Eduard W Goetz, popularizer a little too breezy

Date and place of birth and death unknown, DO

Graduated from ASO in 1898, in 1901 Eduard W. Goetz was expelled by the AOA, the American Osteopathic Association, for having written a training manual which, according to him, could have helped anybody become an osteopath without any other kind of study.

E W Goetz graduated at the ASO, being awarded the diploma during the month of November of the year 1898.¹

At the annual conference of 1899, held in Indianapolis, Indiana (USA), in the month of July, Dr Goetz presented a report on the topic of osteopathic publications, entitled “Present Osteopathic Literature”. On the same occasion he was appointed to a three-year position on the Board of Directors of the AAAO.²

The case of Dr E. W. Goetz, accused of deontologically incorrect conduct, was examined by the AAAO during the annual conference of 1901. Dr Goetz was reproached for having written and sold a book, A Manual of Osteopathy, containing elementary instructions to perform osteopathic treatments, and for having asserted that the reading of the volume would have allowed the buyer to cure people and obtain conspicuous earnings, even without any other type of training; he also offered private (paid) lessons and demonstrations of the method. It was approved that Dr Goetz would have lost his position in the Board and would have been expelled from the AAAO.³

Presumably, Dr Goetz continued to practice the profession, although after this date his name did not appear frequently in the osteopathic magazine.
In July 1902 Dr E. W. Goetz answered a questionnaire declaring to be contrary to pharmacologic study for osteopaths.⁴
It is reported that in 1904 Dr E. W. Goetz took a stand against the deputy prosecutor of Cincinnati, who had expressed the opinion that health authorities should not accept death certificates signed by osteopaths or Christian scientists, but only those issued by a physician graduated in a “regularly recognized school”. Dr Goetz specified that on 21st April 1904 the state of Ohio had approved a law for which osteopaths had to undertake an examination to receive a regular license, and therefore they were recognized.⁵

In 1906, a small article on a magazine announced the possibility to acquire copyright, 700 copies and all the necessary molds for future reprints of Goetz’s Manual.⁶ The sale went probably well as successive editions of the volume seem to exist (a second edition dated 1908, and a third and fourth dated 1919).

In 1910, Dr E. W. Goetz of Cincinnati posted an ad for the urgent sale of a medical practice and related furnishings, with two treatment rooms, a waiting room and an office at an excellent price due to health reasons.⁷ Perhaps this signaled the end of his career.