New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons (Adkin)

New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons
Formation	c. 1900
Dissolution	c. 1905
Headquarters	Rochester, NY
President	Thomas F. Adkin (co-founder)

The New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons of Rochester, New York that was a vehicle for the mail-order promotion and sale of Thomas F. Adkin's Vitaopathy, a medical treatment scheme based on the application of mind cure in conjunction with proprietary vegetable remedies. The concern was in operation from 1900 through to 1905, at which time it was denied access to the U.S. mails under a fraud order issued by the Postmaster General.

Selected Publications

• Vitaopathy: A Common Sense System of Curing Diseases
• Amazing Results : Follow the Adkin Vitaopathic Treatment : No Faith or Belief Required : Our Treatment is Endorsed by Medical Men and Scientists All Over the World : It Appeals to Every Intelligent Person...
• Adkin, Thomas F. (1900), A Correspondence Course of Instruction in Vitaopathy, https://wellcomecollection.org/works/a97yp6wk 

Administration, Consulting Board & Staff

• Thomas F. Adkin
• A. J. Barber
• L. B. Hawley
• W. H. Curtis
• John S. Reed
• E. M. Day
• Emil Klein
• S. Dutton Whitney
• Eugene Hunt
• G. S. Lincoln
• H. G. Doane
• Rudolph Mielke
• P. W. Erdtmann
• Marie Norton
• D. A. Dobie
• E. H. Pollock
• F. W. Winter
• A. W. Jackson
• W. Edward Young
• H. C. Abel
• C. F. Drake
• J. W. Horter
• Edward B. Herick
• W. W. Hadley

Graduates

• Anna Beckwith Hamel

Reading

• AMA (1915), "New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons", Medical Mail-Order Frauds, Chicago: American Medical Association, p. 44-46, https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.b4210547&view=1up&seq=49 

Press Coverage

• "FRAUD ORDER ISSUED - Mail of Big Medical Institute Returned to Writers", Topeka Daily Herald (Topeka, KS): 8, 11 Aug. 1905, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/387508537/ 
• "Tribune's Answer in Libel Suit Calls E. Virgil Neal a Quack - Newspaper's Pleading to Patent Medicine Proprietor's Action for Damages Set Up Justification as Defence and Denies the Article Sued On Was False, Malicious or Did the Plaintiff Any Damage - Papers On File Traced Complainant's Career in Selling to the Public", New York Tribune (New York, NY): 18, 23 June 1919, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/1918-06-23/ed-1/seq-18/ 
  

  [...] The Tribune answer then takes up the history of the "New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons," organized under the laws of the State of New York in 1900 by Neal under the alias "X. La Motte Sage," Thomas F. Adkin and N. M. Adkin.

  In the certificate of incorporation this "Institute" was founded for the objects of "treating disease, manufacturing remedies and giving instruction in medicinal subjects." The principal place of business was Rochester, N. Y. The principal business, it is alleged, was the sale through the mails of a "magnetic or psychic treatment" of disease, called "Vitaopathy."

  The past performances, or claims of performances, of Neal, alias "X. La Motte Sage," set forth in the answer, were humble indeed compared to the pleaded pretensions of "Professor" Adkin, of the "New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons." Adkin was advertised as the Edison and Marconi of "Vital Magnetism" and "Psychic Force." A woman on her way to the grave had been rescued by "that world famous savant," Adkin.

  The Tribune's pleading asserts the "Institute" advertised that this "cure" caused Adkin to be credited with the possession of divine power. Here is a sample of the advertisements of the "Institute," to which Neal was Interested, alluding to Adkin:

  "The blind made to see, the lame to walk, and helpless individuals restored to health when given up to die by doctors. No disease he may not cure. Stops pains, heals sores, removes cancers and tumors and performs marvels that upset modern medical practice and defy explanation."

  In August, 1905, The Tribune pleading states, the United States Postmaster General issued a fraud order against the "New York Institute of Physicians and Surgeons," prohibiting it from using the mails for transmitting its advertising matter. The reasons given for this order were substantially the same as in the case of the "New York Institute of Science."