THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 250, 13 June 1932, Page 2

THE ELIXIR OF LIFE

i SECRET TREATMENT CLAIMED TO GIVE YOUNG LIFE FOR OLD AGE. FAMOUS DOCTOR CHARGED. * _ LONDON, Tuesday. "Mr. B," described as one of the cleverest men-in England, and a very important member of the war Cabinet, was the principal and most mysterious figure in an amazing action against a Harley Street doctor, Major Vincent Blumhardt Nesfleld. An alleged rejuvenating substance, said to give youth for 100 years, for which Dr. Nesfield searched for years, led to his being struck off the roll after strange stories of cures for old age had been recounted. before the Medical Council. The substance, "Vit Alexin," was described as "the closest to the elixir of life yet diseovered." Nesfield was charged on various counts, of which, counsel said, the ^ ; most serious was that Nesfield admittedly wrote an article wherein he 1 attributed a cure to Vit Alexin, when the actual preparation used was ' named Hormacton, which was disL covered by a Russian doctor named Ischlonsky. Nesfield also was charged with ad- ! vertising Vit Alexin by articles and 1 circular letters, claiming it was a cure ; I for various ailments, including dia- j I betes, pneumonia, hlood pressnre, j mental incapacity, and 'general de- { bility. . i A further charge was that he kept j secret from the medical profession i and public Vit Alexin's formula, being I interested in its commercialisation as a secret remedy. j Live to a Hundned. Valentine Holmes, counsel for Dr. W. G. Macdonald, with whom Isch- : lonsky was associated, said that Isch- - lonsky had successfully treated- the 1 wife and son of a London financier , named sharp with Hormacton. Sharp offered to commercialise Hormaction, but Ischlonsky refused. Later he met Nesfield, who was then associated with Sharp. Ischlonsky suplied Hormacton for Nesfield to treat "Mr. B." Nesfield, in an article published in 1 a medical paper, claimed that "Mr. B," a powerful man, 50 years old, suffering from lassitude, was treated with Vit Alexin, and miraculously gained youth and vitality. He looked yoimger, and grew young coloured hair. A newspaper article, appearing simultaneously, declared that life could be prolonged to 100. Nesfield also wrote to Ischlonsky declaring that the patient, now 74 jnches in height, who was "inclined to stoop, now stands like a drill sergeant." Nesfield's defence was that the article described another case he had treated. Tri,ed ilfc Himself. In his evidence, Nesfield claimed that Vit Alexin was a genuinff remedy. "I had five doses myself and treated lots and lots of people with wonderful results," he ad^ert. "Mr. E." said he was the autlior of a standard text hook on anatomy. He had known Nesfield for seven years and had worked with him on the discovery of Vit Alexin. "I provided both the money and the body on which to experiment,' he said. "I was perfectly fit before the experiment, but was even more fit afterwards. There was a definite change in my skin." Distinguished Career. Dr. Nesfield has had a most distinguished medical career. He was in the Indian medical service from 1903 to 1920, and accompanied Sir Francis Younghusband's expedition to Tibet as Lieutenant-Surgeon, whenhe diseovered and introduced the sterilisation of drinking water by chlorine. Afterwards he patented the process, which was extensively used in war time. . In 1927 he diseovered a new operation for deafness whieh attracted wide attention. This consists of cutting a new passage into the cavity in the middle of the ear behind the ear drum. In a "Lancet" article he said that this improved the hearing of patients who had been deaf for 30 years.