1902 State Medical Institute of Fort Wayne circular and intimate questionnaire

Two typed leaves, one of S.M.I. pictorial letterhead, with self-addressed return envelope and original mailing cover, postmarked May 31, 1902. Very Good with original creases and light edgewear; soil and chipping to envelope only. Signed "Dr. R." Correspondence from the State Medical Institute of Fort Wayne, Indiana, sent to a man in New Carlisle, Ohio. The company advertised home cures for men's health troubles (an example from the April 19, 1902 Cincinnati Post is included for reference). They offered a free trial, with full treatment sent C.O.D. The letter acknowledges remittance and congratulates his "wise decision in this grave matter" and encloses an intimate questionnaire to be returned “ten days before you are out of treatment.” It includes questions like, "Is the discharge, during coition, quick or slow?" and "Is there any increase in size of parts?" alongside more general questions about whether he's had an improvement and from what difficulty he most suffers. The recipient fortunately did not follow up, nor discard the sensitive questionnaire, offering a rare look at how mail-order medicine played out for those who responded to ubiquitous ads. It's also a perennial cautionary tale about consumer privacy and data. The State Medical Institute kept the addresses of everyone who responded to their ads on file. When the company relocated to Cleveland in June 1903, "in the hurry of packing its goods, it accidentally forgot to take away these packages and express addresses from its rooms." The King Medical Company of Fort Wayne "secretly and fraudulently secured" the information and started their own "King Medical Institute" with the customer list and was sued on the grounds that data was the result of $100,000 S.M.I. spent in advertising ("L. A. Morlan Begins Suit..." Fort Wayne Daily News 7/30/03, p.2)