PHILIP RAHTJEN AND HIS DISCOVERIES
Recent newspaper reports regarding the alleged “discovery of the Germ of Pernicious Anemia” and the development of “an antitoxin and serum” by Dr. Philip Rahtjen of Pasadena, California, have brought inquiries of which the two that follow are typical. This from a physician in Indiana:
“Please let me know about the supposed recent discovery of Dr. Philip Rahtjen concerning pernicious anemia. The information I have is from a newspaper clipping of October 21, Pasadena, California. Kindly omit my name.”
A New York physician writes:
“If you could send me any information as to the enclosed I would appreciate it. The article impresses one as absolutely inconclusive. However, I promised the patient I would investigate the matter.”
The enclosures referred to consisted of a reprint and a letter from “Ph. Rahtjen, M.A., Ph.D.,” Pasadena, Calif., both of which had been sent to a layman who had written to Rahtjen. The reprint was a translation of a brief article by Rahtjen “On the Etiology of Idiopathic Anemia,” translated from the Centralblatt für Bakteriologie Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten. Rahtjen’s letter to the layman read:
“Your inquiry relative to my isolation and classification of the Germ of Anemia received.
“I herein enclose my paper published in August in the Central Magazine of Bacteriology.
“I have succeeded in immunizing goats against the Germ therein described. Five thousand injections of the Serum have been given. Three hundred cases diagnosed as Anemia and Chlorosis were treated under observation. Six cases of Pernicious Anemia were observed under treatment. All responded favorably.
“The Serum is at your disposal from my laboratory here for the use of your physician. The price is five dollars for twelve ampoules each containing 1 ccm., the amount of one injection.
“The treatment consists of intramuscular injection every second day accompanied with a nitrogenous free diet, preferably milk diet. Your attending physician should very easily give them.”
Just what Rahtjen’s serum is we do not know. Nor have we been able to find any information on the subject in any available medical literature. In fact, a rather careful search of American medical literature for some years past fails to reveal any article by Rahtjen on any subject.
Philip Rahtjen is not a physician. In the Propaganda files is a circular issued in 1917 by the “Rahtjen Tuberculosis Sanatorium” of San Francisco, Calif. This exploits “The Rahtjen Cure for Tuberculosis” and tells of “The Discovery of Dr. Philip Rahtjen.” The circular states that:
“Dr Rahtjen studied in Heidelberg, Berlin, Munich, Marburg, and Rostock, Germany, from which latter school in 1904, he graduated in chemical pathology as Doctor of Philosophy. He became assistant professor of pathology at the Imperial Biological Station at Heligoland, and was later appointed assistant to Dr. Piorkowsky, head of the Deutsche Schutz und Heilserum Gesellschaft.”
The same circular summarizes the potentialities of “Rahtjen’s Cure for Tuberculosis” thus:
“The remedy seems to cure tuberculosis in all its forms with equal celerity and certainty. The evidences indicate that it does not matter how far the disease has progressed, if there be tissue of the attacked organ remaining sufficient to sustain life, the disease can be wholly eradicated and the patient restored to health. This is indicated alike in tuberculosis of the lungs, of the throat, of the bladder, of the kidneys.”
The booklet stated further that patients might be treated at one of two places: at the offices of the sanatorium in the city of San Francisco, or at the sanatorium itself near Glenwood. The cost of treatment at the sanatorium was to be $1,000, which would entitle “the patient to residence and attention there for four months.” According to the leaflet, “This is regarded as a period sufficient to restore the patient to health whatever be the stage of his disease; provided only, as we remark, that he has enough left of the infected organ to sustain life with the T. B. expelled.”
“At the end of four months the patient is sent to his home, not alone relieved of his disease, but in a highly vigorous state of health.”
All this, as stated previously, was in 1917. And yet people are still dying of tuberculosis!
In March, 1920, Rahtjen (so the newspapers have it) was offering a “New-Life Fluid.” According to a San Francisco paper, Dr. Philip Rahtjen “announces the discovery that by the injection of secretions from the ductless glands the human body may be reinvigorated.” The paper described the discovery “as a long step forward in the fight to counteract old age” and stated that a syndicate was being formed by Rahtjen and others to “produce the extract in such quantity that it may be available for every one.” The newspaper article showed the learned doctor in a laboratory apron in the characteristic pose of the newspaper “scientist” pouring something from a beaker into a test tube—and gazing intently at the camera while doing it! This was in March, 1920; yet people still grow old.
Within the last month the Los Angeles Examiner has heralded some more wonderful accomplishments of Rahtjen. According to this paper Rahtjen has:
1. Isolated the “germ of pernicious anemia.”
2. Found the “serum” for the cure of this disease.
3. Discovered the secret of human virility.
4. Evolved a fluid “from the glands of selected bulls and cows” which will “restore ‘pep’ for worn-out human bodies! Give added weight, clearer eyes, brighter minds, quicker bodies and a generally ‘firmer grip’ on oneself!”
This “amazing discovery” was, according to the Los Angeles paper, the culmination of “five years of continuous study” and had only just been revealed by Rahtjen.
“Dr. Rahtjen has for years been working silently in a bio-chemical laboratory in Pasadena, surrounded by microscopes, scales, test-tubes, acids, alkalis, reagents and all the accompanying stage settings that spell bio-chemical science.”
All of these wonders might still have been a closed book to the public had not “friends” of Dr. Rahtjen brought the matter to the attention of the Examiner.
“Dr. Rahtjen yesterday, with the usual reserve of the ethical scientist, was disinclined to talk of his work until publication of it in a scientific journal.”
Fortunately for a palpitating public, the Los Angeles Examiner “was able to learn the essence of his study” and pass the information on. It seems from this newspaper report that Rahtjen first made his extracts from the glands of goats and sheep but these extracts “were found to be too strong.” As a result “Dr. Rahtjen is now using the glands of specially selected Mexican bulls and cows.” The male patients who are “weak, uninterested in life, unable to concentrate in thought” are given the extract of bull; the female patients who are in a similarly deplorable condition receive an “injection of the cow gland extract.”
We have not yet learned whether the Los Angeles Examiner has deprecated Dr. Rahtjen’s use of Mexican bovines. Remembering the attitude of the Hearst papers toward all things Mexican, one may look for the suggestion that Mr. Rahtjen use 100 per cent. American bull.—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 26, 1921.)