The treatment described is the "medicinal compound" described in the folk song "The Ballad of Lydia Pinkham" or "Lily the Pink," which was inspired by Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound (a patent medicine invented and marketed by Lydia E. Pinkham). Specifically, each of the "case histories" corresponds to one of the "case histories" in the version of the song sung by The Scaffold on their hit 1968 single or The Irish Rovers on their 1969 album Tales To Warm Your Mind (corresponding to footnotes [1] and [2] respectively), or both. (The "Note" corresponds to the one unused verse from the Irish Rovers version.)
Each patient is referred to by a sequence of letters with the same enumeration as in the song; the non-X letters in this "codename" correspond to letters in the name (in the same alphabetical order, in fact):
| Patient "codename" | Patient name | Codename letters | Name letters |
|---|---|---|---|
| GOXLXX XXIXXX | AUNTIE MILLIE | GILO | ALTU |
| RIXXXX EXXXXX | HERALD ANGELS | EIR | AEH |
| SXAXX OXXX | UNCLE PAUL | AOS | CPU |
| XLXXES XXAXXX | JOHNNY HAMMER | AELS | MNOY |
| XXAFXXX XAXX | BROTHER TONY | AAF | OOT |
| XXAXAXXC | EBENEZER | AAC | EER |
| XXAXXXX XRPXXXX | FREDDIE CLINGER | APR | EIL |
| XXEX XAX XXUX | LILY THE PINK | AEU | HLN |
| XXORXX XXAXBX | MISTER FREARS | ABOR | ERST |
| XXXXNXXX XMMXXU | JENNIFER ECCLES | MMNU | CCIS |
The five rows labelled "Ingredientia originialia" ("original ingredients") correspond to the genus and species names (in alphabetical order) for the five original herbal ingredients in Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable Compound. Each name is an anagram of the corresponding clued word together with one of the sets of codename letters. Taking the codename letters in order of appearance (when, as indicated, they are taken at their last possible position in the genus/species name) we get:
| Genus and species | Common name | Clue | Answer | Codename Letters | Name Letters | Indexes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actaea racemosa | black cohosh | Infusion (3) | TEA | CAA | REE | 3c, 2b, 1d |
| white fat (5) | CREAM | OSA | PUC | 2e, 3b, 3j | ||
| Aletris farinosa | unicorn root | Preservative (4) | SALT | ERI | AHE | 2f, 1a, 3e |
| colophony (5) | ROSIN | FAA | TOO | 3g, 3n, 1b | ||
| Asclepias tuberosa | pleurisy root | Gelatin (5) | ASPIC | LEAS | ONMY | 3i, 3f, 1c, 1h |
| white fat (4) | SUET | BROA | RTSE | 3d, 3l, 2d, 2h | ||
| Packera aurea | life root | Pastry (4) | CAKE | PRA | ILE | 1f, 2g, 2k |
| gaseous elt. (2) | AR | UEA | NLH | 3o, 3h, 2i | ||
| Trigonella foenum-graecum | fenugreek | External bone (6) | ANTLER | IGOL | LAUT | 2a, 3k, 2j, 1g |
| makeup (4 5) | FACE ROUGE | NMUM | ICSC | 3m, 1e, 2c, 3a |
Arranging the name letters as per the letter-number combinations, we get
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| a | H | L | C |
| b | O | E | U |
| c | M | S | R |
| d | E | S | R |
| e | C | P | E |
| f | I | A | N |
| g | T | L | T |
| h | Y | E | L |
| i | H | O | |
| j | U | C | |
| k | E | A | |
| l | T | ||
| m | I | ||
| n | O | ||
| o | N |
These yield the following characteristics of "Lily the Pink" (Lydia E. Pinkham):
- HOME CITY: LYNN
- LESS PALE HUE: RED
- CURRENT LOCATION: GRAVE
The answer is thus LYNN REDGRAVE.