H. A. Morton Whitby

Henry Augustus Morton Whitby (24 September 1898 – 1969) was a British cancer researcher, surgeon and urologist. He was best known for inventing an electrical machine that he claimed could detect cancer. He based his machine on Francis Cutler Ellis's Micro-Dynameter. However, medical experts dismissed his device as quackery.

Biography

Whitby was born in Colchester. He was the son of physician Henry D'arcy Whitby and Edith Festing. He was educated at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and qualified M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1924. Whitby had also worked with his wife Marie who was giving treatment but was not a registered medical practitioner. Whitby was found guilty on several counts of attempting to recover excessive fees from his patients. The other counts were discharged but he was cautioned and reprimanded.

Cancer research

Whitby was an alternative cancer treatment advocate. In 1959, he founded the Cancer Prevention Detection Centre in London and was its director (1959–1969). Whitby argued the machine could detect many other diseases. Caroline Bedell Thomas criticized Whitby "for offering hardly a vestige of experimental proof". In 1964, Whitby appealed against the erasure. In 1966 his name was restored to the Medical Register.

Whitby's claims about his electrical machine detecting cancer were rejected by the medical community due to lack of evidence. The FDA concluded that the device was quackery. In 1961, the FDA obtained an injunction banning the distribution of such machines.

Selected publications

Theory of Life, Disease and Death (1945) Investigations of Disease (1951) When Body Controls Mind (1952) A Surgeon's Adventures (1959) Courage Her Passport (1963) Cancer: Its Prevention and Early Detection (1964) Preservation Of Health (1967) Bio-electronic Detection of Cancer and Other Diseases (1967)