The effect of such a letter on the recipient is to beget confidence in the writer. It is frank and straightforward; it sounds honest, especially in those parts which refer to the necessity of a personal examination, and the declination to guarantee a cure. “That’s a real man, not a bit stuck up,” is the comment frequently made on receipt of one of these letters by people who had hesitated to write to such a famous specialist.
Few country people will take up treatment with a strange physician without first consulting their family doctor. They are not always governed by what he says, but they almost invariably ask his advice. If he suggests a trial you are pretty sure to get the patient. If he advises negatively the patient is not always lost, but it will require more correspondence, and when the subject does arrive he will be suspicious and hard to handle.
When the family doctor reads a letter like the one quoted he feels flattered that an eminent specialist should be willing to entrust the administration of his treatment to his care. He looks upon the proposition differently from what he would if this sentence had been omitted. His vanity has been touched. Inclined at first to throw cold water on the proposition, when he comes to this part he generally says:
“Well, of course I don’t know anything about this treatment, but Dr. Wilkinson is a man of great reputation. His success in the Thomas case is remarkable. One thing is certain. We have exhausted every resource here without getting results, and it can’t do any harm to see him and get his opinion.”
Thus encouraged the sufferer, if able to travel, will in nine cases out of ten, arrange to visit the specialist at the latter’s office. Sometimes the family doctor, from honest desire to become acquainted with the details of a new and successful treatment, will volunteer to accompany him.
But, suppose the local physician vetoes the proposition, denounces it as a fraud, and declines to be associated with it. Is the patient’s business lost? Not at all. It merely calls for a little more diplomacy. After waiting a reasonable time, say a couple of weeks, without hearing from Mr. Smith, the latter gets another letter from Dr. Wilkinson. This time the specialist writes as follows: