Dr. James Harvey Young's life-long pursuit of information and misinformation in the emerging medical field in the United States is the subject of several of his books: The Toadstool Millionaires, The Medical Messiahs, and American Health Quackery being the most notable. He rightly details the many outright fraudulent practices that have given false hope to a public desperately seeking relief or a partial cure of their health problems. Other researchers and writers have likewise found this to be fertile ground for "investigative reporting". One need only look to the March 18 1996 issue of Newsweek to see how the public (and the medical profession) have rushed to accept Ritalin as an activity modifier of disruptive children and adults.
Is this Quackery? Should the public be denied access to a palliative? Should a drug with serious side effects be permitted? If feels good do it, is this permissible? So what if a placebo is nothing but sugared water, if it works? Should doctors prescribe medicines that they know don't work? Should the Government regulate what can be and can't be made available to the public? For those that believe that herbal medicine, aroma therapy, self flagellation, and/or folk medicine and numerous other approaches to "self" medication are at least as effective as the "wonders of modern medicine", should they be forced to go underground?
It was a popular practice in the 1800s to place drug advertisements in books not unlike our current day practice of ads in magazines. Dr. Chase's book contains an ad for Dr. Beers' Nerve Elixir which was said to restore quiet, calmness and repose to the weary and restless, strength to the body and mind, and produces natural action in the nervous system. Now I ask you: Does not this sound like a promotion for Ritalin? Can we in good faith say they were "gulling" the public in 1860 and not in 1996?
Dr. Chase wrote regarding why one should read and follow advice found in his book: "Much pain and suffering, also, will often be saved and avoided, besides the satisfaction of knowing how many things are made which you are constantly using, and also able to avoid many things which you certainly would avoid, if you knew how they were made." I think this makes a strong argument for education, not just for the medically elite but for the general public as well. A little knowledge is not a dangerous thing!
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About Joe Wortham