Description

A rare example of a Vitilor water processing device. Height: 19″ as shown. The Vitalized Water Process Company of New York City claimed that this device converted water into a liquid with great curative properties. See excerpt below from “Nostrums and Quackery and Pseudo-Medicine” By Arthur J. Cramp, M.D.(1936:109):

Vitilor.-This device was promoted by the Vitalized Water Process Company of New York City. A six-page leaflet compiled by Carolyn Scofield Smith and sent out to physicians and others stated, either directly or by implication, that the Vitilor would cure among other things tuberculosis, diabetes, ulcerated teeth, chronic nephritis, pyelitis, asthma, pneumonia, high blood pressure and “water on the knee.” In due time the postal authorities got around to the Vitilor and the Vitalized Water Process Company. It appeared, following an investigation by the authorities, that the Vitalized Water Company and the Vitalized Water Process Company were owned and operated by Carolyn Smith. Miss Smith was not a physician but did claim to have studied chemistry. The Vitilor was described as a tank holding about two quarts and so made that water could be introduced at the bottom through which it was forced through charcoal, then passed through a small screen into and ·through a chamber containing fine particles of aluminum. The water was drawn out through the top and was to be drunk in doses of from one quarter of a glass to six or eight glasses daily. The Vitilor which cost $10.50 to make was sold for $45. The postal authorities tested one of the Vitilors through the laboratories of the Food and Drugs Administration in the Department of Agriculture. The device was there set up and distilled water run through. it in accordance with the directions. The amount of metallic residue that was found in the water after passing through the Vitilor was absurdly minute and the government introduced evidence showing that the mineral content of ordinary tap water in various cities is largely in excess of the inconsequential amount added to water that had passed through the Vitilor. The amount of aluminum found in water that had passed through the Vitilor was less than the amount of this same metal found in the tap water of Baltimore, Detroit, Springfield, Ill. and Youngstown, Ohio. The government also presented evidence to show that various foods included in the daily diet contain more aluminum than was to be obtained by the treatment of water with the Vitilor. The scheme exploited by the Vitalized Water Company and Vitalized Water Process Company was declared a fraud and on July 6, 1932, the mails were closed to the concerns.-(Condensed from The Journal A. M. A., Sept. 10, 1932.)