§ MR. MYER (Lambeth, N.)I beg to ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether his attention has been directed to the frauds perpetrated upon the public by the advertising and sale of quack medicines, and the consequent loss of money sustained by the public and frequent postponement of proper remedial measures being taken by the sufferers in specific diseases; and whether the Government will take any, and, if any, what, steps either by the institution of prosecutions for fraud or obtaining money by false pretences, or by direct prohibitive legislation to deal with this matter.
§ * MR. GLADSTONEI do not doubt that the advertisement and sale of quack medicines is often the cause of serious mischief; but it is an evil which must be met rather by the spread of education than by legislation or prosecution. The difficulties of proving fraud in such cases are, I fear, almost insuperable. If the hon. Member will refer to the proceedings in the Harness Belts case in 1894 he will understand some of the difficulties I refer to.