Did he personally recommend she see Dr. Miles Nervine? Did she call him Dr. Nervine, and he insisted she use his first name, and she said "All right, hello Dr. Miles Nervine" and the audience laughs, because it was a screwball movie.

From the looks of the letter, Billy O. Hoffman had no trouble recommending medicine to members of the health-care profession. We'd call that Mancuring now.

As for this fact: why did they believe it? Was there any empirical evidence to back it up? No. Only folklore, believed with devout conviction from tip of the subcontinent to the highest peak of the mountain ranges. Everyone believed it! Because that was all India.