fessional standing or any true American in their souls, will offer him any professional assistance," has come to hand.

I HAVE BROUGHT PROFESSOR LORENZ OVER TO THIS COUNTRY AND AS HIS CONFIDENTIAL ADVISOR I HAVE COME TO THE CONCLUSION NOT TO SHOW YOUR LETTER TO GOOD OLD PROFESSOR LORENZ.

Doctors are generally supposed to be men of high education, refinement, and tact, but after repeated perusal of your communication, I fail to find any of these qualities expressed therein.

You seem to have overlooked entirely the fact that Professor Lorenz has shown to the medical profession new ways of healing hitherto incurable cases of hip and joint diseases and that his name will be known long after all "Porters" have gone down to oblivion.

In conclusion let me say that even though people of your kind may not be glad of Prof. Lorenz's visit to the United States you can be sure that the mothers and relatives of the poor cripples certainly are.

Therefore, I have your letter before me and very soon behind me.

Dear Dr. Porter:

Yours truly,

ANTON WEDL.

I am giving you a copy of a telegram to Dr. Lorenz-an invitation given him by the Association for the Crippled and Disabled of Cleveland, Ohio (which I believe to be a lay organization). Also a copy of his reply:

"Prof. Lorenz: The Association for the Crippled and Disabled of Cleveland, Ohio, invites you to be the guest of the organization if it is possible for you to come to Cleveland and I will undertake to arrange any clinics desired by you through its Committee composed of the orthopedic surgeons

here.

Answer:

ALPHA ROBBINS.

"Telegram received. Not yet decided about coming to Cleveland. However you can work on plans tentatively. HAVE BEST

MEN OF THE PROFESSION ARRANGE FOR PRIVATE PATIENTS IF I DO COME."

I also received a telegram from Dr. Stern, Cleveland, saying that he thoroughly disapproved of Lorenz' campaign and will not invite him to come to Cleveland.

E. W. R.

Chicago Tribune, Friday, Dec. 16, 1921. Dr. Adolf Lorenz will not be permitted to hold a clinic in the Cook County Hospital. This was decided last night by the medical staff of the institution, consisting of more

than seventy physicians and surgeons. The action appears to eliminate all chances of a clinic being conducted here by the Viennese surgeon, for his requests have been turned down by practically all of the leading hospitals.

The recommendation of the medical men is in the form of a resolution unanimously adopted stating that they do not believe in the "sensational exploitation" of Dr. Lorenz; that they do not wish to "delude thousands of cripples who would come to be cured and only deluded," and that, while there is no personal animosity in their action, they believe a visit by Dr. Lorenz would do more harm than good.

To the Chicago Tribune:

Your inquiry as to the reason why the larger and better hospitals of Chicago have refused to open their doors to Professor Lorenz of Vienna, in order that he may hold his clinics when he comes here, and why, not ony the Orthopedic Staff of Cook County, but many other of the medical profession as well, are opposed to his being invited to operate at the Cook County Hospital, offers the opportunity to explain to the public through the Chicago Tribune certain facts, which we feel, under the circumstances, should be known.

In the first places, the American Medical profession looks with strong disfavor upon newspaper advertising of medical men, especially notoriety of the loose sensational type with which Lorenz is being heralded, which sensationalism is, not only lacking in scientific dignity, but also smacks of the methods of the charlatan.

Secondly such publicity inevitavy will arouse a response amounting to a hysteria, which will bring unfortunate cripples of all sorts, many incurable, that careful deliberate examination of their ills will be physically impossible, and treatment, operative or otherwise, necessarily will be so hurried because of the numbers to be served that the best results cannot possibly be obtained, and bitter disappointment will come to many hopeful sufferers, led to expect the impossiole.

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The proposed visit of Dr. Lorenz will accomplish more harm than good and we are opposed to any plan by which countless numbers of cripples will have their hopes raised to the skies, only to have them blasted when they find they have been misled. His visit will serve to make every cripple in America disatisfied and disappointed; would be disappointed because tney were unable to reach the 'miracle man," others because he would not be able to treat them. There would be a very large class of those who would believe that he could have cured them if he had treated them. others would soon learn that promises are not cures. These disappointments are the worst a cripple must endure. Their greatest loss would be the loss of hope.

The public does not realize that the first operation or the first treatment in a deformity case, is only the beginning of a long series of treatments, which may last over several months or years, and few surgeons are willing to take upon themselves the responsibility and trouble involved, in giving the post-operative care, including plaster casts, dressings, braces, massage, etc., etc., which are necessary in cases which have been operated upon

by someone else. Furthermore, every surgeon is legally liable for his results-in fact, the hospital at which he operates also has a certain responsibility for accidental or bad results, and it is very easy to see that where the operator sees and operates upon such a large number of cases as Professor Lorenz did when he was here nineteen years ago, and shortly disappears to a foreign country, there must be some indifferently good results, as well as some actually bad ones, for which the hospital and surgeon giving the after-treatment will be held responsible in the minds of the patients, while the original operator, who is really responsible, cannot be reached.

As a matter of fact, all those who come in contact, after he left, with the many cases which Professor Lorenz operated upon, during his former visit, saw many results they were glad they were not responsible for, and for which they felt that Professor Lorenz would have been heartily ashamed, could he have stayed in this country to take care of them.

It must be apparent to everyone that to invite him to appear at the Cook County Hospital, or any cther public hospital, where a well-trained and devoted Orthopedic Staff is giving its time and attention to taking care of the poor cripples of Cook County, is nothing short of injustice to the members of the staff, because the public at once jumps to the conclusion, which has been heralded far and wide by the sensational newspapers that he is a "miracle worker," and is able to do things which our local surgeons are unable to do, when we all know that such is not the case. Those of us who have visited Professor Lorenz' clinic in Vienna, as well as other European clinics, and have seen the surgeons at work in their own work shops, realize fully that the results obtained by the American surgeons are, to say the least, equally as good as those of the continental surgeons.

It is highly probable that if Lorenz can "put over" this visit, it will not be very long before we can expect the same sort of visit by representatives of other branches of medicine, such as, an internist, а surgeon, a gynecologist, an obstetrician, etc.

Therefore, we the undersigned, specializing in Orthopedic Surgery, wish to advise the public that we shall emphatically protest against undertaking the care or after-treatemnt of Dr. Lorenz' patients:

LEADING EDITORIAL FROM THE BOSTON MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL OF DEC. 8, 1921.

THE VISITING CONFRERE

Adolph Lorenz, of Vienna, is an orthopedic surgeon nearly 70 years old, who was in his time a distinguished contributor to the progress of surgery in formulating an operation for the reduction of congenital dislocation of the hip without incision. Summoned to this country some eighteen years ago, to operate on a well kown patient, he was taken up by the leading members of the medical profession, shown every honor, given every facility to demonstrate his methods, and called into consultation in much lucrative private practice. He taught much to the profession in using his method in reducing hips, he showed that insufficient force had been used, and he left the country

with a medical profession feeling grateful for his instruction, although perhaps deprecating his desire for and methods of obtaining newspaper publicity.

But much water runs under the bridge in eighteen years. This method of reducing hips has been so largely modified here and in Europe in favor of using gentler and more dexterous manipulation that one would hardly recognize the original operation. IN AN ANALYSIS OF THE CASES OPERATED ON BY HIM IN AMERICA, RIDLON, A SURGEON IN CHICAGO, STATED THAT OUT OF TWENTY-SIX DISLOCATED HIPS OPERATED ON BY HIM, ONLY TWO HAD BEEN SUCCESSFULLC REDUCED. The advocacy of so-called "bloodless" methods in other deformities and joint disease has, moreover, not gained ground as it has been recognized that with modern surgical technic, better functional results are often obtained by division of resisting structures than by rough tearing of the soft parts.

The medical profession is therefore asking in many quarters what Lorenz has today to teach the proffession, to offer to the patient that is of such great value, and why he is here. If we may believe our best information, the condition of the Austrian children is deplorable, and they are in urgent need of orthopedic treatment. If, when our influenza epidemic in Boston was at its height, one of our prominent physicians had gone to Chicago where there were a few cases at the time, and announced in the papers that he had gone there because he loved Chicago so much, the public of Chicago might properly have wondered why he had come. A disagreeable answer to a similar question with regard to Lorenz is suggested by a paragraph in a New York paper, where one of the surgeons, apparently in charge of Lorenz' publicity depatment, stated that no charge would be made to patients for professional service, but that each patient might leave what compensation he could afford, which was the custom in Vienna.

Any criticism of Lorenz by the American medical profession would be interpreted by the laity as inspired by jealousy. The medical profession is perhaps no more immune to that sentiment than any other, but in this instance the laity may be well assured that Lorenz, neither by reputation nor by achievement, is in a position to actuate that sentiment in a profession that has passed him by in the march of progress.

Orthopedic authorities inform us that the so-called bloodless reduction method is applicable in less than 40 per cent of hip joint dislocations.

"Several of the trustees today demanded an explanation from Dr. Henry Frauenthal, surgeon-in-chief of the hospital, for the state of affairs disclosed in complaints that poor people taking their children to the supposedly free clinic had been asked to pay fees.

"It is alleged that those who could get together $100 were examined by Dr. Lorenz privately in Dr. Frauenthal's outside office at 160 West 59th Street, while those without money stood fruitlessly outside the clinic in al kinds of weather."

"Dr. Walter Galland, secretary and medical advisor to Dr. Lorenz, denied today that

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"People are not obliged to pay $10, as has been written in the papers,' he said. 'Everything is a matter of voluntary contributions. Those who can afford to pay something may do so and those who cannot afford to pay are not asked to pay. In fact, there are many where not a cent is paid.

"All the money collected,' Dr. Galland went on to explain, 'is turned over to Anton Wedl, of 118 East Sixteenth Street, Manhattan, A LACE IMPORTER WHO WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN EFFECTING DR. LORENZ'S VISIT TO THIS COUNTRY.'"

-Brooklyn News.

FALSE HOPES

The publicity given to Dr Lorenz creates the impression that he is a miracle worker. In the smaller localities of the state, there are many deformed children. Take one such case in a wayside up state home. The ambitions, hopes, and interests of the parents are centered in that child. They ponder seriously over his future. Now they read and gain the impression that if Dr. Lorenz could see their boy, his deformity would be corrected and he would be as other boys. They naturally will go to the extreme and will make every sacrifice to raise the funds to take that boy to Detroit. What will be

their disappointment, mental anguish, and feeling when they learn that they have been mislead and the expected cure cannot be wrought? What will their sentiment and attitude be to the profession who condones and endorses Dr. Lorenz's visit and methods? Will they return to their own home doctor or hospital with continued faith and confidence? Will they not be rightly bitter to the entire profession? It is right to thus deceive the people of Michigan? Shall a Mecca be held up to them and then, after personal sacrifices, have them learn that the Mecca was but a mirage? All to replenish the depleted finances of Dr. Lorenz!

Chapter X of our by-laws states: "When prompt speech and action are imperative, authority to speak and act is vested in the Council."

Newspapers reported that the Executive Committee of the State Medical Society had invited Dr. Lorenz to come to Michigan. Dr. DuBois, Chairman of the Council immediately sent the following telegram: Dr. Adolf Lorenz,

New York City.

As chairman of the Council of the Michigan State Medical Society, representing the medical profession of Michigan, I advise

W. J. DU BOIS, M. D.

We add no further comment. We express no opinions individual or organizational. These must be attained by each individual. This editorial is concerned only with the imparting of informative facts. We took particular pains to ascertain their sources and reliability.

In the forming of an opinion the following should be guiding factors:

1. Orthopedic surgery rarely achieves its recognized results in one operative or manipulative proceedure.

2. Dr. Lorenz has nothing new to demonstrate to American Orthopedicts. His results do not equal that of American Orthopedists.

3. American Orthopedic Clinics are recognized for their high standards and end results.

4. The administration of our American

Orthopedic Clinics are above criticism. They are ever open to the poor and crippled. Services without fee are always available to those in need.

5. Dr. Lorenz is in America with the avowed object of replenishing his depleted finances. Therefore his charitable principles have been submerged in his quest for gold.

6. The methods employed by Dr. Lorenz are objectionable not only from the standpoint of ethics, but also because an impression is given that misleads and deceives the public.

7. To cause false hopes in the minds of cripples or their parents, and to cause them. to incur financial and personal sacrifices, only to be deceived and mislead is not in accord with the standards of an honored profession.

8. It is the duty of the profession to reveal to the public the facts concerning those whose integrity is in question.

9. Individual members have no right to seek personal benefits by condoning and abetting questionable proceedures and

methods.

10. Bars of standards and principles cannot be lowered by the lever of gold.

11. American people should not be inadvisedly placed at the disposal of one seeking to replinish his financial loses, nor should they be permitted to be made the dupe of foreigners without due warning.

12. Dr. Lorenz has not demonstrated

13. The becoming of a protege of civilian lace importers, is not the customary avenue along which a foreign scientific professional man approaches or secures entree to the American professions. Neither is it customary to employ a lace importer as one's financial agent when humanitarian purposes without desire for financial reward is the true motive of an American visit.

14. The profession has no jealous or personal motives. It never has failed to welcome and afford every facility to recognized foreign medical men. It does not lend its endorsement, however, to those who come with apparent ulterior motives.

Note: The above is published upon in

struction of the Chairman of the Committee on Publication and Chairman of the Council.

POLITICAL THREATS

These are days of political, business and social unrest. That is what is being told to us from almost every quarter. The sentiment seems to prevail in every line of human endeavor. For each avenue of activity there are individualized bug-a-boos. In the medical profession they consist of Chiropractic menaces, State Medicine, Public Controlled Clinics, etc., etc. We concede that they are problems that demand solution. We concede that they merit intensive thinking and action. We do not concede that they are going to engulf the profession.

Neither do we concede that we are at the mercy of the politician or the political party in power. We are not going to discuss at this time the basic problems or conditions. We are reserving that for a future discourse, We do, however, desire in this editorial to comment upon the phobia of politicians and legislative enactments. Under the agitation of some there appears to be an increasing concern as to what the politician may do to us and many there are who immediately throw up their hands and give up the ghost whenever any intimation of political interference is mentioned. Let us consider briefly whether the politician, be he governor, mayor, legislator or boss, is supreme in his dictatorship and whether we poor mortals are wholly subservient to his dominancy.

The defeat of political dominancy, coercion and intolerance, can be brought be brought about in a manner that is simple in execution, but exacting for its effectiveness, ex

tion. It consists of acquainting the public with facts, the interviewing of candidates for office, and the placing before those in. office the basis upon which our representations are made, with the added information that we hold in reserve the support of a given number of voters who will give ex pression to their opinions if the reception of our representations is tainted by political chicanery. Easy, isn't it, if we are inspired by noble motives and interested in the welfare of our fellowman? Difficult, however, if you are willing to let the other fellow do all the work for you.

The last legislature listened when a flood of telegrams poured in upon them. They will listen again, but we must not permit ourselves to be shoved so near to the edge of the precipice before we wake up to our position. A telegram will not always suffice to turn the tide. We require a stronger reserve. Now is the time to build up that reserve and you, doctor, are called upon to aid. Are you willing to respond? If not, do not sob if you find yourself put upon a state pay roll and work for so many cents per call or per hour.

Let us forget the threats, "The Governor is going to do this," "The legislature is going to pass that law," "The cults are going to demand this." Why man, the very reason why a Governor is going to do what he threatens or the legislature is going to pass a certain law is because some other party or group of citizens have employed the mathey are responsive. They will never inchinery and are stiffening their nerve and timidate or threaten when they perceive that honest demands, backed by honest people concerned with the good of the people and without quest for personal gain, come out in open array and submit their claims. To do so would be suicide for them and their political career. If the cults get anywhere it is because they effectively employed the method advocated. We are of equal influence, we are capable of exhibiting stronger support, we are motivated by higher ideals and we are pressing facts

home that have no ulterior motives in the background. This cannot be said of the cults and if the facts were laid before the

public, the expression of the sentiment that would be registered would give no room for doubt as to what the Governor or the legislature would and will do. It is up to you, doctor, to mold that sentiment, amass that public support by imparting the facts that the people should know. Do not let the opposition, so called, round up a few hundred