by Monica Groth, Curator
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| An Illustration Satirizing Medical "Quackery" in the March 1867 edition of The Herald of Health medical journal . |
The medical world of the 19th century was chaotic. Physicians were only
beginning to understand that bacteria and viruses caused disease, and different
doctors had different ideas about what constituted a wonder drug and how much
of it was a poisonous dose. As a patient of the 19th century you
might be treated with calomel (which contained toxic mercury), cocaine
injections (used to treat afflictions from eye ailments to in-grown toenails), or heaping
tablespoons of the herb “Indian tobacco” (popularized by Samuel Thomson, who
later faced murder charges due to the results it had on his patients). If you
were interested in the reform-minded “Eclectic” medical movement, to which Elmira’s
Drs. Rachel and Silas Gleason belonged, you might try various botanical and
natural cures as well as novel electrotherapy treatments (using electricity to
treat the body). The Gleasons primarily promoted clean air, exercise, and water
treatments (which chiefly meant putting patients in baths of varying temperatures
and salinities) at their Water Cure on Elmira’s East Hill (check out some
objects from the Water Cure on display at the Museum now).
The 19th century was also the century of quack
remedies – cures hawked by peddlers in get-rich-quick schemes. The popularity
of such remedies coincided with a growing resolution among the lower and middle
classes to shun the elitist medical establishment and be one’s own doctor in a
democratic America. Numerous patent “formulas”, “syrups”, and “tinctures”
contained dangerous herbs or metals dissolved in hefty quantities of alcohol or
morphine. In 1868, The Herald of Health, a New York medical journal warned, “The quacks are generally a wide awake business set of fellows…
If there is one species of dishonesty that is more wicked than any other, it is
the attempt to thus play with those who are sick.”
One little-known and
interesting treatment patented and publicized after the Civil War was Dr. Keeley’s
“Gold Cure”. Dr. Leslie E. Keeley was an Army Surgeon who’d witnessed fellow
soldiers become dependent upon alcohol. Against the backdrop of temperance
movements across the country, questions swirled around what could be done to
effectively “cure the inebriate”. A Herald
of Health essay by J.B. Fuller Walker, director of the Cleveland Ohio “inebriate
asylum”, attempted the use of Turkish baths and Swedish vibratory treatments,
but admitted the difficulty in treating those who suffered from alcoholism and
addiction. At the time, people were inclined to consider alcoholism a moral
failing – not a treatable disease. As
put by the Elmira-published medical journal The
Bistoury in 1877, “The moral aspect of intemperance is abundantly preached,
while the medical bearing of the vice is seldom broached.”
Keeley broached the
topic, and his treatment was soon to reach The
Bistoury’s city. He famously announced that alcoholism could be treated,
along with other addictions – by medicinal gold. After
early experiments (of dubious success) conducted with temperance lecturer
Frederick Hargreaves, Keely marketed his cure and established a “Gold Cure”
institution in Dwight, Illinois where patients could come for treatment. While the chemical compound bichloride
of gold was reportedly the key to the treatment, it was mixed with
“mystery” ingredients to make a tonic, a teaspoon of which was taken by the
patient 4 times a day. The “mystery” cure was then a closely guarded secret,
but is now believed to have contained the toxic alkaloids strychnine and
atropine, along with willow-bark, ammonia, and coca. In 1886, Keeley introduced
the injectable version of his cure which, according to scholar April White,
“left a reassuring golden stain on the upper arm” [1]. Patients lined up in “the
shooting gallery” at the cure to be injected with a custom cocktail of blue, white, and
red liquids.
Opinions on whether
Keeley’s cure was genius or sheer quackery diverged. Some “graduates” of the
cure swore to its efficacy, while others denounced it. Some thought laws should
be established making the cure compulsory and government-funded. Keeley’s
treatment spread rapidly, eventually leading to the establishment of over 100 affiliated
“gold cures” across the country. Gold Cures directly affiliated with Keeley's Dwight
Institute were established across New York State in Westfield, Binghamton,
Geneseo, Babylon, and White Plains (this last establishment being infiltrated
and investigated by the famous journalist Nellie Bly). Many more “imitators”
opened their own cures inspired by Keeley’s treatment. Throughout the last
decade of the 19th century, the Elmira Star-Gazette announced
the opening of independent gold cures in Corning, Seneca Falls, Bemus Point, Wellsville,
and in New Athens and Blossburg, Pennsylvania. The administration of a course
of the Keeley treatment at the Soldier’s Home in Bath in 1894 was also publicized
in the paper. It wasn't long before the gold cure arrived in Chemung
County.
The Elmira city coroner
Dr. J. A. Westlake and associate Dr. Frank A. Flood established a branch of
the Monroe Improved Gold Cure of “the system...in vogue at Bemus Point,
Chautauqua Lake” at Coroner Westlake’s Sanitarium on Lake Street in 1892.
There, the gold cure was offered amongst other treatments until it was discontinued
a year later “owning to the objections raised by ladies” who appear to have disapproved
of the patients attracted to the cure.
But shortly thereafter,
in 1894, a new gold cure arrived in Elmira. It was known as the Telfair
Sanitarium after its parent institution - established by Dr. William Telfair in
Rochester, NY. Dr. Telfair had sent a representative, a Mr. Jackson, to Elmira,
and Jackson’s efforts and people’s interest soon led to the opening of Elmira’s
own branch of the cure at 52 S. Main Street. Operated by Dr. Nathaniel Love and
managed by the aforementioned Jackson, the cure appears to have been a success.
One 1894 advert in the Star Gazette announces, “The success of the Telfair
Sanitarium in Elmira is phenomenal. Why? Because they are making happy homes by
their successful cures of those addicted to liquor.” The patients reportedly
left the Sanitarium “changed individuals” and an 1895 article highlighting Dr.
Love’s work deemed it “unequalled”.
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| Advertisement for The Elmira Sanitarium Gold Cure in the Star-Gazette, Feb. 4, 1896 |
However, in 1895, Dr.
Telfair announced he was breaking with the Elmira branch. As often happened in
the world of treatment schemes, disciples became hated “imitators” when they
became rivals and quickly lost favor with their early colleagues (just as Telfair
had deemed himself superior to Keeley years before). The Telfair Sanitarium of
Elmira however, despite losing its connection to Rochester, continued to
promote its gold treatments, renaming itself the Elmira Sanitarium Gold Cure and
advertising its services through the last years of the 19th century.
The gold cure could be
dangerous, and death announcements in the Star-Gazette attest that patients hoping to be cured often
perished under treatment. One Elmiran succumbed at a Corning Gold Cure in
1893. Whether this was due to the gold injections, his poor health upon
arrival, or both, is impossible to say. At least two other deaths were reported
that year to have taken place at the gold cure in Blossburg, Pennsylvania.
Though Keeley’s tonics
and injections weren’t medically sound, his institutes left an enduring legacy.
Patients at the cures socialized and talked with each other about their habits
and resolutions and after completing the cure the so-called “graduates” formed
clubs to hold each other accountable and seek sobriety together. An Elmira
branch of the Gold Cure Club was founded in 1896 and raised money to send those
who wanted to take the cure to the Sanitarium. Many credit these organizations
as forerunners of discussion based programs continued by Alcoholics Anonymous
today.
[1] White, April. Inside a Nineteenth-Century Quest to End Addiction. JStorDaily 2016. https://daily.jstor.org/
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