Leslie Keeley

Leslie Keeley (1836-1900) was an American physician, originator of the Keeley Cure.

He was born in St. Lawrence County, N.Y., graduated at the Rush Medical College, Chicago, in 1863, and later entered the Union Army as a surgeon. At the close of the war he removed to Dwight, Ill., where he began the practice of his profession. Here in 1880 he opened a sanatorium for persons addicted to the immoderate use of alcohol and opium. His cure consisted of a secret preparation, which he said contained bichloride of gold; and such was his success that he was able to form a company which founded similar sanatoriums in other parts of the country. Dr. Keeley claimed that when his medicine was administered according to his directions, it had no injurious effects and that 95 per cent of the patients were permanently cured. He published numerous articles in the periodical press, and wrote The Morphine Eater, or From Bondage to Freedom (1881).


 * Keeley cure  -   a proprietary method of treatment for the alcohol and opium habits by means of gold chloride.  (The American Illustrated Medical Dictionary, 1938 edition.)