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. The Journal 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.)