“Yours with best wishes,
“The Army and Navy Medical Record,
“Arthur G. Lewis, Managing Editor.”
The physician to whom this was addressed made a notation on the letter to the effect that “this looks crooked.” A few weeks later, Dr. V. C. Vaughan, dean of the University of Michigan, Department of Medicine and Surgery, sent in a letter from the Army and Navy Medical Record which he had received in his official capacity at the university. Here is the letter; again the italics are ours:
“We are gratified to advise you that in our efforts to select a strictly ethical and high-grade institution of medicine that this magazine could consistently indorse and recommend, we have decided on the University of Michigan, Department of Medicine and Surgery, as the institution in your territory to whom our special publicity concession will be made this year.
“You are doubtless aware that we come in direct contact with a very large number of Army and Navy and other government attachés, also physicians in private practice who have sons that they desire to provide with a medical education, combined with the higher courses included in your up-to-date methods.
“For personal reasons we are particularly anxious to favor your institution, and frankly believe that we can prove of material service to you. The special proposition, to be regarded by you as strictly confidential, is that we will publish a full one-half page announcement of your institution for the term of one year, you to merely pay a nominal expense charge of $38 for the year’s service. As our regular rate is $125 per annum for this service, the necessity of regarding the matter between ourselves is apparent. [Transparently so.—Ed.] We further propose, without expense to you, to editorially indorse and recommend your institution and its methods without qualification or exception. An electrotype illustration may be used, without charge.
“It is important, however, that we hear from you promptly. Awaiting your immediate reply, we are, with best wishes,
“Yours faithfully,
“The Army and Navy Medical Record,
“Arthur G. Lewis, Managing Editor.”
Dr. Vaughan, in forwarding the matter to The Journal, wrote that on receipt of the offer just given, he “was uncertain whether its writer was a knave or a fool.” After inquiring into the matter somewhat thoroughly, he concluded that “the managing editor of the Army and Navy Medical Record is both a knave and a fool.”
THE ARMY AND NAVY MAGAZINE
The Journal had the Army and Navy Medical Record under investigation before these two letters were received and, as a result, the following facts seem to be pretty well substantiated. Herbert C. Lewis, with his brother, Arthur G., conducted from Washington, D. C., a publication called the Army and Navy Magazine. In The Journal’s nostrum file there is a booklet put out by the Renova Distributing Company describing the wonderful virtues of its product, “Anti-Jag,” which, as its name might intimate, is a “liquor cure” of the fake variety. One page of this booklet is given over to what purports to be “A Letter from a Great Magazine Editor.” The letter is dated June 19, 1900, from Washington, D. C., and says that “the editor of the Army and Navy Magazine takes pleasure in stating that from his own personal knowledge he has found ‘Anti-Jag’ to be one of the most reliable medicines ever introduced for the permanent cure of drunkenness.” And more to the same effect. The letter is signed “Herbert C. Lewis, editor.”