THE MEDICAL TIMES ADVERTISEMENTS
In Which Are Discussed Some “Oversights” and the Ethics of Journalism
Two or three weeks ago we published letters from two physicians calling attention to an advertisement of a “cancer cure” hospital appearing in the Medical Times. As a result of The Journal’s comments, some of the physicians who were listed as “contributing editors” of the Medical Times wrote that they had requested that their names be withdrawn from this list. In reply to at least some of these letters, the editor of the Medical Times wrote asking them to reconsider their decision and offering as an excuse the statement that the appearance of the “cancer cure” hospital advertisement was an oversight. In this connection the following letter from the Medical Times, addressed to The Journal of the American Medical Association, is pertinent:
“Gentlemen:—We note in your issue of October 18 an article calling attention to an advertisement which appears in the columns of this journal, and to which your editor rightly objects.
“The advertisement in the Times was the result of an oversight, and it will not reappear.
“While we are indebted to you for thus bringing the matter to our attention, we cannot but feel that a letter written to us would have been more in keeping with the ethics of journalism.
“Very truly yours,The Medical Times.”
It will be noticed that this letter, like the letters sent to other physicians, ignores altogether the most important point made by The Journal in its criticism of that publication’s advertising policy. The Journal said in this connection:
“If our correspondents will go through the advertising columns of the Medical Times they will find many, many other frauds, less cruel perhaps than the Kellam advertisement, but no less disreputable or discreditable to the medical profession.”
The Medical Times apologizes for the advertisement of the Kellam Cancer Cure Hospital but ignores altogether the fact that the hospital advertisement was but one of many equally discreditable. We turn to recent issues of the Medical Times and we find it fairly reeking with advertisements of proprietary preparations that are a disgrace to the medical profession, many of them having been repeatedly exposed in The Journal. We find, for instance, a quarter-page advertisement of the Expurgo Manufacturing Company. “Expurgo Anti-Diabetes,” we are solemnly told in the pages of the Medical Times is:
“The only reliable and thoroughly tested remedy for the cure of Diabetes Mellitus and Insipidus.”
This wretched fraud, which also is advertised in true “patent medicine” style direct to the public, is presented to a presumably intelligent profession as a “cure” for a disease which so far has baffled the best brains in the scientific world.
“Expurgo Lapis” we are told, also via the Medical Times is:
“The only known cure for gall-stones, kidney and bladder stones, gravel and all kidney trouble arising from uric-acid origin.”
Did Kilmer’s Swamp-Root ever claim more? “Diabetes is no longer an incurable disease” runs the advertisement of the Jireh Diabetic Food Company, yet the editor of the Medical Times must know that in The Journal[133] and in the reports of state chemists the Jireh diabetic foods have been shown time and again to be among the most dangerous and fraudulently exploited products sold to the unfortunate diabetic.
Phenalgin,[134] twin brother to the Antikamnia fraud, shouts its inferential falsehoods in a half-page display. Micajah’s Wafers,[135] the alum-borax mixture long advertised as a cure for gonorrhea, endometritis, etc., may also be found, as well as many other preparations exposed at various times by The Journal. For example: Anasarcin,[136] Campho-Phenique,[137] Papine,[138] Bromidia,[139] Cactina Pillets,[140] Pluto Water,[141] Prunoids,[142] Sanatogen[143] and Sal Hepatica.[144]
What excuse can the Medical Times offer for the presence of these frauds in its pages? Are these, too, “the result of an oversight”? Presumably for thus bringing to its attention these various other disreputable advertisements, The Journal will be accused again of violating “the ethics of journalism.” If calling attention to fraudulent advertisements is out of keeping with the ethics of journalism, what, pray, must be said of publications that are willing to share in the profits of such fraudulent exploitation? But, and we cannot repeat it too often, the Medical Times is but one of a class, neither worse nor better than many other medical journals whose financial support comes from the proprietary interests rather than from the medical profession. The responsibility for the existence of these journals really rests not on the business men who conduct them on a commercial basis, but on the physicians who tolerate or encourage them in any way.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 8, 1913.)