Dr. Turner Company (weight loss)

The Dr. Turner Company was a Syracuse, New York-based mail-order distributor of the Dr. Turner Triplex System of Weight Reducing, a weight-loss program credited to Francis M. Turner, the whole business being managed and promoted along the same lines as other E. Virgil Neal-Thomas F. Adkin concerns. The Turner system was advertised as a miraculous, drug-free program requiring no major changes to diet, while the actual product consisted of a three-pronged program of stringent diet (no sugar, no flour, no fatty meats, no eggs, only select vegetables and fruits, etc.), purging (laxatives and enemas), and exercise, which would be helped along through purchase of further supplemental products, including concentrated food tablets and reducing wear (including the "To-Kalon Keapshape Corset" and "Neal Reducing Belt").

Press Coverage

• "TURNER OBESITY CURE.", Nostrums and Quackery: Articles on the Nostrum Evil and Quackery Reprinted, with Additions, and Modifications, from the Journal of the American Medical Association, 2, AMA, 1912, p. 405-414, https://books.google.com/books?id=uic9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA405 

Advertising

• "FATTEST WOMAN'S SAD DEATH UNNECESSARY AND SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED SAYS NOTED PHYSICIAN. Tells How Mrs. Dennison's Tragic Death From Fatty Degeneration of the Heart Could Have Been Avoided and Her Weight Easily Reduced Without the Drugs, Exercise or Starving. PHYSICIAN SAYS EPIDEMIC OF FAT PERSONS, DEATHS FROM FATTY HEART, DROPSY, BRIGHT'S DISEASE AND APOPLEXY COULD BE CHECKED AND MANY LIVES SAVED BY PROPER SCIENTIFIC METHODS. Explains How One Fat Man Reduced 90 Pounds, Woman Lost a Pound a Day. Others, Formerly Stout, Relate Amazing Experiences. Full Particulars are Printed Below for the Benefit of Any Readers Who May Be Afflicted as Mrs. Dennison Was.", Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN): 52, 21 Apr. 1912, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/767998220/