Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-05-17

w and comfort 10 underprivileged neu-
rotics the picturesque career OF DR.. Edward
Spencer Cowles, the "body-and-soul" man, has
struck another legal snag.
1t has been some time since Or. Cowles
was last In the public eye but the position is
no novelty 10 him Indeed few medical men
can boast OF. more widely pubcized past.
There was, for instance the sensational
suicide OF William r. Swift Chicago meat
packing heir who twelve years ago shot him
self 20 death in the fashionable New York
hospital which Or Cowles runs in addition 10
his clinic.
And Just year earlier the famous actress
Jeanne Eagles whose portrayal of Sadie
Thompson in the play adapted from Somerset
Maughams Rain" is considered classic Of
the modern stage had met equally sudden
end though not by her own hand on the same
premises
Both Of these tragedies focused the spot
light on Or. Cowles, or rather re-focused it,
for before they occurred he had already been
Illuminated by a number of law suits in New
York Massachusetts, and New Hampshire
well as by the ousting OF the forerunner Of his
present clinic from its first stand in one Of
New Yorks Oldest churches.
Some men might have had trouble in sur
viving professionally If not personally-the
dangers latent IN many Of these episodes but
II.
of by coming through almost unscathed
Whether or not ne will show a similar inn
munity to the danger he now finds himself
exposed TO- II is hard 10 say at this writing;
at least he has been innoculated with a lot
Of valuable experience
His current difficulties came 20 head
when the $50 odd clinical patients at one Of
the evening sessions OF his Body & Mind Foun-
dation were joined by IA newcomers a few
weeks ago
These IA were agents of the New York
State Department Of Education, and unlike
many OF the others, they weren't present be-
cause they had the shakes or filters.
They had come to see for themselves
exactly what the famed Cowles' treatment
consisted of and to leave with him and two of
his assistants calling cards in the form of
summonscs TO appear before their Depart
ment's Medical Grievance Committee.
Herded into line with the rest the agents
first passed a kind Of ticket window where
paper cupfuls of brownish liquid, facetiously
referred TO by old hands as cocktails" we're
passed out
The liquid DR. Cowes was later quoted as
saving was "A preparation of choral, bro
mide and digitalis which was administered in
very small doses" only 70 those with nervous
disorders
After the cocktails had been tossed off the
line moved on TO where the doctor himself,
vigilantly attended by his pet Great Dane,
waited TO perform a kind Of laying on of
hands"
He would reach out-this rite was some
times delegated TO a subordinate and, placing
a fist against the patients solar pexus, affix
the index and second finger of the other hand
TO the bridge of the same patients nose.
Then he would say, Relax your mind.
Relax your body. Now you're feeling better"
Which concluded Step b in the standard
treatment for common or garden variety neu-
roses.
The third and last step consisted of being
turned loose into a stable auditorium TO lis
ten TO soothing lectures and incidental testi-
monials from the floor.
II was in the middle of one such testimon-
ial, from young girl, who declared that DR..