The illustrated Tasmanian postcard has a view of Government House, Hobart and has a purple 2½d ‘Side Face’ Tasmanian stamp postmarked with the duplex LAUNCESTON/ K/ JA 7/ 98/ P – R cancel as well as the TASMANIA obliterator. It was addressed to Dr. P. Harold Hayes MD, 716 Main St, Buffalo, New York, United States of America. The reverse was not seen (Figure 1).
The cover has four olive green ½d ‘Roo on Map of Australia’ stamps postmarked MALVERN/ L 3-P 17 AU 14/ VIC and two red 1 cent U.S. postage dues have been added, postmarked with an ‘oval T’ and an ‘oval BUFFALO/ C/ NY’. There were 2 additional handstamps an ‘octagonal T/ 10C’ and ‘US CHARGE/ TO COLLECT/ 2 CENTS’. The cover is addressed to P. Harold Hayes M.D., 1298 Main St, Buffalo, N.Y., United States (Figure 2).
The reverse has a purple four line admonition: “This letter was insufficiently prepaid./ Please advise your correspondent to inquire of/ local postmaster correct rate of postage on/ matter of future destination.” (Figure 3).
An advertisement of relevance was found in the 24 February, 1927 issue of The Youth’s Companion which read: “The Hayes Method for ASTHMA Progressive and satisfactory relief and many cases absolutely cured to stay cured five, ten, twenty and thirty years. Get Dr. Hayes’ “Thesis with Reports of Cases” and blank for free examination. The most searching investigation solicited. Address P. HAROLD HAYES M.D., Buffalo, N.Y., asking for Bulletin Y-271. References in any part of the world. NO NEED OF SUFFERING THIS WINTER.” (Figure 4).
The following information was found in A Catalog of the Atwater Collection of American Popular Medicine (p. 52-53): The Asthmatics Institute was opened at Binghampton, N.Y., in March 1883. It was moved to Buffalo, in May, 1885. It was established by Pliny Harold Hayes M.D. (1824-1894) and his son Francis Mason Hayes M.D. (1853-1916). The Hayes developed a line of proprietary remedies that they claimed were directed at the “asthmatic constitution” rather than at the “asthmatic paroxysm.” Patients could obtain treatment either in person at the Institute or at a distance by correspondence.
Pliny Hayes was born in Bristol, Ontario County, N.Y. on 7 October 1824. He was raised on his stepfather’s farm, and attended the nearby Canandaigua Academy and Lima Seminary before entering Jefferson Medical College, from which he graduated in 1848. Upon graduation he took charge of a small sanitarium, the Greenwood Springs Water-Cure, at Cuba, N.Y. where he treated chronic diseases. Circa 1850 he bought property in nearby Wyoming , N.Y. and built the Wyoming Cottage Water-Cure Institute, which he operated for several years. In the years that followed, Hayes was associated with several other sanitaria, including a Hydropathic and Hygienic Institute. In 1871 he spent six months in study while visiting New York City hospitals, and in 1875 he settled in Binghamton N.Y. where he opened a medical practice and became interested in asthma. In 1885 he moved to Buffalo, and with his son F. Mason Hayes (M.D. 1877, University of the City of New York), conducted an extensive consultative and therapeutic practice (principally by mail) in the field of allergy. Hayes senior married Cornelia Catherine Hall and two of their four children became physicians, the above-named son and Harold Augustus Hayes (born 1859 or 1860). Pliny Hayes died in Buffalo on 7 April 1894.
The following information was found in the Journal of the American Medical Association, December 30, 1922 in a reply to a question suppled by an MD. It suggests the worthlessness of Dr. Hayes’ treament of asthma (Figure 5).
I have been unable to find any information on Hayes’ Clinic later than the 1927 advertisement.