Medicine: Fingard’s Fix

In London last week the British Government was not sure whether or not an imposing, glib U. S.-Canadian Jew with a machine for treating respiratory diseases was a medical knave or not. To be on the safe side Sir John Simon, head of the British Home Office, ordered David Fingard to get out of England by Jan. 15. Unless King George VI interfered, that last week seemed likely to happen. But the King’s interference was not beyond the possibilities of David Fingard’s career.

His activity in England, against the wishes of potent physicians, including the Royal Family’s physician, Lord Dawson of Penn, is due mainly to the backing of the present King’s father, George V.

As everyone knows, George V once almost died of pneumonia and long suffered from bronchitis (TIME, Dec. 3, 1928 et seq.}. This experience magnified in his mind the dread which all Englishmen have of respiratory diseases, chief causes of disability in England.

Two years ago, upon taking office as England’s Minister of Health, Sir Kingsley Wood, a lawyer with a rich practice among health and life insurance companies, appealed to England’s doctors for an effective treatment for the common cold.

Forth stepped Mr. Fingard to tell a great deal about his machine and medicaments, very little about himself and his Canadian past.

The machine is a small air conditioner which dries and warms air drawn from outdoors, and passes it over trays containing creosote, phenol, iodine, glycerin, oil of garlic, other essential oils. Victims of colds, bronchitis, asthma, sinusitis, or tuberculosis would be cured by breathing that medicated atmosphere three to 16 hours a day. So said Mr. Fingard.

The system is called the Duke-Fingard Treatment. “Duke” stands for a Fingard “uncle from Germany” whom David Fingrard calls Rudolph Duke, whom high-placed English backers of the treatment call J. J. Duke. The man supposedly died in Germany many years ago. Once he lived in Winnipeg where, says David Fingard, he developed the machine and drugs, and confided them to David, smart young New Jersey-born son of a Winnipeg coal dealer. The young man neglected to exploit the treatment for several years. First he tried his hand at insurance and stock brokering, grew baldish and portly during his efforts, dropped them to promote the Duke-Fingard Treatment in California, China and England, where he heard the plea of Health Minister Sir Kingsley Wood.

Sir Kingsley would have nothing to do with much-traveled, somewhat evasive Mr. Fingard. That clever man rented a suite of rooms in a fine West End hotel where he let friendly doctors administer treatments for as high as £1,000 a series. As for himself, he served U. S. coffee, Scotch whiskey and English gin to all comers. Occasionally he hinted that his opposition stemmed from Lord Dawson of Penn, hinted that that eminent physician wanted a cut in this profitable medical business.

Stanchest of Fingard backers became the Dowager Duchess of Suffolk and Berkshire, daughter of the late Chicago department store tycoon, Levi Zeigler Leiter. Also stanch is Lieut.-General Sir Harold Ben Fawcus.K.C.B.,C.B..C.M.G., D.S.O., D.C.L., M.B., D.P.H.. Director-General of the British Red Cross, one-time Director-General of the Army Medical Services. These and others just as influential got King George V’s ear, got him to order the Duke-Fingard Treatment investigated officially. Whatever its merits or demerits, now decided Health Minister Sir Kingsley Wood’s men, the Treatment did not require Mr. Fingard’s presence in England.

Unabashed David Fingard prepared to sail for the U. S., where he counts on the backing and publicity of Publisher Roy Howard of the Scripps-Howard Newspapers.