The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-02-01
MEDICAL QUACK
CONVICTED in CITY

quent conviction has just been conclud-
ed in San Francisco; it is the first
case in the United States in which an
advertising Specialist has been con-
victed by jury of the crime Of try
ing to obtain money by false pretense.
The man, John j. Arberry, a graduate
of the medical department of the Uni
versity of Kentucky, 1901, and licensed
to practice medicine in California in
1895 (before tn examining board was
established), was arrested in July,
1909, the trial being held last month.
DR.. Arberry was the "chief consult
ing physician in widely advertised
concern known as cdr. Taylor & Co., !"
corporation, the principal stockholder
of which, DR.. Arberry testified on the
stand, is one o. G. Joslen, who formerly
had license to practice, which license
was revoked in 1905, after conviction
in the U. S. court for sending immoral
| literature through the mail; the litera-
ture was an offer to produce an abor-
tion. Several other advertising con-
Germs are largely owend by the same
Joslen, but they are operated by very
shrewd licensed physicians and their
advertising is generally worded that
they cannot be reached under the law.
1t was for this reason chat the present
case, along an entirely new line, was
Undertaken and supported by the San
Francisco County Medical society.
A young man of about twenty came
to San Francisco from the country
about the middle of July; on July 10
he felt pain in his back and, seeing
the sign of DR.. Taylor & Co., went into
the Office. He saw DIR. Arberry, who
told him, after massaging his prostate,
that he had an abscess of the prostate
and it would require 5000 to cure it.
Arberry persuaded the young man to
sign a letter to his aunt living in the
country, asking that the money be sent
to him, care of DR.. Taylor & Co. The
money was received and paid. On July
i23, Arberry, evidently thinking it a
shame not to get some more "easy
money! wrote a letter to the young
mans aunt telling her to come to San
Francisco, that the boy had another
serious complaint. She came and first
went to see some friends and fellow
countrymen (Italians). One of her
friends went with her to see Arberry
representing herself as her cousin and
interpreter and alleging that she could
not speak English-though she really
speaks and understands it well. Ar
berry said to them that the young man
had a valvular lesion of the heart and
was liable to drop dead at any moment
unless treated and cured, which would
cost another 5000; the treatment was
expensive because he had to use a Ger
man serum, imported at great expense.
The woman stated to Arberry that she
did not have the money with her, but
would go out and try and get it. That
afternoon Arberry was arrested.
All such cases heretofore have failed
because of the defense that the "doc-
tor'' had made a mistake in diagnosis
and that all physicians may disagree in
such matters. But the attorney for
the society, Mr.. Walter Kaufman, who,
though not criminal lawyer, took a
deep interest in the case, believed in
the common sense idea that physicians
might testify to certain conditions as
matters of fact within their knowledge
and not merely as matters of opinion.
There was much argument over this
point, but the court finally ruled that a
witness under oath could testify to
matters of fact and that it was then
up to the jury to determine the re-
liability of the testimony. On this
basis the witnesses for the prosecution
testified that they had examined the
boy and that they knew as matter Of
fact that he did not have and had not
recently had any absess of the pros
tate, and further, that he did not have
and had not had a valvular disease of
the heart; in the latter point even the
: experts called by the defense
agreed that it could m edetermined as a
matter of known fact, whether or not
the boy had valvular disease of the
heart. The case went to the jury Jan
uary 13, and after about two hours
deliberation they returned verdict of
guilty.-Medical Journal
The above item is Of particular in
terest of residents of Humboldt county
only from the fact that several of its
citizens have been "stung" by the
same outfit. Last summer young man
residing in this vicinity, while on
visit to San Francisco. feeling indis-
posed, visited the offices of Taylor &
Co, and after an examination, Que of
the physicians informed him that he
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