New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1918-04-11
s.w Yorker, Once Known
=. Dr. LaMotte Sage"
Gives Bail in u S. Court
Wants Case ClearedUp
,o,o Career in Quackery Elk
posed by Tribune Bureau
of Investigations
ISneciinl CORES pOndence |

lNUSCQt \ cf' GO f'O'tsSS's~N
Rr,FFALo, April 10.-E. Virgil Neal,
..al,bv New Yorker. alias "Dr. La
,,otte Sage" one of the exploiters OF
.Nuxated Iron" was arraigned before
,,acs Hazel in the United States Court
,o.Sav and held in $4,000 bail, after
10 had pleaded not guilty to a charge
~ using the mails to defraud. He
..ue into court voluntarily, accom-
,snied by his lawyer, former United
States Attorney Lyman NJ. Bass.
The government had Neal indicted
i've wears ago in Rochester, where he
Conducted the New York Institute of
Science, which, it is charged, he adj
y.rsised widely as an institution with
learned scholars and a large faculty.
teaching almost everything. from over
coming hashfulness TO performing sur
c;eal operations without pain.
United States Attorney Stephen r.
lakewood declined to say whether the
I'D indictments are to be pressed. Mr..
Rass stated that Neal came into court
merely TO nave NiiC SoSS WA ~ Hf'
The National Surety Company, OF New
York. furnished the bond.
Prominent in the world Of charla-
ANS. E. Virgil Neal boasts career
Shrh. until his exposure by the Blu
ran of Investigation of The Tribune
last wear produced for him and his as
seciates in auackery thousands of dol
lars from unsuspecting persons.
While Neal was arrested on an in
detment returned against the New
York Institute of Science, an organiza-
ton of which he was president and
which is said to have mulctet the pub
Id Of s1,500.000 it was in his Nuxated
Iron adventure that he probably
reached his highest mark in patent
Medicine swindes. The New York In
s.ituts OF Science taught" its students
magnetic influence" and Hypnotic
power"
But Neal conceived a new and more
daring scheme in his exploitation of
Nuxated Iron, electing TO dispense with
.he usual stimulant found in the pro-
prietary itself and apply it to the pub
lies imagination through cunningly
persuasive forms of advertising.
So he took the concoction, whose
Cutti ing ~c4S SoppOSG0 W w
organic iron in the form of iron pepto-
nate, nux vomica and glycero- phos-
phate Of calcium, branded it a restorer
Of lost vitality. and marketed it with
uniouaded claims, faxed Endorsements
and the cunning of himself and his
partner, Wylie 3. Jones, as the real in
gradients. Jones, who had been put
gu. Of business by the authorities as
the proprietor of the fraud medicine
Sargol, was the advertising manager
Tor Nuxated Iron.
The trump card Of the combination
was testimonials Listed among their
lndorsers they had number OF sup
posedly prominent physicians. q
United States Senator Jess Willard
and Ty Cobb
The signatures of Jess Willard and
ly Cobb r'ere supposed to prove con-
clusiveiy that NuXated Iron would Gin
crease the strength and power of deli
cate, nervous folks 200 per cent in two
weeks time"
,The publication of these advertise
nsnts aroused storm of protest from
country, and finally resulted in most of
tne larger publications refusing to ac-
cspt them.
Neal has made quackery his LIES
calling. Previous to 1900 he travelled
ayst the country as X. LIE Motto Sage,
T'1ng alleged exhibitions Of hypnot-
sm. In 1904 he was connected with the
Columbia Scientific Academy. which
taught" palmistry. In 1905, with
iaomas +. Adkin, who was his partner
u other ventures, he conducted the
VIEW York institute of Physicians and
surgeons, which was put out of bust
ness By government fraud order IS
sued on August of that year
.. In 1906 it was the Force of Life
Iaemical Company that occupied the
ehaslatan's time. This fraudulent con-
eern sold pills or tablets and operated
wat THE New York Times" at that
ume described as a "grotesquely OBJ
SI0us swindie"