Charles Alfred Tyrrell

Charles Alfred Tyrrell (1843 – July 2, 1918) was a promoter of medical devices, most notably an enema appliance. He was also author of tracts promoting the use of his device for colon cleansing as therapy for detoxification pursuant to a theory of auto-intoxication.

Tyrrell's claim that his J. B. L. Cascade device could cure all disease was dismissed by medical experts as quackery.

Early life and family

Tyrrell was born in England and travelled to India, China, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia prior to emigrating to New York City in 1889. In his will dated 2 August 1915 Tyrrell said he had married "Eliza or Lillie" Glaister in Australia about thirty years previously. He said that she had disappeared and that three years later he married (his current wife) Emma W. But in 1914 he had learned that Eliza was still alive, and he made arrangements for her support. By his first marriage he had a son, Ernest Alfred Tyrrell, who was born 1881.

Education

Having called himself "Professor" and an M.D. for years, Tyrrell finally got an M.D. degree in 1900 at age 57 from the Eclectic Medical College of New York. Despite this, the Institute seems to have existed at least until the late 1930s.

Ideal Sight Restorer

Tyrrell sold a device named the "Ideal Sight Restorer". This was "a piece of tubing with a rubber bulb attached for the purpose of producing a partial vacuum over the eyeballs".

J. B. L. Cascade

Tyrrell promoted an enema appliance he called the "J. B. L. Cascade". "J.B.L." stood for "Joy, Beauty, Life". This was his primary money-maker. He accessorized the product, selling "Rectal Soap" and a fluid, "J. B. L. Antiseptic Tonic", a patent medicine, to be used with it. by 1943 authorship was claimed by E. J. Borzilleri, who was associated with Tyrrell's Hygienic Institute. The book is designed to promote Tyrrell's enema device.

At his Hygienic Institute, Tyrrell also published a periodical, Health: A Home Magazine Devoted to Physical Culture and Hygiene.

Criticisms

American Medical Association

The American Medical Association published critiques and exposes of Tyrrell in its Journal of the American Medical Association.

Tyrrell was cited as an "exemplary proponent" of the theory of auto-intoxication in a 1997 article by Edzard Ernst in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology, which likewise characterized Tyrrell as a "quack".

Selected publications

Health: A Home Magazine Devoted to Physical Culture and Hygiene (1904–1905) The Royal Road to Health: Or, The Secret of Health Without Drugs (1920)