THE ABRAMS METHOD.

Shannon News, 29 August 1924, Page 4

THE ABRAMS METHOD.

ELECTRONIC REACTION; On© of the numerous medical cults which America lias inflicted on a credulous world x*eceived a good doiu oi publicity during ,the past week in Auckland. Of course, like post pioneers in any branch of human endeavour, Dr. Albert Abrams, of San Francisco has had his devotees as well as detractors, and to-day his treatment is being given in many countries ■outside of America. But the doctrine ol 'Electronic Reaction" does not seem destined to live very long after its chief champion has departed this life. The June issue of "Nature" deals rather severely with the cult and the people who allow themselves to be influenced by such spectacular methods. It says:—Anything connected with electricity is a sure draw for the credulous. This was the principal adjunct employed by Dr. James Graham. in hia "Templum Aesculapia sacrum" in the Adelphi. Here, amid shining orbs of glass, plates of burnished steel, dragons breathing flamo, marble of naked women, ana celestial beds on crystal legs, he received his patients, while he consulted the Delphic oracle in the form of the lovely Emma Hamilton, then at the zenith of her beauty. The electri* bell is a perennial source of revenue to the quack. Even to-day there are thousands of people—som e of them intelligent—who wear iron flngerrings to charm away rheumatism. The nist on the ring is supposed to be uric acid—that dreadful bogie of the layman—working its way out of an atrabilic system with a rheumatic dta- ' THE SFHYGMOBIOMETER! . It was reserved, however, for Dr. Albert Abrams, of San Francisco, who died a few months ago, to exploit the modern doctrines of kinetic physics with its electrons in the diagnosis of every kind of human suffering. For a decade his fame has been gradually spreading, and ardent disciples have carried his doctrines far beyond Amolica, nay,'even across the Atlantic to England, where some of them are making wonderful diagnoses ana reaping a rich harvest from credulous people. The extraordinary claims made on behalf of Abrams are well dissected in a readable article entitlea "Dr Abrams' Box" in the June issue of Nash's Magazine, by Paul de Kruil the American bacteriologist. He haa visited Abrams, and has compared his sphygmobiometer and oscillaphone, which he compares to one of theridiculously comic pieces of apparatus for committing suicide, whicn Heath Robinson' designs with such" "skill. It was claimed by Abrams that he could diagnose disease by placing a drop of blood in a little box connected by some wires to resistance coils. The energy of the vibrations from the blood are said to pass through the coils to the forehead of an individual—the subject—-who must face west during the proceeding. By some rout© not previously known to science, the vibrations are said to pass to the abdomen of the subject, where they elicit sounds when this 'region is tapped. THE ELECTROBIOMETiER.

This sort of thing is becoming' increasingly prevalent in America, and Jonathan is rolling up with his dollars to know "the'state of his health by the. electrobionieter. Even in London, Abrams has'his pupils, some of whom seem seriously to believe in the doctrines of the wizard of San Francisco. Science, however, is not concerned with briefs, except as subjects of inquiry, but with evidence; and lis Work, to .quote Ruskin, is "to substitute facts for appearances and demonstrations for impressions." In this age of advertisement,' the name of science is continually taken in vain to support claims which no scientific mind could possibly accept without most critical" examination of the evidence upon which they are based. Until such evidence is forthcoming from competent and independent experts on the physical and the physiological sides, the assertions made by/ followers of the "Electronic Reaction or Abrams" cannot be accepted as sufficient to establish conclusions so., contracy to scientific knowledge and experience.