Adolphus Hohensee
Born1901
DiedOctober 5, 1967
Occupation(s)Naturopath, writer

Adolphus Hohensee (1901 – October 5, 1967)[1] was a naturopath, fraudulent nutritionist and quack from the twentieth century.

Career

Hohensee described himself as a doctor but held no valid qualifications. It was discovered that his "Doctor of Naturopathy" degree was obtained from two schools he never attended.[2]

He campaigned against processed foods and advertised his mineral and vitamin supplements as a cure for disease.[3] Hohensee was known as the "Peppermint Tea Medicine Man".[4] He was the president of Scientific Living, Inc., and managed a company that manufactured health foods, El Rancho Adolphus Products in Pennsylvania.[5] He was known to lecture and promote dubious claims about his health food products. In 1952, he advertised his peppermint tea as a cure for "gall stones, colic, flatulence, headache, rheumatism, high blood pressure, arthritis, prostate trouble, lumbago, fits, convulsions, colitis, tuberculosis, asthma, pin worms and tape worms."[5]

Hohensee had repeatedly violated the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.[5] In 1955, Hohensee and his companies were charged on seven counts of a Federal Grand Jury indictment for misbranding their food products. The companies were fined and Hohensee was sentenced to a year in prison in 1957.[4] Susan Gilbert in Medical Fakes and Frauds noted that "Hohensee was convicted of fraud in 1957, but even before then he was exposed as a hypocrite. A photographer for the Houston Press caught Hohensee in a restaurant gorging himself on processed bread and fried fish and quenching his thirst with beer."[3] In 1962, he was given an eighteen-month prison term for selling honey under false pretences.[2]

Hohensee was influenced by the Bates method and authored the book, Better Eyes Without Glasses (1944).

Publications

References

  1. ^ "Adolphus Hohensee dies Oct 5, 1967". Retrieved 8 Feb. 2019.
  2. ^ a b Barrett, Stephen; Jarvis, William T. (1993). The Health Robbers: A Close Look at Quackery in America. Prometheus Books. p. 79. ISBN 0-87975-855-4
  3. ^ a b Gilbert, Susan. (1989). Medical Fakes and Frauds. Chelsea House Publishers. p. 58. ISBN 0-7910-0090-7
  4. ^ a b Smith, Ralph Lee. (1960). The Health Hucksters. Crowell. p. 156
  5. ^ a b c Hoeber, Ralph Carl Louis. (1986). Contemporary Business Law: Principles and Cases. McGraw-Hill. p. 135
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