“Medical Journals and the Great American Fraud,” Propaganda Department, Nov. 1, 1913.
“The Medical Times’ Advertisements,” Propaganda Department, Nov. 8, 1913.
In another letter on the same subject its writer says: “I think the time has arrived when we have a right to expect real leadership from the ‘big men’ of the profession.”—(From The Journal A. M. A., Nov. 22, 1913.)
MEDICAL JOURNALS AND THE GREAT AMERICAN FRAUD
How the Medical Times Aids and Abets Quackery, with the Moral Support of Members of the Medical Profession
Two letters have been received, both from physicians. One comes from New York City and the other from Alexandria, Va. Each letter contained an advertisement of the Kellam Hospital, Richmond, Va., cut from the Medical Times. Here is the New York letter:
“To the Editor:—I am enclosing an advertisement clipped from the Medical Times. It seemed to me an especially flagrant example of what may happen in the absence of proper supervision of the advertising pages of a medical magazine. The condition would seem all the worse in this instance as among the ‘Board of Contributing Editors’ are listed men like Howard Lilienthal of New York and Almuth C. Vandiver, who is Counsel for the Medical Society of the County of New York. The Medical Times is sent to two of the physicians who live at this address without charge and without solicitation. Many advertisements of proprietary preparations are inserted in type indistinguishable from that of the body of the magazine and it is of course possible that its financial backing comes entirely from the manufacturers of these drugs.”
Fig. 1.—Photographic reproductions from the Medical Times. Do the gentlemen whose names appear in the list of the “Board of Contributing Editors” realize that they are lending an air of respectability to an otherwise disreputable business?