The Menace, an Exposition of Quackery Nostrum Exploitation and Reminiscences of a Country Doctor Page: 3

INTRODUCTION.
In response to numerous requests from physicians and
friends over the State, that I publish a concise history of
the work of ridding the county of quacks and nostrum ex-
ploiters, I hereby beg to submit this work, hoping that it
will be of some benefit to the country, and to the profession
in some way in suppressing the great menace to the
country.
One spring morning during a conversation with Dr. W.
A. King the question of fake doctors and nostrum exploiters
came up. The cause of this conversation was the passing by
us of one of our noted advertising quacks.
During the conversation I asked Dr. King why the legis-
lative committee, of which he was chairman, did not make
some effort to suppress the quacks and fakes of our city,
for they were flourishing like a green bay tree. He in-
formed me that the committee had tried; that they had
prosecuted a number of them, and whenever they made the
attempt the case would be thrown out of court on some
technicality, and that the courts were against them and
the general sentiment of the people were against them. I
made the remark to Dr. King, not thinking that I would
be called on to make good, that if I were on this committee
these people would go out of business or I would know the
reason why.
A couple of years after this conversation took place Dr.
King was elected President of the Bexar County Medical
Society, the election taking place in December. In April
it chanced that Dr. King and myself again met on the same
street corner, he remarked to me, "Dixon, you remember a
conversation you and I had two years ago on this corner?"