Chapter XL: Part IV: Contributions From the Journal: Miscellany (2)

The recent history of Bayer & Co., is somewhat as follows: Shortly after the United States entered the war, the Alien Property Custodian took over the property of Bayer & Co. (Inc.) and its subsidiary, the Synthetic Patents Co. In his report to congress the Custodian said:

“The stock of Bayer & Co. (Inc.) and of Synthetic Patents Co.
was sold by me at public auction, the successful bidder being
the Sterling Products Co., a West Virginia corporation dealing
in proprietary medicines. This company had previously agreed to
dispose of the dye plant and patents, in case it secured the
property, to Grasselli Chemical Co., one of the largest makers of
heavy chemicals in the country. The price paid was $5,310,000, plus
back taxes and other obligations of many hundred thousands more.”

After the Sterling Products Company had acquired the pharmaceutical end of the business, the Winthrop Chemical Co. was incorporated in the state of New York. This concern seemingly secured control of all the Bayer pharmaceutical specialties except “Aspirin.” The Bayer Co., it was announced, had been merged with the Sterling Products Co., and “Aspirin-Bayer” added to the latter firm’s list of “patent medicines”: Cascarets, Danderine, Pape’s Diapepsin, California Syrup of Figs, Neuralgine and Dodson’s Livertone. The business is apparently a paying one financially as witness the following excerpt from a recent announcement in a drug journal:

“Stockholders of the Sterling Products Co., Inc., of Wheeling,
manufacturers of Neuralgine, Cascarets, Bayer’s Aspirin, and
other well known products, and the largest proprietary medicine
organization in the world, at their annual meeting received a
report of Manager W. E. Weiss, which showed that the company did
a $10,000,000 business in 1920. The total profits were $2,100,000,
while a total of $1,080,000 was paid out in dividends.”

Just what relationship exists between the Winthrop Chemical Co., and the Sterling Products Co., we do not know. As our correspondent points out, the “Bayer Cross” is used on the label of the Winthrop products.

The advertising campaign of “Aspirin, Bayer” since it entered the “patent medicine” field has been typical of that field. By half truths and inferential falsehoods the public has been led to believe that the only genuine aspirin on the market is that put out under the Bayer name. The facts are, of course, that the aspirin of any reputable firm is just as good as the aspirin put out by the makers of Livertone, Danderine and Cascarets.

There is one point, however, that is of vital importance to the medical profession; The decision recently rendered in the United States District Court of Southern New York makes it obligatory for druggists, when filling a physician’s prescription calling for “aspirin,” to dispense the Bayer product. When the public buys aspirin on its own responsibility--without specifying any particular brand--the druggist may give the purchaser any make of acetylsalicylic acid he sees fit. To repeat what was said in The Journal’s comment on this decision: “Unless a physician wishes to cater to the concern owning the Bayer rights and to aid in perpetuating what was a monopoly for seventeen years, he should be careful to prescribe the drug under the term ‘acetylsalicylic acid,’ The court now places the responsibility directly on the medical profession. Avoid ‘aspirin’--write ‘acetylsalicylic acid.’--(_From The Journal A. M. A., June 11, 1921._)

THE ALLIED MEDICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF AMERICA

Another Rocket in the Pyrotechnics of Quasimedical Organizations

It was once said, in the days when diploma mills flourished, that it seemed easier to start a “university” than it was to open a grog shop. A study of quasimedical organizations convinces one that it is easier to found a “medical society” than it is to establish a peanut stand. Most reputable practitioners of medicine who care to affiliate themselves with medical organizations are members of the American Medical Association, its component societies, or similar scientific bodies. It is not surprising then, that those who live and move in the twilight zone of professionalism, from visionaries riding bizarre medical hobbies to those who have special interests to exploit, should create and make use of hybrid medical organizations. Such organizations multiply as rapidly as rabbits. They flourish for a while, obtain more or less newspaper and other publicity--usually more, because of the sensational methods of those controlling them--then, having served the purpose of those who brought them into being, they lapse into innocuous desuetude.

The official accouchement of the Allied Medical Associations of America occurred, according to that organization’s report, May 18, 1918. On the official stationery of the Allied Medical Associations of America in use in May, 1919, we find the names of the “Officers,” “Censors,” etc. These constitute, presumably, the more prominent members of this organization. We give briefly, some data regarding some of these so that a rational perspective may be obtained:

L. M. Ottofy, M.D., St. Louis, Mo.--Dr. Ottofy seems to have been the chief organizer, if not, indeed, the founder. He has been its “Secretary-Treasurer” since its inception; he is also “editor” of its journal. Ottofy, according to our records, was born in 1865 at Budapest, Hungary, and was graduated in 1888 by the Homeopathic Medical College of Missouri. In Polk’s Medical Directories for 1914 and 1917, Ottofy has those extended notices which any physician can obtain who cares to pay for them. According to these notices, Ottofy is, or has been, affiliated with the following “societies”:

President of the International Cancer Research Society.
Ex-President of the St. Louis Society of Medical Research.
Second Vice President of the Missouri Institute of Homeopathy.
General Secretary of the American Association of Progressive
Medicine.
Chairman of the Board of Censors of the Missouri Institute of
Homeopathy.
Member of the American Institute of Homeopathy.
Member of the Southern Homeopathic Association.
Member of the American Association of Orificial Surgeons.
Member of the Southern Homeopathic Medical Society.
Member of the Kansas City Society of Medical Research.
Honorary member of the Chicago Society of Medical Research.

In December, 1911, numerous newspaper clippings show that Dr. Ottofy was obtaining much publicity relative to his antivaccination activities. At that time the papers reported that Ottofy was suing the St. Louis Board of Education for $25,000 damages, because the board would not admit to the schools of the city a child he had “internally” vaccinated. In November, 1913, the St. Louis _Republic_ reported that Ottofy had claimed to have discovered a serum for the cure of cancer, and quoted Ottofy as claiming “a record of 72 per cent. of cures” in “selected cases.” In February, 1914, the newspapers reported that Ottofy was making a trip east “on the trail of radium for use in his practice in the cure of cancer” and quoted him as stating, “I have learned on good authority that there is radium in Missouri, and just where I refuse to divulge at this time.” In January, 1915, the St. Louis _Republic_ reported that Ottofy, at a meeting of the “St. Louis Society of Medical Research,” had announced that he had perfected a serum treatment for cancer, which “is curing patients who have been pronounced incurable by so-called ‘cancer experts.’” In January, 1916, the St. Louis _Star_ reported that Ottofy had sought an injunction against the Board of Education of St. Louis to restrain it from using its funds for “the maintenance of a Board of Hygiene.” In July, 1916, St. Louis papers recorded that Ottofy, who was then running for coroner, had been cited to appear before the prosecuting attorney to explain a charge of passing out, at a political meeting, a card alleged to have borne an indecent drawing of President Wilson. The prosecuting attorney was said to have instructed Ottofy to bring the plates from which the cards were printed to his office. Two days later the papers stated that Ottofy had sent the cards and plates by messenger to the prosecuting attorney’s office.

N. La Doit Johnson, M.D., Chicago.--Dr. Johnson’s name appears as the “First Vice-President” of the Allied Medical Associations of America. A few years ago, Dr. Johnson’s name also appeared as the “Dean of the Faculty” of the “American Post Graduate School.” This “school” was a mail-order concern which, according to the “Annual Announcement,” would grant diplomas and confer degrees as follows: “Master of Surgery,” “Bachelor of Medicine,” “Bachelor of Science,” “Master of Electro-Therapy,” “Doctor of Osteopathy,” “Doctor of Psychology,” “Master of Massage,” etc.

H. M. Goehring, D.O., M.D., Pittsburgh, Pa.--The “Second Vice-President,” according to the letterheads of the “Association” carries the letters D.O., M.D., after his name. So far as our records show, and they are most complete and based on official data, H. M. Goehring is an osteopath, but not a doctor of medicine.

A. E. Erling, M.D., Milwaukee, Wis.--A. E. Erling, according to the stationery, is “Chairman” of “Censors.” Our records fail to show that Erling ever graduated in medicine. The Health Department of Milwaukee, however, says that Erling, when interviewed, claimed to have “a diploma from the German Medical College of Chicago, but refused to show or present the same.” The American Medical Directory has this item:

_German Medical College_, Chicago. Chartered Dec. 28, 1891, by
Johann Malok. Fraudulent. Extinct.

A few years ago Erling was in La Crosse, Wis.; and in 1908 a circular letter bearing his name and picture was sent out from which the following extracts are taken. Capitalization as in the original:

“Dear Friend:--Permit me to call your attention to the fact that
Dr. A. E. Erling, the eminent specialist, after many years of
travel, practice and medical research, has given up his extensive
road practice and severed his connection with the several medical
institutes which have heretofore occupied considerable of his
attention ... Dr. Erling’s success in the treatment of all CHRONIC
DISEASES is truly remarkable. NERVOUSNESS, all BLOOD DISEASES,
RHEUMATISM, DISEASES PECULIAR TO WOMEN, CATARRH, DEAFNESS, CHRONIC
CONSTIPATION ... APPENDICITIS ... PILES, STOMACH TROUBLES, PARTIAL
PARALYSIS, etc., give way as if by magic under his skillful method
of treatment ... Understand please, that Dr. Erling DOES NOT ACCEPT
A CASE FOR TREATMENT unless he can PROMISE A SPEEDY AND POSITIVELY
PERMANENT CURE.”

The Journal also has in its files advertisements (vintage of 1915), from some Wisconsin country newspapers, which notify the afflicted that “Drs. Erling and Karass, the expert German Specialists,” could be seen in their offices in the “Schlegel Hotel,” the “Schlitz Hotel,” etc., as the case might be. Whether one of these “German Specialists” was Dr. Arnold E. Erling, The Journal does not know. Official medical records fail to show, at least, that there is any other Erling in the state of Wisconsin.

W. W. Fritz, M.D., Philadelphia.--Another of the “Censors.” This presumably is W. Wallace Fritz, M.D., D.D.S., N.D., D.O., D.C., who was the “Dean” of the “American College of Neuropathy,” and “Professor of Neuropathy” at the same institution. According to newspaper reports published when the “dean” of the American College of Neuropathy was called into court to testify regarding the “school,” Fritz admitted that when he became dean of this “college,” the “college” had three students and thirty “Faculty Members”! Fritz, it should be mentioned in passing, is a member of the Philadelphia County Medical Society and by virtue of this membership he has qualified as a Fellow of the American Medical Association! Recently Fritz’s name appeared in connection with the formation of a new organization, founded, it appears, for the laudable purpose of fighting the “Medical Trust.” Fritz, according to the newspaper reports, is treasurer of this new organization, which has adopted the inspiring title, “Constitutional Liberty League of America” and seems to be a later edition of the mushroom “National League for Medical Freedom.” Quoting from the newspaper report:

“Dr. W. Wallace Fritz, a member of the American Medical
Association, created a profound impression when he said that all
health laws were written by agents of, or members of, the American
Medical Association, and that this organization was at once the
most powerful and the most baneful of all the American Trusts. Dr.
Fritz then went on to say: ‘Most of the drugs administered are
worthless. Most of the doctors who prescribe them are incompetent,
but both the injurious drug and the ignorant prescriber are
protected, in and out of court, by the American Medical
Association, which trust is now raising a vast fund with which to
drive all drugless healers out of the profession. Medicine is the
camouflage used to conceal the most alert, the most rapacious and
the least patriotic of all the trusts milking the American people.
The tyranny of the Medical Trust is unbelievable. It is also
un-American.’”

The Philadelphia _Sunday Transcript_ of May 4, 1919, had a five column article under the name of W. Wallace Fritz. It is a most vituperative affair, and reeks with fire and brimstone. It is directed chiefly against the American Medical Association, and physicians are dubbed “Prescription Writing Drug Peddlers Who Prosper Through Monopolistic Laws Rather than by the Practice of an Exact Science.” In the course of this diatribe we read:

“The members of the American Medical Association are manifesting an
unwarranted interest in the dear people, who, in their assumption,
need quinin and mercurial guardian; who under this class
legislation confines us to this monopoly of the big and little
pill, is trying by hook and crook to shut out the natural and
rational methods of cure which are driving the drug monopoly from
the face of the earth. Diagnosis and consultation consist in four
or five medical doctors, whose faces denote death, sitting around a
sick man and guessing what ails him. After that has been performed
they guess at what will cure him, and that is generally a sure sign
the undertaker will follow.”

C. O. Linder, M.D., Spokane, Wash.--This gentleman (another “Censor”), seems to be an osteopath, who some years ago was “Assistant Secretary” of the “Washington’s Physicians’ Association,” founded apparently by rebels within the osteopathic ranks who denounced the Washington Osteopathic Association as a “professional trust”! Linder apparently claims graduation in 1905 from the “Thompsonian Medical College” of Allentown, Pa. The following item from the American Medical Directory regarding this school is of interest:

“_Thompsonian Medical College_, Allentown. Organized in 1904.
Fraudulent. No evidence to show classes were ever held.”

A. H. Flower, M.D., Boston.--Still another “Censor.” Flower, according to the notice that appears in Polk’s Directory for 1917, claims graduation in 1888 from the “American Health College” of Cincinnati, and in 1894 from the “American Health University” of Chicago. Quoting again from the American Medical Directory, here is what we find regarding the former “college”:

“_American Health College_, Cincinnati. Organized in 1874 and
re-organized in 1876. Conducted by a Dr. Campbell who originated
and copyrighted the so-called ‘Vitapathic System,’ Fraudulent.
Extinct about 1888.”

We have no record of an “American Health University” of Chicago, although there was an “Illinois Health University” of Chicago, one of the numerous diploma-mill swindles operated by Armstrong. It was declared fraudulent by the federal authorities and its charter was revoked in 1897. Flower, according to the notice in Polk’s Directory, is:

Ex-President Maine Eclectic Society.
Ex-President New England Eclectic Medical Association.
Member National Eclectic Medical Association.
Member American Progressive Medical Society.
Member Massachusetts Eclectic Medical Society.

Z. L. Baldwin, M.D., Kalamazoo, Mich.--Possibly the data just given concerning some of those whose names appeared on the organization’s stationery are more than sufficient for the average physician to get a perspective of the Allied Medical Associations of America. Still, it is worth mentioning that in a letter recently sent out by Ignatz Mayer, extending an invitation to the annual convention of the Allied Medical Associations of America, Mayer took the opportunity of incorporating in his letter a letter which one of the members of the “association” had been sending out, urging individuals to join. The member in question was Dr. Z. L. Baldwin of Kalamazoo, Mich. Dr. Baldwin, as some of our readers may remember, is the gentleman who, a few years ago, was exploiting an “Intravenous Treatment” for the cure of tuberculosis. According to the claims made at that time:

“... for the first time in the history of medicine, we have a
successful treatment for tuberculosis.

“... we are able to kill the germs of the disease in the body,
thoroughly ridding it of all tubercular infection, destroying the
germ and its poisons likewise.”

This was a few years ago. Whether Dr. Baldwin is still specializing in consumption we do not know; apparently not, as we notice that at the first meeting of the Allied Medical Associations, Baldwin’s name was on the program for the “Cure of Goiter by Adjustment of Lenses.”

George Starr White, M.D., F.S.Sc., Lond., Los Angeles, Calif.--A letter received by a physician a few days before the recent convention of the Allied Medical Associations, held out as an inducement to be present the fact that “Geo. S. White will show you how to diagnose disease by means of dif. colored lights and the reaction of the body to the magnetic meridian.” Dr. George Starr White was the “Second Vice-President” of the Allied Medical Associations in 1918. White, according to our records, was graduated in 1908 when he was forty-two years old, by the New York Homeopathic Medical College and Hospital. He was licensed in New York in 1908, in California, Connecticut and Nevada in 1913, and in Michigan in 1916. He seems to have been one of the proponents of “spondylotherapy,” “zonetherapy,” etc., and in 1915 it was announced that he would give one week courses in “Spondylotherapy” in Chicago, Kansas City and Denver, respectively. In his advertisement he emphasized that he was a Fellow of the American Medical Association, which, while true at the time, is no longer true, as on Feb. 4, 1916, he was expelled from membership in the Los Angeles County Medical Association. In May, 1915, White was arrested in Chicago and fined $100 and costs for practicing medicine without a license. Dr. White’s specialty seems to be what is ponderously known as “Bio-Dynamo-Chromatic Diagnosis.” This has been described by one of its enthusiastic adherents as “Diagnosis by Sympathetic Vagal-Reflex.” To obtain the “Sympathetic Vagal-Reflex” it seems the patient must face east or west and have his bare abdomen percussed until a dull area is located. The patient is then faced north or south and again percussed. Then, it seems, different colored lights are thrown on the patient, the location of the areas of dullness being determined meanwhile. A combination of ruby and blue lights “will cause a reflex in cases of gonorrhea,” a “green light will cause a reflex in cases of liver or gallbladder trouble,” while the color for carcinoma is orange red! During the height of the influenza epidemic last winter, White seems to have put on the market “Valens Essential Oil Tablets” which were for “Gripping the Flu out of Influenza,” and were also said greatly to benefit or cure incipient tuberculosis, hay-fever, asthma, and “catar.” The letters “F.S.Sc., Lond.” after Dr. White’s name look well, sound well, and have an air of erudition and mystery that is well worth what they cost. They mean “Fellow of the Incorporated Society of Science, Letters and Arts of London, Ltd.” The “Fellowship” costs one guinea. Not a few “patent medicine” exploiters in the United States carry these mystic letters after their names. The society in question was a seriocomic concern that was exposed by London _Truth_ some years ago and was also dealt with in The Journal of May 29, 1909, in connection with the “Aicsol Consumption Cure” exposé.

So much for the Allied Medical Associations of America. At their recent meeting in New York City they got much newspaper publicity because of their action on the prohibition question. According to the newspaper reports, the organization adopted a resolution declaring that “properly brewed lager beer is absolutely essential in the treatment of certain cases.” They were further reported as endorsing the manufacture of light wines and of beer containing not to exceed 2.75 per cent. alcohol. As a piece of publicity work this resolution was all that its sponsors could expect. <sc>The Journal</sc> office was flooded with telegrams and letters from physicians, temperance workers, congressmen, church organizations, and others, asking, in effect, What _is_ the Allied Medical Associations of America? This is our apology for giving the amount of space necessary to a proper understanding of this organization. Today the rocket of the Allied Medical Associations of America is blazing a more or less erratic course across the sky of publicity. The stick will be down anon! Any resolution or expression of opinion by this organization, or others of its type, when dealing with the broader problems of public health, is wholly without scientific significance, whether such resolutions are good, bad or indifferent.--(_From The Journal A. M. A., July 5, 1919._)

“ARSENICALS”

The September issue of the _Archives of Dermatology and Syphilology_ presents a number of significant features regarding the use of arsphenamin and related compounds that are at present being widely employed in the treatment of syphilis. To one who studies these statements of laboratory and clinical investigators in the special field involved there must come the conviction that many therapeutic perplexities still remain at the end of nearly a decade of trial for the types of compounds which Ehrlich introduced. It is well for the practitioner to realize this, especially when expert workers still make an appeal for conservative interpretations. Stokes forcefully summarized the situation when he stated at the New Orleans session of the American Medical Association:

Too short a time has elapsed since the discovery of these drugs,
and too little is as yet known about the ultimate problems of the
pathology, immunology and parasitology of syphilis, to justify the
announcing of new infallibilities. The necropsy pathologist of the
next fifty years may well, like Warthin, upset our most plausible
generalizations of today. Seasoned tradition and conservatism are
still the wisest guides in our interpretation of clinical cure.
Arsphenamin has made it apparently possible and even probable,
but only to the inexperienced has cure been made absolute and
inevitable.

It is recognized that the exact composition of arsphenamin in its available form is not fully determined. As has been emphasized again, the quantitative determination of arsenic alone in arsphenamin is insufficient to estimate its purity; in fact, the interstate sale of arsphenamin is controlled by toxicity tests on guinea-pigs made by the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public Health Service. Consequently, practical medicine must be on its guard to employ a product which is carefully controlled by such toxicity tests as well as by other criteria. It will not do to charge untoward results offhand solely to idiosyncrasy of the patient, faulty administration or other errors in technic. The drug itself still has inherent dangers. It should be borne in mind also that neo-arsphenamin behaves differently in the animal organism from arsphenamin, and should not be regarded simply as arsphenamin in a convenient form for administration.

It is gratifying to learn from a government expert that after the long struggle to produce satisfactory products, arsphenamin preparations made in the United States are generally less toxic than those of foreign manufacture. Neo-arsphenamin preparations made in the United States compare favorably, and in certain instances are decidedly less toxic than most of the foreign products. Timely presentations of the faults and dangers as well as the undisputed advantages of current therapy in the management of syphilis should be welcomed.--(_Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., Oct. 9, 1920._)

Pharmacology of Arsenicals

The Public Health Service some time ago[262] warned against the use in syphilis of new arsenicals which are not related to arsphenamin; it was stated that a number of such were being sold with unwarranted claims as to their value. At least three such arsenicals have in recent years been the subject of some exploitation for use in this disease: sodium cacodylate, the sodium salt of methyl arsenic acid (“Arrhenal”) and the sodium salt of ethyl arsenic acid (“Mon-Arsone”).[263] As regards the first two, Castelli showed several years ago that neither has any action on experimental trypanosomiasis and spirochete infections; careful clinical observations in this country have confirmed the inefficacy of sodium cacodylate in human syphilis.[264] Voegtlin and Smith[265] of the Hygienic Laboratory have now shown in animal experiments that ethyl arsenic acid (“Mon-Arsone”) is devoid of any practical trypanocidal action. Thus the “therapeutic ratio” (the ratio of the minimal effective dose to the lethal dose) was about 1, that is, it was effective therapeutically only in approximately fatal doses, the therapeutic ratio for arsphenamin in similar conditions was 17, and that of neo-arsphenamin, 28. In fact, the conditions with ethyl arsenic acid were no more favorable than were those with arsenous acid (the active constituent of solution of potassium arsenite), although it was far less poisonous. The validity of such experiments in determining the probable value of drugs in human syphilis cannot be questioned:[266] it was by such experiments that Ehrlich and his co-workers found two or three of six hundred and six arsenic preparations studied to be of value, and of the next three hundred or more studied only one (neo-arsphenamin) worthy of trial in human medicine. The time has passed when a high arsenic content of a compound and a low toxicity, and a number of cases of apparent clinical improvement, can be assumed to indicate that a drug has any real value in the treatment of syphilis. Many organic compounds of arsenic as well as other drugs may cause temporary or apparent improvement in syphilis, but to date only those related to arsphenamin have proved of real value and comparatively safe. Others which had some real value proved to have dangerous side effects; readers will recall the history of arsanilic acid (“Atoxyl” or “Soamin”) and its acetyl derivative (“Arsacetin”).--(_Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., Feb. 26, 1921._)

[262] Warning Against Untried Medicaments, J. A. M. A. =74=:1654 (June 12) 1920.

[263] Wright, B. L.; Kennell, L. A., and Hussey, L. M.: Med. Rec. =97=:607 (April 10) 1920.

[264] Nichols, H. J.: Salvarsan and Sodium Cacodylate, J. A. M. A. =56=:492 (Feb. 18) 1911.

[265] Voegtlin, Carl, and Smith, H. W.: J. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therap. =16=:449, 1921.

[266] Compare Schamberg, J. F.; Kolmer, J. A., and Raiziss, G. W.: Am. J. M. Sc. =150=:25 (July) 1920.

Salvarsan: Abrogate the Patent

The Journal has already commented on the difficulty in securing salvarsan, on the moral and ethical question as to whether or not it is justifiable for one person to control the output of a drug necessary to public health. This week we publish an account of the action of the St. Louis and Chicago medical societies, which are calling on the medical profession to appeal to their senators and congressmen to abrogate this patent. The Journal believes that this patent should be abrogated, not alone because the patentees have not supplied the demand, not alone because they have dictated to the medical profession who should have the drug and how much a physician might have, not alone because of the war with Germany, not alone because of the special needs of the government at this time for the control of venereal diseases, not alone because, as some claim, the patent at Washington does not correctly describe the product, but also because the people who are supplying this product are charging prices that are exorbitant compared to the price at which others in this country can supply it. The fact is that the salvarsan one can obtain today costs $4.50 per ampule of 0.6 gram, whereas the same dose of arsenobenzol--a preparation identical with, if not better than, salvarsan--costs $2.00 at retail, and as Dr. Schamberg says: “If we are permitted to continue marketing the same drug after the war, we can sell it at $1.00 or less per tube.” To abrogate this patent would be doing an injury to no one. Certainly the patentees of salvarsan have already reaped their harvest--and a pretty rich one. The supply of salvarsan at a reasonable price in proportion to its actual cost of production is in the interest of the health of the entire population of the country, whereas to let matters rest as they are, is to the benefit of one man. While we are emphasizing here the cost, there is after all a greater question, and that is the supply necessary to help control the ravages of one of the most serious diseases which afflict humanity today. It is the duty of Congress to abrogate the patent on this preparation and, incidentally, on all medicinal preparations of importance.--(_Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., April 21, 1917._)

End the Monopoly

The Adamson Bill, known as the “trading with the enemy act,” has recently been passed by the House of Representatives, is now before the Senate, and will doubtless be enacted into a law. One of its clauses confers authority on the Federal Trade Commission to grant licenses to citizens of this country to operate patents owned by enemy aliens. Physicians are interested in the bill primarily because it includes the salvarsan situation. The manner in which salvarsan has been supplied in this country has been so arbitrary and the prices charged so tremendously above the actual cost, that we should not be satisfied unless the monopoly is ended so that the drug can be supplied at least at a fairly moderate figure, and the old methods eliminated. It is to be hoped, therefore, that the Federal Trade Commission will not grant exclusive control--that is, exclusive license--to any one person or firm. To do so would simply perpetuate the old monopoly and the old conditions. England has adopted a law, which, in principle, is similar to the Adamson Bill, and there several concerns have been licensed to manufacture the product. The same should be done here. The Dermatologic Research Laboratories of Philadelphia announce that they can supply arsenobenzol at $1.50 a tube, and that there is immediately available a supply sufficient for any demand that may be made. The same laboratories have announced also that in a few months they will be able to supply hospitals for $1.00 a tube. Considerable responsibility rests on the Federal Trade Commission in this matter, for it is not only a question of monopoly, but also a question of scientific qualifications and ability to make the product on the part of some who may make application. Undoubtedly the commission will secure the cooperation of the United States Public Health Service, under whose supervision these drugs should be manufactured no matter who shall be licensed to make the product.--(_Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., July 21, 1917._)

Arsphenamin

No, this is not a new chemical; it is simply the name adopted by the Federal Trade Commission for the hydrochlorid of 3-diamino-4-dihydroxy-1-arsenobenzene--in other words, salvarsan. As our readers already have been informed three firms have been licensed to manufacture and sell arsphenamin; but, while each manufacturer may have his own trade name on the label, the official name must be the prominent one on all packages. Hence, physicians should at once make it a point to learn and use the name “arsphenamin” in place of salvarsan. At first sight, arsphenamin looks formidable. In reality, it is just as easy to familiarize oneself with the word “arsphenamin” as it was to learn to use the terms “salvarsan,” “arsenobenzol” or any other of the trade names.--(_Editorial from The Journal A. M. A., Jan. 19, 1918._)

BEER AND CANCER CURES

Did the Brewing Interests Advertise Autolysin?

Our readers may remember that an article appeared in this department of The Journal for July 6, 1918, under the title “Henry Smith Williams and ‘Proteal Therapy.’” “Proteal Therapy” is a treatment exploited by Henry Smith Williams, M.D., of New York, for use in tuberculosis, cancer, rheumatism, etc. It is apparently a modification of the “Autolysin” cancer “cure” which Williams had previously puffed in _Heart’s Magazine_.

The Journal’s article pointed out that Henry Smith Williams, although entitled to write “M.D.” after his name, is essentially a journalist. He has written voluminously for some years in lay publications on various subjects, both under his own name and under his _nom de plume_, “Stoddard Goodhue, M.D.” In addition, Williams runs a publishing concern called the Goodhue Company, which issues a number of books, many of them being reprints of Williams’ own articles.

Closely associated with Henry Smith Williams is his brother, Edward Huntington Williams, who also is a prolific writer. The Journal’s previous article called attention to the fact that there had been sent broadcast to physicians a neat little cloth-bound book, entitled, “Alcohol, Hygiene and Legislation.” This book, which evidently cost somebody a good deal of money to distribute gratis, was published by the Goodhue Company, and was written by Edward Huntington Williams. Enclosed with the book was an advertising leaflet on the “Autolysin” cancer cure and also a letter from the Goodhue Company, asking physicians to accept it “with our compliments and the compliments of the author.” The letter was chiefly devoted to calling attention to Henry Smith Williams’ “new book, the Autolysin Treatment of Cancer.” The last thirteen pages of the book “Alcohol, Hygiene and Legislation” contained advertisements of the Goodhue Company’s publications, particular emphasis being placed on the “Autolysin Treatment of Cancer,” by Henry Smith Williams.

So much by way of retrospect. Now comes information that may throw an interesting side-light on the matter just presented. There is at present being conducted by a committee of the United States Senate, an investigation relative to the purchase of a Washington (D. C.) newspaper with money alleged to have been furnished by those interested in the brewing industry.

At the opening hearing before the Senate Committee, Tuesday, November 19, the secretary of the United States Brewers’ Association, after admitting that brewers’ propaganda had been published in the _International Monthly_, edited by Viereck (of the _Fatherland_), also declared that the Publication Committee of the brewers’ association employed writers to “write up certain subjects” relating to the brewers’ trade. One of the writers mentioned in this connection was, according to the newspaper reports, “Dr. Edward H. Williams, author of articles published in medical and other journals.”

With this fact before us, it seemed worth while to go through the book that had been distributed so lavishly to physicians with the compliments of the Goodhue Company and Dr. Edward Huntington Williams, in the exploitation of “Autolysin,” and Henry Smith Williams’ book on the subject.

The first chapter of “Alcohol, Hygiene and Legislation” consists of a reprint of an article from the _New York Medical Journal_ of May 8, 1915. The article is a skilful presentation of the case for the defenders of the lighter alcoholic beverages, especially beer. This chapter and all succeeding chapters of the book attempt to discredit prohibitory legislation, and argue that prohibition drives the public to the use of the more ardent alcoholic beverages, while preventing the use of the milder beverages, such as beer, which one is led to infer is not particularly harmful. Throughout the book, also, the state of Kansas is held up as an example of the harm done by prohibition, and the theme is developed that insanity and the use of cocain and other habit-forming drugs follows in the wake of prohibition. The following extracts are from Chapter I:

The evil effects of _beer_ and wine, for example, are greatly less
than those produced by spirituous liquors.... [Italics ours.--Ed.]

If our theory of immunity is correct we should expect to find that
the older beverages, such as _beer_ and wine, which have been
used for thousands of years, are less productive of alcoholic
insanity, for example, than the spirituous liquors which are recent
innovations. In point of fact we find this to be the case: the
spirituous liquors are almost wholly responsible for all forms of
alcoholic insanity. [Italics ours.--Ed.]

Chapter II is a reprint of an article that appeared in _Everybody’s Magazine_, August 1914, and deals with “Legislation from a Medical Viewpoint.” It is to the effect that drug addiction and insanity, together with special forms of mental disease directly attributable to alcoholism, seem to flourish best in prohibition territory.