Authorities hesitate to quote exact figures, however, believing that any sum they come up with is only a surface manifestation -- turned up by their inevitably limited policing -- of the real loot of the medical racketeer. In this sense, authorities believe that all estimates of phony device quackery are conservative.

The economic toll that the device quack extracts is important, of course. But it is our health -- more precious than all the money in the world -- that these modern witch doctors with their fake therapeutic gadgets are gambling away. By preying on the sick, by playing callously on the hopes of the desperate, by causing the sufferer to delay proper medical care, these medical ghouls create pain and misery by their very activity.

Typically, Sarah Gross and Mr. A both lost more than their money as the result of their experiences with their Cleveland quacks. Sarah Gross found that the treatments given her for a nervous ailment by the masseur were not helping her. As a result, she consulted medical authorities and learned that the devices her quack ``doctor'' was using were phony. She suffered a nervous breakdown and had to be institutionalized.

Mr. A., her fellow townsman, also experienced a nervous breakdown just as soon as he discovered that he had been bilked of his life savings by the limited practitioner who had been treating his wife -- a woman suffering from an incurable disease, multiple sclerosis -- and himself. Mr. A has recovered, but he is, justifiably, a bitter man. ``That's a lot of hard earned money to lose,'' he says today. ``Neither me nor my wife were helped by that chiropractor's treatments.''