FREAK SCIENCE.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 12 April 1926, Page 7

FREAK SCIENCE.

SUFFER IN(i MAKES FINE FIELD FOR CHARLATANS.

Wo of Lon lough .at . tlu> scientific foibles and superstitions oi past ages 'Wo are good-liumourodly colorant ol those who still nurse the harmless superstition that id is an unlucky number, that a broken mirror has an inconvenient capacity for bringing uphappiliess, that walking under a ladder may lead to a serious misfortune, which only the carrying of a rabbit’s loot, luck} bean or'other (.harm may avoid. We stand aghast at such a manifestation of .superstition as that which recent Iv shook I'Yamo, when a baud ol ■fanatics- soiaod and heat a priest accused of using the evil eye. hut are lvo quite sure that there are not mail} equally foolish superstitions now gripping the educated world that are universally accepted? (asks Dr Arthur b. Brown, of Mew York). ■ ■ Is then* not .much . ' pseudo-science abroad with willing-- advocates ami liianv enthusiastic disciples: 1 Science is based upon facts that are tested trom all angles and require, many experiments and much experience to establish, while pseudo-science is always based upon dogma that is easily assimilated. Are we not to-day too nupatieiit to study scientific I nets, ( ‘while ready to. accept any dogma that ma> be attractive'}' presented to us? Perpetual motion machines continue to be patented. The baited States Patent Office issues about twenty patents each year for motors of this type, and the patent records of the world exliibit a. smilar activity. ‘here are everywhere inventors who ret use to beliovd in the laws of physics, gravitation and friction, and pass their lives m planning engin.es ;that will work peipetnally without in ally way regarding the well established laws; ol science. They cannot he induced'to see that so long as gravitation persists perpetual motion is perfectly impossible. This' strange tendency to • rebel against the : established teachings of science is almost as widespread to-day as it was in mediaeval times and in the period o the inquisition. Inventors of pei'petual motion engines, new vibrntoi-v rays or a universal vacuum are as numerous as the opponents of the theory of evolution ami believers in astrology and spiritualism. ~ , ,- Divination is one of the oldest of the pseudo-sciences. Since the remotest ages there have been - many persons who believed that there are m every period of time soothsayers, witches and prophets who can read the present and iuturc bv patents such as tlie flight of birds the appearance of numbers like those made by throwing dice or picking curds; bv reading conditions m the. mom, or stars; by character, hand, evebrow, wrinkle or face readings; b> trances hvpnotism, clairvoyance and a thousand others pseudo-,scientific nostrums. The Babylonians and Egyptians had .their-adherents to these .black arts as numerous as their iolloweis todav. Thev have always fascinated the uneducated and unthinking members ol

society. , , ~ The divining rod is one of the great, instl'ulnonts of the prophet.-? oi <hv.ii.i-, turn. A twig of witch hazel or willow in the hands of a diviner can discover water, coal, oil, lost treasure and almost anything else desired. So many people have believed in the divining rod that an old say has been derived from it, “l twig your meaning.” It suggests that vo'udiave been understood, and re-fers-to the divination of thought by the use of the rod. .It is not.-a fact that a piece of twig has 'power to outdo tho X-rav. But people will continue to behove that it has a multitude of magical qualities. .."Prophecy lias always had an awe-in-spiring attraction.- We. always have prophets with us. Mother Shipton is a. croc-tl example of the pseudo-sciontme prophet'and necromancer. Si.e prophesied'that- “carriage!* without horses shall .to ” and that “ the,world would end m 1B81.” Tliese. and many similar prophecies • were ardently accepted and 'championed. Wo-earn .laugh now when we •find that the world did not end when she- said it would and carriages .still require horses or., other-power to move them. .Perhaps, at th.it, she blundered into a prediction of the motor <l (r C. ' r Tho good people who profess to rcau the weather by natural signs by the clnritv'of the .moon or stars and by the •sensations • of their bones and nerves, are humbugging themselves as thoroughly. as Mother Shipton was others. Theophrastus, king of the black artists, •taught that when bubbles m large numbers were seen in the -water of large rivers we -shall have- abundant rams, and “black spots on the run or moon indicate rain; red spots viral. • Ho also revealed to his students that lad weather follows when you see an ox or a do'T lying on its Ifclt side; if they lie on their right sides, a storm is indicated ” We have manv long-range weather prophets to-day who are quite, as tan-t-.stic as . Theophrastus was. " Ca-rliastro was another notorious prophet"who. barely a century ago, had a iwoiTi-wirlo following for lus Htupd dogmas, although ho hud an cxtraordi-

nary record as a fraud and adventurer. Tramp quacks such as we oltin sec lecturing on health at street „ have always found fcdlowm-s. n tic colonial days these migrating nni were found in all the conn . where thev professed to mire tlnso.isc by snake oil,'rare herbs or sonic womle t »l medicine. Many ol these ga\< , ' ami road testimonials Horn " imd been cured, ami they K- 1 ' 1 ; ‘- samples and sold “Health. Books. Ur Samuel Johnson never enjoyed robust health, and he easily became the v.ctim of the advocates oi ‘-.uie-iill remedies. 'l'ar water was one ol these. It was made h.v putting a quart ol coal tar into a gallon ol water, staring and then allowing it to stand toiabout forty-eight hours. I hen the clear water with the odour ol the tai, was poured nil ami bottled, i Ins was then advertised and su’d as a uiuveisal cure tor diseases. Bishop Beikeley, one of the greatest writers oil philosophy ami ethics, was a strong advocate'or this euro. Since lus uav tar in some form or other has made a universal appeal n.s a medical euio oi as a disinfectant. In the term ot coal tar extracts and their synthetic imitations it, is to-day more popular than ever. „ The “yarb” women of the iarmnv district started a boom in sarsaparilla that greatly interested the public. Comparatively recently the whole cmin try was placarded with signs tel 1 us that somebody’s sarsaparilla, wan blood purifier, and as the blood w the si’iit of ail disease a decoction sarsaparilla would quickly rcsto health. Medical experience show, that sarsaparilla, lias no better r. cinal properties than tea or collee. u many sick peop e still take the s- 11 parilia cure. Before the war many behoved nwhiskv and alcohol acted as a t/.u and that a cocktail was a sure cure I colds and bronchial troubles, lJuiou; science Ims conclusively ueuionsun. that alcohol in all forms is positive harmful to the body of man and in mals. It is Kcientieally a doleten. ■ drug that has been served up in mu different guises in the form ot natio: aIIv advertised patent medie.nes. Hercules Saiiehe claimed to In. discovered tlio- “Lows of tho tanoous Cure of and at o; set about to turn this discovery u cash. He did this in the form _ oxygen absorption bcit-s that c..i wearers to thirst for and absorb o gon. Many instruments of the L made by Sanehe have been market; These nostrums were exploited magnets had been for many yes' An.null mag,net.sir, was a term in i. versa! use, just as personal magnet, was in the days of Mcsmer. In the middle ot the eighteen century, when important discoveries electricity and magnetism were lie. made, many quacks started in bn ness manufacturing magnets m t shape of all the different organs ol t hotly, which they dee'ared cured t. diseases of those organs. J).senses, > the heart were remedied by wean, heart-shaped magnets near that orgm and rheumatic points were mended I, , wearing magnetic rings or bands clos to them. Magnetic bitters, plaster; ointments, viorutors, lamyis, rulilui. devices were claimed as effectively t euro all ailments as leeches and blood ' letting were supposed to do. These humbugs are now being exploited m the form of mechanical vibrators, magnetic lamps and magnetic belts or electrical invi.gorator.s. Magnetic and e ee--1 trical cures disappear, only to come into popularity again in another shape.