The Health bulletin [serial] - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

162 THE HEALTH BULLETIN.have known about it long ago? Doyou suppose the newspapers wouldhave to be paid to carry ads., or do yousuppose that any of the newspaperswould decline to carry such matterin their columns? The truth of thematter is that the testimonial featureis one of the tell-tale, weakest featuresof the whole business. When thatfeature is worked so hard, and particularlywhen no testimonials are publishedfrom people who were not benefittedby the use of an Oxypathor, doesit not begin to look as though therewere something radically wrong? Furtherinferences regarding testimonialswe leave to the reader.Some one says, "Well, if it is a fake,why doesn't the State Board of Healthstop their selling such things?"That is also easy. In the first place,this is not our business. We knowof no state law giving us powerto prohibit this or any other fakewhatsoever from operating in NorthCarolina. However, when an effortwas made to capitalize a better babiescontest in order to exploit sucha thing, we felt it our d ty to immediatelybrand it what it is, a fake anda fraud. In the second place, we haveexposed it, and if you waste yourmoney on it, that is your business.However, for your benefit it may besr.id that if you have been innocentlyduped into buying one of these fakesand want your money back, and arewilling to go on record in court, theAttorney-Ganeral is of the opinionthat you can have your money refundedLast of all, we have branded it afake. We could not do so with safetyand impunity were it not so, becausesuch a charge is open torefutation incourt, and we invite those who contendotherwise to have it settled in thecourts if they do not accede to ourcharge.The Joke Book.Even the shortest expose of the gaspipe fraud would be incomplete withoutone or two passing references tothat prize joke book, otherwise knownas the "Oxypathor Direction Book,"which accompanies the Oxypathor andis the mouthpiece for the device. Inthis book the happy possessor is assuredover and over again of the almostmiraculous curing and healingpower of his $35 acquisition. He istold that "The Oxypathor gives to icspossessor practical mastery over allforms of dangerous infection," andthat "The diseases which the Oxypathorwill not cure are easy to enumerate,becnuse they are comparativelyfew."In the index of this wonderful volumeone finds listed something over170 human ailments for which theOxypathor is recommended. This listof ailments extends from headache toheart disease, from diphtheria andd afness to dropsy and dyspepsia, fromboils, burns and bruises to paralysis,piles, pregnancy and pellagra. Infact, if one could read this book believinglyhe might have visions of makingMethuselah look like a youth, if,indeed, he should ever find it necessaryto die at all.And how does the Oxypathor cureall these things? We quote one or twodirections just as samples. Toothachebeinji a short one, we quote it in itsentirety:''Toothache—generally due to exposureof the sensitive interior portionof the tooth after the loss of the nonconductingenamel, or to an inflamedor diseased nerve root. A simpletoothache is sometimes relieved byplacing disk at Strong Force underhot compress over the aching spot."The strong force referred to simplymeans placing the gas pipe in coldwater. But note the hot compress.