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.
Chapter III deals with “The Peace and War Footing of Alcohol,” and is a reprint from the Medical Record, Aug. 7, 1915. It, too, sings the praises of the “lighter beverages,” while deprecating the use of “ardent spirits.” For instance:
An overwhelmingly large proportion of persons who develop alcoholic psychoses in America are drinkers of whisky, or some corresponding ardent spirit, whereas this condition is seldom seen in beer and wine drinkers. [Italics ours.—Ed.]
Thus we find the highest percentage of alcohol psychoses among the whisky drinkers who come from western Europe, while the wine and beer drinking races of central and southern Europe show a distinctly lower percentage, in some instances only about one-fourth as many per thousand. [Italics ours.—Ed.]
Chapter IV deals with “Some Aspects of Liquor Legislation.” Like Chapter II it is an indictment of prohibition, and the United States Census Bureau’s reports are called on to sustain this thesis. Quotations, too, are made from the writings of Henry Smith Williams further to prove the point. “Dry” Kansas and “wet” Nebraska are frequently compared, to the detriment of the former. One who accepts the statements in this chapter will get the impression that Kansas has more lawlessness, illiteracy, pauperism, and insanity than Nebraska.
Chapter V deals with “The Problem of Legislation.” It is based on the premise that “prohibition does not prevent the consumption of liquor,” but on the contrary, “prohibitive legislation induces the consumption of the most harmful form of liquors.” Stated in another way, it is equivalent to charging that prohibition is hard on the brewers, but beneficial to the distillers. In fact, E. H. Williams, in another book (“The Question of Alcohol”—Goodhue Co.) which also champions the case for the milder alcoholics, quotes Henry Smith Williams as saying, relative to prohibitory legislation: “In general, it would appear that, if our legislators of recent years had been in league with the distiller, they could not have served his purpose better.”
Whether or not Edward H. Williams’ or Henry Smith Williams’ conception of the alcohol problem is good, bad or indifferent, need not at this time concern us. The medical profession, however, has a right to ask two questions: First, Is the Dr. Edward Huntington Williams who wrote “Alcohol, Hygiene and Legislation” the “Dr. Edward H. Williams” who was employed by the brewers to write propaganda favorable to the brewing interests? Second, Was the cloth-bound book, “Alcohol, Hygiene and Legislation,” which was distributed by the Williams brothers, paid for, wholly or in part, by the United States Brewers’ Association?
For those who wish to read Dr. Edward Huntington Williams’ opinion on the alcohol question, the following bibliography may be of service:
“Liquor Legislation and Insanity”: Medical Record 84:791, 1913.
“The Liquor Question in Medicine”: Medical Record 85:612, 1914.
“Inebriety as a Medical Problem”: Post-Graduate 29:603, 1914.
“The Problem of Inebriety”: N. Y. Medical Journal 101:940, 1915.
“Aspects of Inebriety in Alcohol”: British Journal of Inebriety 13:9, 1915–1916.
“The Peace and War Footing of Alcohol”: Medical Record 88:226, 1915.
“Alcohol and Therapeutics”: Medical Record 92:666, 1917.—(From The Journal
A. M. A., Nov. 30, 1918.)