ADDENDA


From the archives: the eminent American


EXPOSING medical fraud is as much a professional duty today as it was over a century ago. Consider a case reported in the British Medical Journal of December 17, 1872. A “physician” named William H Hale was charged with conspiracy and fraud in “obtaining sums of money from the public by false pretences”. Hale first attracted notice when he placed an advert in the Liverpool Courier:


The Doctors in Liverpool, – Services will be rendered, first three months, free of charge. A staff of eminent German and American physicians have permanently located in Liverpool. All who visit these eminent doctors will receive services, first three months


free. All kinds of chronic diseases are treated, especially male and female weakness, catarrh, catarrhal deafness, etc, but no


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incurable cases will be accepted. The doctors will examine you thoroughly free of charge and, if incurable, will frankly and kindly tell you so.


A number of people answered the advert including a “traveller” named Boggiano. He was told that his heart was


badly affected and Hale promised to cure him for seven guineas. Boggiano paid the fee and was given a bottle of medicine which he took without any good effect. On his next visit the man was told he was showing signs of Bright’s disease and wasting of the nerves which would take three or four months to cure. A further fee of five guineas was paid. Other patients were given the same medicine which was later proved to be water with a tincture of morphine and some vegetable colouring. Twenty five days after placing his advertisement Hale left Liverpool in some haste and turned up next in Glasgow where similar adverts were published in local newspapers and “patients” treated. He then moved on to Dublin and set up premises in Rutland Square. Here a doctor and surgeon named Smith saw the advert and


suspected quackery. He visited Hale posing as a farmer complaining of pain in his left ear. Hale diagnosed “thickening of the drum of the ear, catarrhal deafness and congestion of the middle ear, also acute laryngitis” and promised a cure for the price of two guineas. Dr Smith replied that he was well acquainted with the symptoms of the complaints ascribed to him and had none of the diseases. Hall made another quick exit – this time to Belfast. But his luck


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ACROSS 1. Between gallbladder and bile duct (6,4)


8. State of unconsciousness (4) 9. Microscopic substance dispersed through another (7)


11. Inflammation of a gland (8) 12. Western military alliance (abbr.) (4)


13. Voice box (6) 15. Unit of electrical current (6) 18. Syndrome, inability to concentrate (abbr.) (4)


19. Manifestation of herpes simplex virus infection (4,4)


22. Produced in the pancreas (7) 23. Acid used to dissolve limescale (abbr.) (4)


24. Incision made to create drainage of antrum (10)


DOWN 2. Essential cream tea component (5)


3. Language of Dante (7) 4. Untruth (6) 5. Sect (4) 6. Evaluates hearing loss (10) 7. Vitamin supplement in early pregnancy (6)


10. Care in late-stage cancer (10) 14. Go over old ideas (6) 16. Enrages (7) 17. Habitual complainer (6) 20. Prefix, of the bone (5) 21. Tribe (4)


See answers online at www.mddus.com. Go to the Notice Board page under News and Events.


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THIS machine was introduced in the 1920s by the Ritter Dental Company. To power the machine two separate groups of transformers were used in order to cope with the various voltages and frequencies of the time. Both patient and the operator had to stay 12 inches from the high voltage wire which ran outside the arm from the transformer cabinet to the X-ray head.


SUMMONS


Object obscura: Ritter dental X-ray machine with extendable arm


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ran out when we was arrested on warrant and taken back to Liverpool. An account book confiscated from Hale showed that the con had netted nearly £400 – a tidy sum in those days. The jury at his trial found Hale guilty and he was sentenced to 18 months hard labour.


PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY


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