mankind, no one can for moment imag
! inc, so that there must be some other reason tor
/ the success that attends the career of quackery.
! We have more newspapers, and newspapers are
more read in proportion to population than any
other State in the union, and persistent and ju-
dicious advertising must consequently bring
these pseudo physicians into the field Of every
mans observation. Ad0TtiStag is the sole secret
Of success, and these quachS mahe their fortunes
soi6iy MfOagh printer s ink. Alfred James Wech
formerly saloon keeper in Victoria afterwards
proprietor of the Willows in this city, developed
| as speciality doctor some two years ago. The
first four months he spent six thousand dollars
in advertisements, and at the end of twrlye-
month his profits amounted to nearly twenty
thousand dollars. The . King Of Pain gave an
order to an advertising agency his arrival
here to insert column advertisements in all the
city papers, which brought him into instant no.
| torety. On several occasions he had page ad-
yertisoments and he said the effect was percept-
bic almost Immediately Gibbons, Hall and
JoSselyn, three of our mSSt prominent special
hundred dollars per month in making their " in
stitutions" known, and S. 7. II. Beck, who has
just taken hold of Jordans practice, entered the
field last week with determination to disburse
FIVE hundred per month. Holloway in England
Hemboldt, Bristol and Aver in the Eastern
States, Czapsky and Welch in California, are ex-
ampes of what be done by patronzing the
printer, to which list may be added DR.. Aborn
at present in this city, the Chinaman Lii Pc Fan
and DR.. PeTrault.
AS the expenses of these " benefactors of hu-
manity' necessarily great it follows that
their charges must be in proportion. Jordan,
the anatomical museum" man, got promissory
note for ten thousand dollars few years ago on
condition of curing the son of Middleton, the
real estate agent, of loekjaw. Middleton recoy-
cred and Jordan didn't, Middleton Pere repudia
ting the transaction. In ordinary cures the fee
varies from twenty-five to one hundred dollars
depending entirely on the supposed social status
of the victim, but many of them will ask FIVE
hundred or thousand dollars, reducing if nee
essary to a lower figure. Medicines are an ad-
ditional charge from two to five dollars per bot
tie, which may also be considered as clear profit.
The Indian herb man asks fifty dollars indiscrim-
inately of every one, and will seldom take less
while DR.. Flattery, who has recently returned
here, apparently with slim purse, is glad to get
a dollar patient
This DR.. Jordon alias Kahn, has recently
opened museum o. anatomy in Broadway near
Eighth street, New York, exciting public atten-
tion with reference to his exhibition by the pe-
culiar style of advertising employed Under the
cloak OF anatomical preparations to be used only
for scientific purposes, and subject to no duties
he has been importing mirrors, show cases and
chandeliers upon which, according to the decis-
ion of the appraiser, the government has been
defrauded to at least the tune of $40, 900. The
detective officers attached to the Surveyors Of
hce OF the customs getting wind of the matter
seized sixty cases of this anatomical furniture,
and the collection on Broadway has been confs-
Gated ad interium The receipts of his museum
here Il believe Beck has it now only average
500 per month which does not pay expenses