The Electric Belt Fraud.
This is another one of the many humbugs that seem to have fastened themselves on the country. Chicago is the center for this as well as every other fake of a medical character.
These belts are of the cheapest construction and are made at a cost of twelve and one-half cents each. They sell for anything, up to three hundred and even five hundred dollars. There may be virtue in electricity, properly applied, but there certainly is none in the belt.
Dr. McL—— is located in Chicago, and has branch offices in almost every state in the union. He takes pages in the daily press to tell of the virtues of his belt. It cures everything from lumbago to corns. He usually pictures a man in a half-stooping position, holding his back with one hand, while with the other he is getting a belt from a sympathizing doctor.
Dr. McL—— has made big money duping his fellow men. Recently he opened an office in the City of Mexico. There the government protects people somewhat from their own folly.
A Mexican bought a belt, guaranteed to cure his disease: it failed. The doctor was promptly arrested for obtaining money under false pretenses. He was sent to jail, where he remained sixteen months.
The offices were closed and have not since been reopened. The best evidence that electric belts are a useless article is to be found in the fact that physicians neither use nor prescribe them. They are an adjunct to quackery.