SANDOW'S INSTITUTE.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 14094, 13 July 1911, Page 8

SANDOW'S INSTITUTE.

_>OCTORS LN TROUBLE.

ALLEGATION OF UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT.

(•THOU OUR OWN CORREBrONT>ENT.-) LOXDON. Jnne 2. The investigations by the General Medical Council into charges of -unprafessional conduct brought against three registered doctors associated with Mr Eugcn Sandow's Curative Institute, had a dramatic termination. Sir Avoaaid MacAlister announced the decision, and said tnat the tacts alleged against ono ot the doctors had been proved to tho satisiacuon of tuo C-ouncu, wiio adjudged mm to have been guilty of "inlauious conauct, m a pi uiooMOual respect, ' and _ad directed tno reystrar to erase ins name troui tne meuical register, in tho cases ot tno otuer two medical men tne lacts were proved to tno satisiaction of tne C-ouncU, wh<j, however, postponed judgment in tne_e cases until tne next session in order that the defendants mignt seriously reconsider their position. The charge Drougnt by the British Medical Association against the three doctors was that they had associated themselves in a professional capacity with "an institution termed the Sandow Curative Institution, which systematically advertises for the purpose of procuring patients who are to receive, cither by correspondence or by attendance at the said institute, treatment for disease under the personal direction of Eugen Sandow, who is not a registered medical practitioner"; that they had "approved of and acquiesced in such advertising"; and that in relation thereto they had "been guilty of infamous conduct in a professional capacity." It was alleged against tho throe doctors that they were employed by Sandow, Ltd., as medical officers, to render services in their professional capacity, but all three disclaimed emphatically in

their letters any responsibility of their own for the actual treatment of disease. Lord Robert Cecil defended the three medical gentlemen, who urged that they had not made their connection with the institute a vehicle of personal advertisement, and that if there had been anything objectionable in it they would not have joined it or remained with it. Lord Robert submitted that, even in a professional respect a man could not be called infamous unless he had done something which was morally blameworthy. The real association of these gentlemen with the institute was a precautionary one for preserving T>eoT)le from injury by carrying out the treatment. Referring to the chargo that doctors were associated with an institution which carried on systematic advertising, lord Robert read a list of hydros and similar institutions which advertised widely in the medical and lay papers, and added that from a superficial inspection of a few newspapers no had compiled a list of sixty or seventy of theso institutions. In conclusion, Lord Robert read a letter from Mr Sandow making an offer that the institute should bo carried on in any way which the Council might direct, in conformity with, medical etiquette, and also to refrain from further advertisement in the lay Press. Mr Sandow declares himself 'astounded" at the action of the General Medical Council as ho had expected the charges would bo dismissed. If it might be possible to bring about the doctor's reinstatement on the register by recourse to law ho would, if tho doctor wished, institute proceedings at once. Failing other reparation, ho was ready to pension the doctor for life. In regard to the doctor's two colleagues, he would do nil in the way of reparation that. *mi*xht lie in his power.