Mirage

An expectant tingling raced over thousands of shiny pates last year when Glasgow's Dr. John Kelvin, 53, reported that two patients had grown hair on their bald heads after taking tablets he had prescribed for cramps (TIME, Sept. 27, 1954)- Possible explanation for the growth: the drug (Roniacol) improved circulation of the scalp by its vasodilating (artery-widening) action. No one was more excited than a Manhattan businessman with a full head of hair: Lynn Robert Akers, 35, president of 21 Akers Hair and Scalp Clinics scattered throughout the U.S. He promptly flew to Glasgow, offered Dr. Kelvin $10,000 a year to become director of a proposed Akers research laboratory in Glasgow.

Piliculturist Kelvin thought it over and asked the British General Medical Council to remove his name from its roster. He visited the U.S. twice for consultation with Akers' staff. Last week, back in Britain and fighting to keep his council listing, Dr. Kelvin was accused by the council's disciplinary committee of "infamous conduct in a professional respect." His defense: he had been victimized by American advertising and press-agentry. His discovery, he said, had been played up in phony ads, he had been goaded by reporters, and the proposed clinic had proved "a mirage."

Moved by his tale, the disciplinary committee put Kelvin on probation for two years. In Manhattan, meanwhile, Entrepreneur Akers blithely brushed off Kelvin's charges, called him "a little Scottish country doctor who was scared to death in this country."

Responsible doctors continued to pooh-pooh Kelvin's or anyone else's hair restorer. Kelvin says he has not tried Roniacol pills on his own bald head.

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