“Think this over and if you do, you will write an order today for the Lymphoid Compound. The home treatment costs $9.50 for thirty three days—think of that. You have our physician’s advice and care free of charge—could anybody ofter more to you?”
In 1908 Dr. Lowenthal appeared as a witness for Edward R. Hibbard, who was being prosecuted by the federal authorities. Hibbard operated a “men’s specialist” office in Chicago; it had two entrances and a different name for each entrance—the “Boston Medical Institute” and the “Bellevue Medical Institute.” Hibbard was found guilty of fraud in the operation of this concern and was fined $1,500. The transcript of the testimony in the Hibbard case records that Dr. Albert A. Lowenthal, when on the stand, claimed to “have treated as many nerve patients as any nerve specialist in Chicago.” He further declared, according to the transcript, that physicians who make a specialty of nervous diseases “mature in about ten years” and that after that time most of them become nervous wrecks or insane. This was in 1908. In this connection it is worth noting that in letters sent out by Lowenthal in May, 1919, he claimed:
“In the past twenty-five years I have limited my work to neurological and psychological cases....”
In 1908 also, Dr. Lowenthal was sending out letters to Illinois physicians in his capacity as secretary of the “Physicians’ League of Illinois.” The “league” issued a “report on candidates for governor and members of legislature,” giving the names of the various political candidates for office whom “the members of the league can safely support.” There were no “membership” fees and a physician who wrote asking “who foots the bills” received no reply.
In 1915 Albert A. Lowenthal, whose “valuable discoveries in the domains of Organo Therapy, Neurology and Pediatrics, have given him an international reputation as a Neurologist, Alienist and Climatological Expert of high standing,” was “Medical Superintendent” of the “National Sanitarium Information Bureau.” This purported to represent the “Leading Sanitariums and Health Resorts in the U. S.” The “Bureau” expected to make its “profit from the 10 per cent. honorarium received on every referred patient.” The “Business Manager” of this concern was one Hubert Miller, M.D. The following advertisement appeared in the classified department of the St. Louis Post Dispatch in 1915:
A layman who wrote in answer to this advertisement received a letter from Dr. Lowenthal in which he said that it was his intention to take about thirty patients south with him for four months—cost of trip $500, which includes medical treatment, board, etc. Dr. Lowenthal stated further:
“I have treated probably more cases of Locomotor Ataxia and Paralysis than any Physician in United States and can honestly state that with Organo Therapy Treatment your walk can be improved and pains controlled.”
In March, 1919, Dr. Lowenthal paid a visit to Spokane, Wash., and Portland, Ore. A Portland paper heralded his coming and printed a picture of “Dr. A. A. Lowenthal, World famous alienist.” The paper described Dr. Lowenthal as “the alienist consulted in the Harry Thaw case” and the one “who treated John Alexander Dowie of Zion City fame and Pope Leo XIII.” The fulsome puffery that Dr. Lowenthal got while in Spokane drew criticism from one or two members of the local medical profession, who wrote to the newspapers protesting. One of the physicians who thus wrote declared that Lowenthal’s “coming was announced in a circular sent through the Owl Drug Company which is agent for the sale of products of an organo-therapy company.”