Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-11-01
HUNGARY EXPOSES
QUACK'S METHODS
Exhibition Arranged to Coin
eide With National Medical
Congress at Budapest.
BY Special Correspondent of The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliance.

North American Newspaper Alliance.
BUDAPEST, Hungary November L.
QuackS have flourished the world over
/ since the beginning of time, and will
continue to flourish so long as human
credulity exists.
An exhibition In progress here shows
in remarkable way the lengths to
which quackery has gone.
It is an old experience that after all
Notwithstanding events man is especially
prone to mysticism and more easily falls
victim to superstition and quackery.
This he's been manifest since the war.
The present, therefore, was consid-
cred propitious for a technical exhibi-
ton to expose quackery so the exhibi-
ton was arranged to coincide with the
annual Congress of the National Medi-
cal Alliance at Budapest.
The specific object is to present Hun
gary'S co-ethnographical records of
Quack instruments and crude curative
methods employed by rusticS, to COM
pare quackery with scientific healing
and to expose propaganda and adver-
Using activities of quacks.
The exhibition visitor is at once con-
| fronted with life-siZe figures of notori-
GUS quacks and popular healers. His
attention is claimed by the gold saman,
well known among certain Siberian
| tribes related to the HungarianS and
dwelling on the banks of the Amur, who
believes he holds communion with spir-
its when he Is in trance induced by
the beating Of his drum, and at such
times effects cures on the advice of a
spirit control.
The American or European visitor is
not greatly surprised by the claims of
the gold Saman, since his counterpart
appears now in many guises and in as
many cities. But one is amused by the
figure of man suffering from cholera
phobia, made from seventeenth CEN
fury English caricature. He carries,
both attached to his clothes and piled
on a hand cart he pushes before him, a
mass OF advertising matter relating to
remedies for cholera and to various
kinds Of fumigators.
! The Chinese Doctor.
There is an excellent model of a
| Chinese doctors dispensary, with the
servant playing the mandolin, while in
front OF the house stand figures fanlil-
lar In Chinese townsville blind masseur
playing the flute, and the street doctor.
! Another well known character, faith
fully represented, is the woman quack
OF Hungarian villages, holding the
satchel containing her instruments and
secret curative treasures. r.
There is group of the animals in
vested by Hungarians with occult DOW
ers--the owl, the bat, raven and iunai-
nouS-eyed cat.
Among exhibits representing curative
methods Of primitive peoples are Chi
| neSe, Negro, Paraguay, OStyak and In
dian pipes, which, besides being used
Tor pleasure, are held to be of value in
treating the sick. With the pipes are
displayed cigars wrapped in bamboo and
palm leaves, punches Of tobacco opium
balls and a lamp for lighting opium:
also the areka leaf, scissors for cutting
the nut, basins used for making betsl
and betel glasses.
An apple day is acknowledged to
keep the doctor away, but with nails
SUCK IN 1t, 1t would appear to be a
panacea for anaemia.
All manner of fetishes idols and ANU
lets of professsd curative and pronfv-
Tactic value are on view. An interest
Ing piece from Southwest Africa Is a
statue covered with human skin. 8
Special credit is due the organizer
fof the exhibition for having obtained
beautiful triptych in apotheosis of
Semmelweis, Savior of mothers"
AutAuUVCS 1Or EVIL Eye.
OF the amulets and talisrans of DR..
Geza Faludi'S collection, the greater
part serve as antidotes to the evil eye
ana enchantment, cause of terror
among primitive people from the ear
lest times. There is the bronze phallus,
an amulet favored by the ancient
Romans, the italian manifica (hand
with thumb between first and second
dngers) and corno (little horn), as well
as three Byzantine amulets of glass
| plate.
There are many kinds of coins, worn
round the neck as talismanS against
| Jaundice and plague. There are
| thalers dating from the beginning of
the sixteenth century, also a rich COL
lection of the tables of numbers
(often in the Hebrew language of the
various planets used by the Cabalists
One precious gold amulet protects
against poison and stabbing, and a
small English silver coin was used as
a touch piece" for the kings evil.
During the terrible epidemics rife
in the diSease-ridden Middle Ages, the
| protection of the saints was constantly
| invoked. And so it came about that
nearly every complaint or disease was
the care of some particular patron saint
to whom the affected person prayed,
wearing the patrons portrait about his
neck, on medal. Medals of this char
acter comprise those of st. Benedict,
| st. Sebastian, st. Anastasius and st.
George. There are also the medallions
OF mature healers and magnetizers.
| Many quaint things are to be found
among the paraphernalia of protec-
tive superstition, of which the follow
ing are typical: A coffin nail, effica-
cious against earache; wax goblet
for persons with jaundice, a collar Of
buttons on tape warranted to cure an
| abscess, bone powder nounded from a