He has been cured? Not on your life. He has been robbed. I have known this "Doctor" to charge as much as one hundred dollars for two small bottles of dope. This is in addition to a fee of twenty-five to five hundred dollars. He always operates a "drug store" in connection with his office.
The patient, having undergone an examination and having been thoroughly frightened, is told what the fee will be. This being paid, he is given a prescription and sent to the "drug store."
This is so written that no other drug store can fill it. In a short time he is handed two or three small bottles, and on asking "how much" is told a sum varying from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars. Surprised and indignant, he hastens back to the "Doctor" and complains. He is told that the medicines are cheap at that price; that they are expensive drugs and very necessary in his case.
If the patient has the money he pays it, resolving that he will have no more to do with Dr. S. If he lives in the country he is surprised the following week by getting notice from the express company that a C. O. D. package awaits him at the office.
It is the second week's supply of medicine. Charges from twenty-five to ninety-eight dollars. He at once writes to the "Doctor" and says he doesn't want the stuff.
The first supply has done him no good. It's too expensive and he can't afford to continue it.
The "Doctor" writes back and says that he must pay for it. It will require three months to effect a cure, and the whole treatment has been prepared. If he does not take it the office will be subject to a loss of many hundreds of dollars. They also threaten him with a suit for the recovery of the amount.
Blackmail an Adjunct.
The poor victim, almost frightened to death at the prospect of exposure, usually compromises and pays all the money he can raise, taking the three months' "treatment" which he is assured has been specially prepared for his case.
It is not an uncommon thing for Dr. S. to get several thousand dollars out of one patient. Men have been known to mortgage their farms to get out of the clutches of these cormorants. They never let go until the last dollar has been extracted from the poor patient. After his experience with Dr. S. he wants no more. He thinks that they are all alike and carefully avoids them in the future.