Jugs of Magic

A diabetic has no easy time of it. If he follows the orthodox treatment, he lives on a strict diet and takes daily injections of insulin. He must be on constant guard to avoid upsetting the delicate balance of a shored-up metabolism. The Kaadt Diabetic Clinic at South Whitley, Ind. offered an easier, more pleasant way.

Presiding over the clinic were two venerable brothers, Drs. Charles and Peter Kaadt (now aged 74 and 76 respectively). Insulin, said the Brothers Kaadt, was oldfashioned. So were diabetic diets. The essential thing, they said, was to take three tablespoons a day of the Kaadts' own diabetes remedy. Then insulin could be reduced (or eliminated entirely), and the patient could eat anything his heart desired.

Single Visit. For over ten years a steady stream of diabetics, attracted by the Kaadts' optimistic advertising, passed through the old brothers' clinic. Most of the patients stayed three days ($10 a day) and went home carrying jugs of the "magic medicine" ($30 a gallon). So many hopeful sufferers came that in twelve years the clinic is believed to have done a $6,000,000 business.

Patients were not required to return for a second visit. Some died (of diabetes); others developed the sores of diabetic gangrene. One little boy was told by the kindly old doctors that it would be quite all right for him to eat ice cream again. He went to a birthday party, ate heartily and sank into a diabetic coma.

For years, while their clinic flourished, the old brothers stiff-armed the law. Charged with federal mail fraud, they began to send out their literature by Railway Express. In 1947, the State of Indiana started action to take away their licenses. Dr. Peter fought the case through the courts, finally lost last January.

In April, the brothers were haled before a federal court at Fort Wayne and charged with introducing mislabeled medicine into interstate commerce. Experts testified that there was no effective treatment for diabetes except insulin and diet, and that in any case the magic medicine (essentially vinegar and saltpeter) could do no possible good.

Sordid Quest. Among the witnesses against the brothers were six former patients, all from outside Indiana. An old man from Texas told how he had been instructed to discontinue insulin and eat sweets, if he liked. His toes began to turn black, and eventually his leg had to be amputated. A 14-year-old girl told the court that after she had used nine jugs of the Kaadt magic medicine, her eyes clouded over with cataracts.

Not all the ex-patients could testify in person. A middle-aged man told the courtroom how his wife had died after treatment by the optimistic old brothers. A young widow from Erie, Pa. told how her husband had used four jugs of the diabetes medicine; he then got ulcerous sores, went blind, and died.

The Kaadts were found guilty. Last week Judge Patrick T. Stone sentenced them each to three years in prison and fined them $7,000 and costs. Said the judge to the old brothers: "You have been engaged in a widescale, sordid, evil and vicious enterprise without the slightest regard or consideration for the patient that consulted you . . . You were cold, vicious and heartless in your quest for wealth."

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