Charles Lewis Blood (September 8, 1835 – September 27, 1908; alias C. H. Lewis et al.) was an American con artist and self-styled physician who operated in Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, and Chicago. He produced a patent medicine treatment known as "oxygenized air", which he promoted as a cure for catarrh, scrofula, consumption, and diseases of the respiratory tract.
Career Charles Lewis Blood was born 1835 in Groton, Massachusetts; he claimed to be the son of Dr. Louis Blood, a physician, though this was correctly believed at the time to be a fabrication. His father was actually Lewis Blood (1805–1887), a successful farmer, timber dealer, contractor and prominent citizen in Ayer (formerly Groton Junction), Massachusetts. His medical credentials were likewise in question—though he styled himself "Dr. C. L. Blood" or "C. L. Blood, M.D." and authored a book on medicine, he was widely supposed to be a con artist with no legitimate claim to any medical degree. His notoriety was said to be national, albeit distributed among a variety of aliases. Around 1865, Blood moved from Philadelphia to Boston, where he established an office in the old Congregational Library building at 12 Chauncy Street. He began promoting his medical services via full-page newspaper advertisements, as well as advertising sheets which he distributed to the surrounding country. Around this time he also developed an interest in Gardner Quincy Colton's use of "laughing gas", or nitrous oxide. Blood learned the manner of its manufacture and thereafter claimed the invention as his own, rebranding it as "oxygenized air" and touting it as a cure for diseases of the throat and lungs.
Blood's business flourished, which enabled him to move into better quarters at 119 Harrison Avenue. He extensively advertised his ability to cure all diseases of the blood and lungs by means of his "air", which he administered at his practice. A page would answer the calls of visitors at his door and usher them into elegantly furnished reception areas to await the appearance of Blood from his consultation room. Blood employed numerous shills to maintain the appearance of doing an immense business, which artifice he used to lure investors. To these he offered contracts securing the exclusive right to resell his "air" in various states and territories. Blood left Boston some time after 1867, shifting his activities to various cities in the Northeast and Midwest. He was known to maintain practices in New York City around 1875, in Chicago from 1875 to 1876, in Philadelphia in 1883, and again in Boston in the late 1880s. He died aged 73 in Manhattan on September 27, 1908, after an illness lasting eleven weeks. In a short obituary in his hometown Ayer, Massachusetts newspaper, it was reported that Blood "had lived in New York city twelve years, where he was in a manufacturing business." His remains were transported to Ayer where he was buried in the family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery on October 1, a funeral having taken place the day before in the Lewis Blood house in Washington Street. Perhaps in view of the shame brought upon the Bloods by Charles' sordid past, his widow and four surviving sisters chose not to add his name to the family memorial.
Criminal activities and allegations
Blackmail While in Boston, Blood gained a rival in the person of a certain Dr. Jerome Harris, who also applied nitrous oxide but under the name of "super-oxygenized air". Unlike Blood, Harris was a trained physician, albeit one who traded on Blood's popularity by operating his practice from Blood's old quarters on Chauncy Lane. One day in the winter of 1866–67, Harris was visited by a Mr. Carvill of Lewiston, Maine who had a bronchial complaint and specifically requested Harris's "super-oxygenized air" treatment. The air was administered, and in a moment Carvill began frothing at the mouth and rolling on the floor, apparently in a fit, his contortions lasting about an hour. Finally Harris sent his patient home, whereupon the latter called for the services of his own physician, who turned out to be Blood. The next day the newspapers described Harris's supposed "poisoning" of Carvill by the administering of "super-oxygenized air", and the subsequent relief afforded the patient by Blood. Blood saw to it that the public were kept apprised of the supposedly continual improvement of the patient under his care, and reassured of the efficacy and harmlessness of his own "oxygenized air". Carvill subsequently brought suit against Harris, which served to maintain the media publicity against Harris's rival treatment. Though Harris was anxious to settle with Carvill, his legal counsel advised him not to pay, claiming it was a blackmail scheme. The case finally fell through, but Harris was frightened and left the city, after which Blood's business prospered. In May 1884, Blood was brought into the public eye again in Boston by reason of his arrest for blackmailing Ernest Weber, a local musician. The previous month, Blood had begun courting a woman by the name of Jennett Nickerson. He procured from her, allegedly by force, an affidavit to the effect that she had been ruined under promise of marriage by Weber, and that Weber had furthermore employed a physician to perform an abortion which had nearly cost her her life. A confederate of Blood exhibited the affidavit, together with correspondence between Weber and Nickerson, in a lawyer's office in the presence of Weber. Weber was threatened with criminal prosecution unless he paid $4000. Weber consulted with the police, who arrested Blood and his confederate; after a sensational trial both men were convicted of blackmailing and sentenced to several years in prison.
Tax evasion Some time after his involvement with Dr. Harris, Blood got into trouble with the federal government for failure to properly stamp his patent medicines. Soon thereafter he disappeared from Boston, his last appearance being made in the custody of two deputy U.S. marshals. He reappeared some time later in Philadelphia, having somehow extricated himself from the situation.
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