The enclosures referred to consisted of a reprint and a letter from “Ph. Rahtjen, M.A., Ph.D.,” Pasadena, Calif., both of which had been sent to a layman who had written to Rahtjen. The reprint was a translation of a brief article by Rahtjen “On the Etiology of Idiopathic Anemia,” translated from the Centralblatt für Bakteriologie Parasitenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten. Rahtjen’s letter to the layman read:
“Your inquiry relative to my isolation and classification of the Germ of Anemia received.
“I herein enclose my paper published in August in the Central Magazine of Bacteriology.
“I have succeeded in immunizing goats against the Germ therein described. Five thousand injections of the Serum have been given. Three hundred cases diagnosed as Anemia and Chlorosis were treated under observation. Six cases of Pernicious Anemia were observed under treatment. All responded favorably.
“The Serum is at your disposal from my laboratory here for the use of your physician. The price is five dollars for twelve ampoules each containing 1 ccm., the amount of one injection.
“The treatment consists of intramuscular injection every second day accompanied with a nitrogenous free diet, preferably milk diet. Your attending physician should very easily give them.”
Just what Rahtjen’s serum is we do not know. Nor have we been able to find any information on the subject in any available medical literature. In fact, a rather careful search of American medical literature for some years past fails to reveal any article by Rahtjen on any subject.
Philip Rahtjen is not a physician. In the Propaganda files is a circular issued in 1917 by the “Rahtjen Tuberculosis Sanatorium” of San Francisco, Calif. This exploits “The Rahtjen Cure for Tuberculosis” and tells of “The Discovery of Dr. Philip Rahtjen.” The circular states that:
“Dr Rahtjen studied in Heidelberg, Berlin, Munich, Marburg, and Rostock, Germany, from which latter school in 1904, he graduated in chemical pathology as Doctor of Philosophy. He became assistant professor of pathology at the Imperial Biological Station at Heligoland, and was later appointed assistant to Dr. Piorkowsky, head of the Deutsche Schutz und Heilserum Gesellschaft.”
The same circular summarizes the potentialities of “Rahtjen’s Cure for Tuberculosis” thus: