MYSTERY “ CURES "

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3614, 18 November 1924, Page 7

MYSTERY “ CURES "

REMARKABLE LAST CENTURY STORY. Harley street, with its long perspective of solid hut dingy-looking houses, has an appearance of gloom, and this is not at all dissipated by the reflection that here we are in the home of the heavy-weights of the medical profession (says a writer in the ‘Sunday Chronicle’). In the year 1829, however, Harley street Had a different aspect. The narrow thoroughfare was crowded with vehicles, from stately coaches to jaunty dog carts, and those who were waiting their turn, lunchedand chatted and joked, and gave to the scene an aspect more like Goodwood. The cause of all this commotion was that a young gentleman, Mr John >St. John Long, without medical qualification, without- knowledge, and without experience, had set up as a healer of all maladies, whether the disease- were consumption, gout, rheumatism, liver disease, paralysis, varicose veins, or, preferably, a quite imaginary ailment. ‘ ‘ VAPOR ’ ’ PATIENTS. If we were to take a peep into his consulting rooms between 8 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon we should find them crowded, especially with fashionable ladies, and we should sec many bearers of great titles gravely sitting round a great piece of furniture which looked like a piano, hut also resembled, an organ, by reason of a- number of tubes which projected from it, from which tubes the patients were inhaling a ‘medicated vapor,” which was believed to possess sovereign virtues. The presiding genius of this show was a young Irishman, of about thirty years of age, of uncertain origin, but fascinating manners, and endowed with an appearance which combined two qualities rarely -found together—distinction and amiability. St. John Long was a little above the average height, and of slender but graceful figure. His features were well, marked and regular, his hair abundant and inclined to curl, his eyes bright but kindly, while his smile —of which he was not sparing—seemed to diffuse sympathy and hope. He dressed well, almost to the point of dandyism, and he had the remarkable faculty of making sidewhiskers—which were fashionable at the time-—appear decorative. He was always a. little reticent as to his past history, but at this stage- we may look back and trace him from Ids) origins. Ho was horn in Newcastle, County Limerick, in 1798, His father being a working man who eked out a living by various occupations, including that of basketmaker. His mother’s name was Anno St. John, so that later he gave himself a high-sounding “ cognomen ” by combining these two names. HIGH DISTINCTIONS. He was clever and apt, and engaging in his manners, and a charitable lady, who took an interest in the promising hoy, sent him to the Dublin School of Design. He spent two years there, and then returned to Newcastle, and not long afterwards set up in Limerick as an “ historical and portrait painter,” who was prepared to take portraits of the nobility and gentry “ from Italian head to whole length . . . in historical, hunting, fishing, or any other character.” St. John Long did fairly well at this profession, hut London appealed to him as offering a larger field, and at the age of twenty-four lie had made the acquaintance of some influential friends, including the famous painter, Sir Thomas Lawrence, who employed him in his studio. Through' Sir Thomas Lawrence lie became acquainted with members of the medical profession, and one of his occupations was coloring anatomical drawings for use in one of the surgical schools. Shortly afterwards he Svas elected a member of the Royal Society of Literature, and also a member of the Royal Asiatic Society. These high distinctions only served to fire the ambition of St. John Long. He was still only twenty-four when he started as an unqualified doctor, claiming to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to, and before many months had passed he had so many followers that he set up in Fitzroy square, and later removed to Harley street. At the height of his popularity his income was about £15,000 a year, which meant more in those days than now. HIS TREATMENT. Everything went swimmingly with St. John Long, except that he. had earned the enmity of the medical profession, who were always trying to bring about his downfall. In the year 1830 a young lady patient of his died. - As she had been suffering from phthisis, it ’ is probable that she would have died in any case, hut here was a great chance of smashing St. John Long. He was tried for manslaughter, and the evidence showed that his treatment consisted mainly in rubbing on the chest and hack a liniment, of which the preparation was his own secret. The effect of the liniment was to cause large inflamed patches and unsightly sloughing of the skin. We now know that the liniment was composed of turpentine, vinegar, yolk of egg, and water, and that its effect on tho microbes would he small indeed. St. John Long, however, declared that- it had a selective power over the tissues, and that it would avoid the sound parts and attack only those that were diseased. He had many distinguished witnesses, who swore to the marvellous cures he had effected, and the judge—Mr Justice Park—summed up strongly in his favor. The jury found him guilty, and he was ordered to pay £250, or he imprisoned till the money was found. St. John Long, with a superb gesture of contempt, produced a roll of notes, counted them out to the amount, and then drove off with the Marquis of Sligo in his carriage. FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS. Next year, however, another of his patients died. This was Mrs Colin Campbell Lloyd, wife of Captain E. Lloyd, R.N. A similar story was told of the evil results of the liniment, hut on this occasion St. John Long was acquitted. These cases only served to increase his following, and, though he was violently attacked, he was also warmly defended, and it does not appear that the faith of his followers diminished. St. John Long himself retorted boldly on the medical profession by publishing a hook, ‘ Discoveries in the Science and Art of Healing.’ He followed it up by another, ‘A Critical Exposure of the Ignorance and Malpractice of Certain Medical Practitioners in Their Theory and Treatment of Diseases.’ in this little treatise he was not without justification, for as nothing was known of microbes at that time the medical men used remedies and treatments which wore in many cases as little calculated to produce good results as those of St. John Long. The end of St. John Long was cruelly appropriate. He himself fell a victim to consumption, hut he did not rely on his own remedies. £IO,OOO FOR- FORMULA. He died in 1837, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, and his patients and admirers erected a fine- monument over his grave

[to testify to “ the benefits derived from ! his remedial discovery.”

j St. John Long left his formula to his 1 brother, and it was afterwards sold for £10,000; but its remedial properties gradually diminished after the personality of its inventor had passed away. Then, finally, a curious, dramatic, and pathetic incident occurred. An elderly uneducated woman, dressed like a peasant, made her appearance as St. John Long’s widow, and she established her claim, lie had married her when not yet of age, and had afterwards induced her to agree to an amicable separation. And so became explained what had always puzzled his friends—that, whereas he might have married any one of a number of pretty young heiresses, he had always resisted their charms.