Medicine: McCann Banned

“The obstructionist tactics of the American Medical Association are keeping 10,000,000 people from recovery.” This was typical of the charges made a few weeks ago by Alfred W. McCann (known as “Medicine Man McCann”) who advocated (TIME, Jan. 14) “lime starvation” treatment for tuberculosis of the lungs.

Implying that Mr. McCann was nothing more than a Russell Emulsion press agent, the Journal of the A. M. A. said: “A careful reading of McCann’s series [in The Evening Mail, Manhattan] indicates that they are essentially a rewrite of the advertising matter and supplementary literature on the Russell products,†interspersed with picturesque denunciations of the medical profession. The medical profession is thoroughly familiar with the lime starvation theory and treatment. It has been weighed in the balance of therapeutic and clinical tests and found wanting . . . Mr. McCann has done what other sensational writers have done before. In an attempt to make a sensation he has gone out of his element. McCann is wild enough when he confines himself to a discussion of food problems. When he goes into therapeutics he is hopeless.”

The Journal could not stop Mr. McCann. But scarcely had the A. M. A. article left the press, when Frank A. Munsey bought The Evening Mail. The McCann series came to an abrupt end.

A few days later appeared a large advertisement in which Mr. McCann complained that he had lost his “voice,” but hoped to find another. The advertisement was paid for by “friends.”

† Proprietary medical preparations known as Russell Emulsion and Russell Prepared Green Bone.