CHAPTER XIX.. The “expert” Behind the Proprietary Medicine.

THE “EXPERT” BEHIND THE PROPRIETARY MEDICINE.

The reports which appear in the preceding pages and the first volume of this book, contrasting the composition of various proprietary medicines with the claims made for them, show that a favourite feature in the advertising of many of those of most recent origin is a pretence of personal attention to the details of each case by an expert. It is sometimes professed that this attention is given by a qualified medical practitioner, but whether alleged to be qualified or not, the “expert” is usually said to have made a life-long study of the particular complaint to be treated, and to know far more about it than any doctor practising his profession in the ordinary way. We have shown in many cases the hollowness of the pretence of personal attention to individual cases, and some of the evidence given at a recent inquest at the Hammersmith Coroner’s Court throws light on the kind of “expert” knowledge placed at the disposal of those deluded by such advertisements. The case was one in which the deceased had been taking the “Nelson Lloyd Obesity Cure,” the results of the analysis of which were published in Secret Remedies, Vol. I., p. 100. As will be seen from the extracts from advertisements which are there given, the appeal to sufferers from obesity is in the form of a promise of personal treatment by “J. Nelson Lloyd,” who says, “I am myself a member of a family many of whom died prematurely after much mental and physical suffering, arising from corpulence”; and “not only do I offer every client the full benefit of practically a life study of the whole subject of corpulence, but that I guarantee to effect a cure of every case I take up.” The value of this “guarantee,” and the real facts as to the proprietor’s knowledge of the disease he guarantees to cure, are shown by his own evidence at the inquest referred to. The following is from a report of the proceedings in the West London Observer:--“Mr. Frank Derry, the proprietor of Nelson Lloyd’s Obesity Cure, recalled by the coroner, said his medical knowledge was confined to what he had learnt twenty years ago as secretary to a medical man. He had not been in the present business very long. The Coroner: Since the last hearing I have had the advantage of reading your book. Did you write it? It is signed ‘Nelson Lloyd.’--Witness: Of course, Nelson Lloyd is an imaginary person. The book was written for me. In your book you say, ‘While studying for my degree?’--That represents the man who wrote the prescription. He assisted in the business. But you are said to be Nelson Lloyd?--Yes, it is a joint effort. When was the book first published?--In the spring of last year. In the book you say, ‘After I had succeeded in curing myself I decided to take up the cure of obesity instead of that of medical practitioner’?--That represents the medical man who assisted me. Obesity, you say, should only be treated by a specialist?--Yes. You also say that you have made a life-study of it. Is that correct?--As for me, no, but as for the medical man, yes. Do you undertake the diagnosis of a case?--With the assistance of a medical man. John Holmes, of Herne Hill, said he was a qualified medical man in America, but not in this country. As an employee of Mr. Derry he went over the consultation forms and ordered the treatment.” The statement of the proprietor, who is responsible for the letters and pamphlets sent out concluding, “I am, yours truly, J. Nelson Lloyd” (the signature being a facsimile of writing), and for the personal form of the advertisements, that “of course, Nelson Lloyd is an imaginary person,” appears to show a correct appreciation of the degree of truthfulness usually pervading such a business.

In connection with the above and with another nostrum for obesity--A. Gordon Wallace’s “Treatment”--dealt with in Chapter VII. of this volume, the following extract from “‘Truth’ Cautionary List for 1912” is of interest:--

“Wallace, A. Gordon.--A mythical ‘specialist’ in fat-producing and fat-removing, originally the joint creation of a Mr. Alfred John Warner and a Dr. J. H. Hart. Warner was a medical student and chemist’s assistant, employed by Nelson Lloyd. Dr. Hart, who was struck off the register in 1898, was in the same employment. They produced Wallace as a fat-remover, and transferred him to the Rational Remedies Co., Limited. The company went into liquidation, and the ‘specialist’ passed into possession of the International Remedies Co., Limited, which also went into liquidation. Warner became bankrupt, and Gordon Wallace then became a fat-dispeller.”