Reduced facsimile of the letter-heads of an institution known variously as the “American Hospital” and the “German Hospital.” The change in name from “American” to “German” seems to have taken place early in 1915—when things German were more popular and profitable than they are today!
But to come back to the “Society of Medical Democracy”: The “Medical Society of the United States” seems to have been born in 1916. Its parents, so far as is apparent, seem to have been Lanphear and Ohmann-Dumesnil. The latter, it may be remembered, used to be the editor and proprietor of the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, a publication so obviously venal, that its value to the nostrum makers, whose interests it espoused, must have been small. Advertising pages, “original articles” and “editorials”—all were used to puff nostrums of the crudest type. It was Ohmann-Dumesnil and his journal that came to the defense of the “patent medicine” interests when they were so hard hit by Mr. Adam’s “Great American Fraud” series. In commenting on this phase of “patent medicine” activities, Collier’s, in January, 1907, said:
“Headache powders came in for a considerable share of attention in the patent medicine articles. There was much talk of libels among the headache powder makers, but they decided upon the safer methods of hiring a meretricious medical publication, the St. Louis Medical and Surgical Journal, to print an article in which the Collier’s statements were branded as lies, and the Collier’s editors and writers as liars and libelers. This article the Proprietary Association of America circulated in pamphlet form. The journal which printed it died a natural death a few weeks later. Its editor, one A. H. Ohmann-Dumesnil, has just appeared in the public prints in an unsavory connection with a corrupt lobbying project in St. Louis.”
Some of the nostrums that Ohmann-Dumesnil has recommended are: “Sanmetto,” “Gonosan,” “Cactina Pillets,” “Pepto-Mangan,” “Satyria,” “Campho-Phenique,” “Tongaline,” “Germiletum,” “Narkogen,” “Nosophen,” “Mercauro,” “Arsenauro,” and “Hydrozone.” Many of these testimonials were, of course, used by the manufacturers in their advertising “literature.”
At the time that the Medical Society of the United States was being organized—in 1916—there was published what purported to be a preliminary program of its first meeting. The meeting was held in St. Louis, and the program, while containing the names of men with special fads or interests to exploit, also contained the names of some men of standing. It appeared, however, on investigation, that at least some of the latter had but a hazy conception of the use to which their names were being put, and protested vigorously on learning the facts, repudiating the organization.
Reduced facsimile of a letter sent out in 1912, soliciting the purchasing of stock in the “American Hospital” on a division of fee basis—forty-sixty!
Now, in 1918, another drive is on for membership; letters signed “Emory Lanphear” are being sent to various selected groups of physicians. For example, the Eclectics are being coaxed by a letter which commences:
“We want every reputable Eclectic practitioner in this country to join our society of protest against the iniquities of the A. M. A.”