Chapter XIX

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.”