CENTS flealfki wea10 WASHINGTON, D. C.

E. J. Hall CURES AND "CURES"

WHAT ABOUT ELECTRONIC REACTIONS OF ABRAMS ? FAKES, FADS, FOLLIES --- REMEDIES AND THEIR RATIONAL USE ‘11.11.13:11=11

Hot Weather Health

THE SUMMER SEASON has its health hazards as well as its health advantages. The hot weather season is the time of typhoid fever. It is the time that infant deaths mount high. THE JULY ISSUE of Life and Health will be a Summer Health number. Several articles on seasonable topics will help you to make your summer a season of health.

" Feeding the Child During Its Second Year," by Belle Wood- Comstock, shows that you do not need to dread baby's second summer if you know what to do about weaning and feeding. This article tells you just what to do. • Typhoid Fever and Its Prevention," by Dr. G. H. Heald, makes a plain the methods being successfully used to combat typhoid, and tells what to do to prevent it.. " Summer Suggestions," by Marie Blanche, is an interesting, in- structive, and practical article on how to make the most of summer " Some Summer Salads," by George E. Cornforth, gives recipes for making simple salads — just what you want and need for summer. Other good articles add to the value of our July number.

We wish we could tell you how many people express their appreciation of Life and Health by letter. This appreciation is also shown by the fact that the circulation list keeps climbing. It is now up to 55, 0 0 0 and going on up.

EDITORS JUNE. 1924 Louis A. Hansen LIFE AND HEALTH Volume 39 George H. Heald, M. 1), Number )1 Issued monthly. Printed and published by the REVIEW AND HERALD PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION at Takoma Park, Washington, D. C., U. S. A.

Subscription Rates.— One year, 75 cents. Remit by Post Office Money Order (payable at Washington, D. C., post office), Express Order, Draft on New York, or in two-cent postage stamps. Cash should be sent in Registered Letter. When a change of address is desired, both the old and new addresses must be given. No extra charge to foreign countries. Entered as second-class matter June 14, 1904, at the Post Office at Washington, D. C., under Act of Congress of March 3, 1879. Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Sec. 1103, Act of Oct. 3, 1917, authorized on June 22, 1918.

A WHOLE YEAR FOR 75 CENTS CURES and "CURES"

T is bad enough for people to be sick. But it tions. But a bungler can very easily and quickly makes a bad matter worse when the sick must ruin this wonderful handiwork of God. I run the gantlet of so-called cures offered for The legal requirements necessary to qualify a any and every ailment. Trying to tell what man to practise medicine are in favor of the sick. is what in medicine is a job for a well man. For It takes four years of high school, two of college, one who is sick it is well-nigh an impossible task four of medical school, and a year of interneship to determine what is genuine out of all that claims to prepare the regular doctor for legal practice, to be curative. . all of which is for our protection. There are many forms of disease and no telling Progressive medicine is no longer satisfied with how many " cures." With the vast volume of a look at the tongue or a feel of the pulse to tell remedies and the many healing methods offered, what ails the patient. The up-to-date physician we might expect to see disease disappear and all knows the value of laboratory tests and analyses sickness wiped out. But, instead, disease is on of blood, sputum, urine, and stomach contents. A the increase. With more cures than ever, there thorough diagnosis, usually including X-ray find- are more sick than ever. ings, is a routine part of the real doctor's work. Evidently all these healing methods are not all Contrast this with some of the snap-judgment, they claim to be. They are not making good. short-cut, superficial, and cock-sure methods now They are not doing what they claim to by able foisted upon the public, and we must take a stand to do. in favor of a lawful, legal, and conscientious prac- It is poor comfort that one cure derides and titioner. decries another, disputing its claims and posing This does not mean a defense of drugging. In itself as the genuine article. As many of the fact, the drug method is more and more disappear- sure-cure methods are directly opposed to others, ing from the field of true therapeutics. Calling a it is sure they cannot all be right. The fact is system of healing " drugless," does not stamp it that no cure-all has as yet been found. as genuine. The many arguments against drugging Beware any cult that claims big things; that furnish good material to many health schemes that is usually a danger signal to the sick. are worse than worthless to the sick. Be certain that any remedy, or any method or Denouncing drugs is no defense for short-cut system of treatment, that promises a cure without methods of treating disease founded upon as foolish calling for a reform in living is fraudulent. , That and assumptions claims as are the most 'blatant is one of the earmarks types of fake nos- of quackery. trums. These methods The list of names bear alike the telltale and designations in The following list of titles and designations of health mark of asking big our insert might be methods, considered irregular in New York, was given in fees for making big considerably 1 en g t h- the Weekly Bulletin of the Department of Health of New promises and calling ened. Some of those York City. for no particular listed may represent This classification includes some forms of treatment change in living habits. procedures in them- regular in themselves, but against which complaint was Caution is urged selves good enough, made for their irregular use: about investing in any but which, when used " Aerotherapy " " Leonic " healers financial scheme that by unlearned and " Astral " healers Mental and spiritual promises get-rich-quick " Autothermy " healing unskilled individuals, Beautifier Establishments Medical gymnast returns. Such schemes or as all-inclusive heal- " Biodynamo-chromatic " Mechanotherapy usually leave the in- therapy " Naturologist " ing methods, become " Blood " specialists "Natureopath " vestor poorer. How- fraudulent. Bone setters " NeurotheraPY " ever, they only rob Cancer " cures " " Naprapath " After all, it is not " Chromo-therapy " Optical Institutes people of their money, so much what one " Christos" (blood washers) Obesity cures including widows and Christian Science Psycho-analyst " styles himself that de- " Chromopathy " Patent Medicine Men orphans. termines his place as Coueists " Phototherapy " Get-well-quick Diet-therapy Physical culture a healer; it is what Diathermy " Physiotherapy " frauds that promise he actually k no w s " Drugless healers " " Psychotherapy " large physical returns Electrotherapy " Practo-therapy " about disease and its Electrotonic methods " Quartz-therapy " for little physical out- cure and how to make Electric light diagnosis " Spondylo-therapy " lay are still worse, for " Electryonic " methods " Sani-practor " the best use of na- " Electro-homeopathy " " Spectrocrome " they take both money ture's curative proc- "Eiectronapro-therapy " Special food faddists and health and make " Geo-therapy " Special drug faddists esses. It takes years Hypnotist " Spectro-therapy " widows and orphans. of hard study and ap- Hydrotherapy " Tropho-therapy " Don't accept any Herbalist " Telathermy " plication to learn much Heliotherapy Vacuum and serum " cures " " cure " on its claims. about the marvelous " Irido-therapy " diagnos- " Vitopath" What it does may be ticians " Zodiac-therapy " mechanism of the hu- Kneipp cure " Zonet-therapy " something altogether man body and the laws different. that govern its opera- YE EDITORS.

Page 81 PRACTICE physicians teach that is lay- the people that re- A ing the Avoid the Use of storative power is foundation of a not in drugs, but vast amount of dis- in nature. Disease ease and of even Poisonous Drugs is an effort of na- more serious evils, ture to free the sys- is the free use of Mrs. E. G. White tem from condi- poisonous drug s. tions that result When attacked by from a violation of disease, many will the laws of health. not take the trou- In case of sickness, ble to search out the cause should the cause of their be ascertained.. illness. Their chief Unhealthful con- anxiety is to 'rid ditions should be themselves of pain changed, wr on g and inconvenience. habits corrected. So they resort to Then Nature is to patent nostrums, of whose real properties they be assisted in her effort to expel impurities and know little, or they apply to a physician for to re-establish right conditions in the system. some remedy to counteract the result of their Natural Remedies misdoing, but with no thought of making a Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, ex- change in their unhealthful habits. If immedi- ercise, proper diet, the use of water, trust in ate benefit is not realized, another medicine is divine power,— these are the true remedies. tried, and then another. Thus the evil continues. Every person should have a knowledge of Drugs Do Not Cure Disease nature's remedial agencies and how to apply them. It is essential both to understand the People need to be taught that drugs do not principles involved in the treatment of the sick cure disease. It is true that they sometimes and to have a practical training that will enable afford present relief, and the patient appears one rightly to use this knowledge. to recover as the result of their use. This is The use of natural remedies requires an amount because nature has sufficient .vital force to expel of care and effort that many are not willing to the poison and to correct the conditions that give. Nature's process of healing and upbuild- caused the disease. Health is recovered in spite ing is gradual, and to the impatient it seems. of the drug. But in most cases the drug only slow. The surrender of hurtful indulgences re- changes the form and location of the disease. quires sacrifice. But in the end it will be found Often the effect of the poison seems to be over- that Nature, untrammeled, does her work wisely- come for a time, but the results remain in the and well. Those who persevere in obedience system, and work great harm at some later to her laws will reap the reward in health of period. body and health of mind. By the use of poisonous drugs, many bring Faith and Works upon themselves lifelong illness, and many lives I have seen so much of carrying matters to are lost that might be saved by the use of natural extremes, in praying for the sick, that I have methods of healing. The poisons contained in felt that this part of our experience requires many so-called remedies create habits and appe- much solid, sanctified thinking, lest 'we shall tites that mean ruin to both soul and body. make movements that we may call faith, but Many of the popular nostrums called patent which are really nothing less than presumption. medicines, and even some of the drugs dispensed Persons worn down with affliction need to be by physicians, act a part in laying the founda- counseled wisely, that they may move discreetly; tion of the liquor habit, the opium habit, the and while they place themselves before God to morphine habit, that are so terrible a curse to be prayed for that they may be healed, they are society. not to take the position that methods of restora- Restorative Power in Nature tion to health in accordance with nature's laws. The only hope of better things is in the edu- are to be neglected. cation of the people in right principles. Let (Concluded on page 96)

Page 82 ' June Remedies and Their Rational Use overfeeding, unbalanced feeding, the use of in- G. H. Heald, M. D. jurious foods, and the like, the result partly of poverty, partly of ignorance, partly of a tend- ROM a savage or barbarous ancestry we ency to worship the palate at the expense of the have inherited many superstitions. Ex- health. Perhaps certain chemical causes might Fceedingly prevalent is the belief in the also be included here, the use of stimulants and mystery of disease. This superstition has come narcotics, and other poisonous substances. down to us from the old days when disease was The physical causes include the extremes of looked upon as an evil spirit to be driven out by temperature, sudden changes and other weather incantations. Hence the belief in magical heal- conditions, the extremes of dampness and dry- ing — in some power of drugs, amulets, charms, ness, and the use of clothing illy adapted to its electric or magnetic belts, electronic reactions, purpose. animal magnetism, mental healing, and other The functional causes include the overuse or psychophoolishness, mechanical adjustments, and the underuse of certain functions of the body, what not, each having its enthusiastic votaries. by which the entire body, or a part of the body, These superstitions, and the persistent belief either wears out or rusts out. that for every kind of sickness there must be a Climatic and social conditions, which may help specific cure, if we could only find it, offer the to make the causes just mentioned more effective, greatest source of wealth to charlatans, and the may be called secondary causes. Climate affects greatest obstacle to the introduction of rational health by temperature and moisture conditions, hygiene and rational treatment. and also by affording favorable conditions for Rational treatment is reasonable treatment — the propagation of malaria, yellow fever, sleep- treatment that has for its basis sound reason ing-sickness, and other parasitic diseases. Social instead of superstition. It is based on the reason- conditions, the result of community life, through able theory that the power of healing lies in the poverty, overcrowding, filth, and the capitalized body itself. Its method is to remove the causes vices (tobacco, liquor and drug addiction, and of disease, and to give the body the best chance prostitution), also make strongly for ill health. to restore itself to health. All these causes of disease may be removed And rational hygiene is the avoidance of those more or less completely by individual and com- things which cause disease. munity action, that is, by personal and public Causes of Disease hygiene. The many causes of disease may be classed The hereditary cause of disease being one that under comparatively few heads : parasitic, nu- cannot be prevented for those already born, will tritional, physical, chemical, and functional. not be considered here. The parasitic causes of disease include the These causes rarely act singly. Two or more numerous organisms that may infest man, such usually act in combination : the climatic and the as worms (tapeworms, hookworms, etc.), bac- parasitic, the social and the parasitic, the social teria, or " disease germs," blood parasites (caus- and the nutritional. All may be operative in ing malaria, sleeping-sickness, etc.), and other one case. Whatever the original cause of disease, organisms. it is soon enforced by the bacterial, for it is char- The nutritional causes include the various actistic of bacteria that they attack the body that forms of wrong eating, such as underfeeding, has been weakened by other means. 1924 Page 83 LIFE & HEALTH

Disease may be defined as an obstruction to, life than those who are of average weight, and or an interference with, the natural working of much better than those who are overweight. ,the body, brought about by some one or more That is, a person of thirty-five or over who specific causes. weighs as much as the average, weighs too much for his own good. This discovery is a confirma- First Find the Cause tion of the teaching of this and of some other The first essential in the treatment of disease health journals, that the average person eats is to find the cause, and then, if possible, to more than is good for him. This overeating is remove it. caused, very largely, by the profusion of rich, To use a familiar illustration : When the car tempting dishes and the numerous courses, and gets balky, and refuses to go, the cause may by the use of candies and other fat-producing be a foul or broken spark plug, or a poorly foods between meals. Drinking at meals and adjusted carburetor, or a leaky valve, or ill- hasty eating also tend to overeating. fitting piston rings, or a broken differential gear, Another observation that has been made by or an empty gasoline tank, or any one of a score Professor Chittenden, of Yale, and by other ob- of different conditions. If the car will not go, servers, is that most people eat too much protein or if it has no power to climb hills, you know (largely found in animal food) for their own that the remedy is not to pour in some patent needs. It is difficult for any one to eat freely of " dope," or to make some " adjustment " to the meats and other animal foods without consuming crank shaft, but to find exactly what is the mat- too much protein for his own good; and the ter, and remedy it. If you go to a garage man excess must be disposed of at the expense of the and he tells you, whatever the trouble with the liver and kidneys. So, then, one of the first pro- car, that he can fix it by giving an " adjustment " cedures in the rational treatment of disease to one of the joints of the crank shaft, you know should be a regulation of the diet, reducing it at once that he is a faker, and you will go to the to the needs of the body,— or even less for a man who takes time to find what the trouble is. time,— and leaving off the hurtful beverages. So in the human body, rational treatment must be preceded by search for, and finding of, the Rest cause. The course of treatment is then plain — The principle of rest, so valuable in connec- to remove the cause, if it is removable. If it is tion with the digestive process, is also applicable not removable, permanent cure is out of the to other body functions. Any part that is fail- question. ing, should be given rest, as nearly absolute as It is characteristic of many of the so-called possible, until it has had time to recover a fair " healers " of various kinds to promise a cure in measure of efficiency. When there is a threat- incurable conditions, and to ened heart failure, the only take from the patient his rational procedure is to give few remaining dollars, that the heart as much rest as should be spent in making possible, by having the pa- his last hours as comfortable tient remain flat on his back as possible. until the heart has recov- As nutritional changes, ered. In cases of brain fag, due largely tO faulty diet, from whatever cause, the are usually present in any mental activities should be case of illness, a most impor- given a rest. Before the tant measure, not only for condition has gone too far, preserving, but also for re- taking daily periods of re- storing, health is — laxation, recreation, and physical exercise may be Regulation of the Diet sufficient ; but after the proc- Insurance statistics have In the hands of ess has gone farther, it may shown conclusively that any one else than be necessary to take abso- after the age of thirty-five a physician, drugs are a positive dan- lute rest for a time, at least a person who weighs some- ger to the body. rest from all mental work, thing like 10 per cent under and should be with only such physical work the average weight, has a avoided like poi- son. as will prove interesting better chance for a long without being taxing. Those Page 84 June LIFE & HEALTH who have been living on the stimulation of unnatural excite- ment may need to go to the country, or to a quiet sanita- rium, to give a rest to their emo- tional reactions. Physical Exercise Inasmuch as an inactive body or an inactive organ deteri- orates, another important prin- ciple of life is activity. An in- active file — sometimes called a sedentary life — is one of the most important causes of disease. The functions of nutrition and elimination of waste are only perfectly performed in an active body. Therefore, exercise is a most important measure in maintaining health, and care- It is characteristic of bacteria that they attack the body that has been fully regulated exercise is an weakened by other means. important measure in treatment'. It may take of the effects of water intelligently applied. It the form of useful work or of recreation, or in is true that in many cases the treatments which advanced cases, it may be given by passive move- give immediate relief do not get at the ultimate ments, or massage. cause, and so give only temporary relief ; but The Use of Water they have the advantage over drugs that they Water is nature's cleanser, for which there is do not introduce something harmful into the no substitute. Every tissue of the body is bathed body. Hydrotherapy is not confined to the im- in water, and no cell can live without water. mediate relief of symptoms, but is also applied Water is the common carrier, by which all the to the gradual clearing up of the underlying exchanges in the body that constitute life, are cause, so as to give permanent. effects. carried on. There is no life without water. Sunlight In disease, a flushing of the intestinal tract, Sunlight is another natural remedy that and perhaps of the tissues, is often a most val- reaches the cause of the trouble. For instance, uable procedure. By means of water, poisons cases of bone tuberculosis that formerly gave are eliminated, and nutrition carried to the much trouble to the physician are now handled tissues. Sometimes disease is due partly to a with complete success by the open-air and sun- stagnation resulting from a deficiency of water light treatment, applied direct to the skin. This in the body. reaches the cause of the disease, by enabling the Water is also the only means of removing body to wage a successful warfare against the thoroughly the accumulations of filth from the germs. And rickets, a nutritional disease, is surface of the body. It is, therefore, a cleanser prevented or greatly relieved, by a proper ap- inside and out, and thus is a prevention, and to plication of sunlight. a certain extent a cure, of disease. The fact is that rational or physiologic treat- But in addition to these functions of water, it ment, begun early, before the body has under- is one of the best means of applying heat and gone irreparable damage, is the only successful cold to the body. Owing to this fact, there has method of restoring health, for it is the only been developed that admirable system of treat- method that gets at the cause. It differs from ment known as hydrotherapy, which is a most the usual symptomatic methods, in that the valuable supplement to diet, rest, and exercise. results do not appear at once, but may take con- By means of water applications, pain may be siderable time. Any. so-called remedy that gives relieved, inflammation held in cheek, the body immediate results, such as a headache powder, functions toned up, an overacting organ, as the or a sleeping-powder, or any remedy that gives heart, slowed down, sleeplessness overcome, and immediate relief, may well be suspected of being, acute indigestion allayed. These are only a few not a cure, but a masker of warning symptoms. /924 Page 85 What Is a Doctor?

N a radio talk, from life was one of service Station WGY at to others. When his I Schenectady, Dr. end came, he left behind Paul B. Brooks, State him little besides loving deputy commissioner of memories. Today, for health, explained the many reasons, the rela- difference between repu- tion between physician table physicians and and patient is more quacks. Tracing the his- nearly a business rela- tory of medicine from tion, and is possibly less the time of Hippocrates intimate than it was to the present, he stated thirty years ago. Never- that today medicine is theless, the doctor is still founded upon a sound the adviser and confi-' scientific basis, and that dent to whom many a it is now entering upon family turns in the most a new era in which pre- serious troubles. vention of disease is be- " The proprietor of ginning to assume the ' the greatest show on leading role. • earth' once said that the " Just as we now em- American people liked ploy lawyers to keep us to be humbugged. A out of trouble," said Dr. Christ is the true head of the medical profession. The great many others have Brooks, " the doctor of chief Physician, He is at the side of every God-fearing taken advantage of this the future will be ex- practitioner who works to relieve human suffering. 'While peculiarity, which in- the physician uses nature's remedies for physical disease, pected to keep his clients he should point his patients to Him who can relieve the cidentally is not com- well. maladies of both the soul and the body. That which mon to Americans alone. " Fifty years ago a physicians can only aid in doing, Christ accomplishes. by starting all sorts of They endeavor to assist nature's work of healing; Christ medical student spent Himself is the healer. The physician seeks to preserve cults and ' systems,' the a year reading medical life; Christ imparts life.—" The Ministry of Healing," main purpose of which books in the office of a p. ///. is to convert human ills practising physician, into cash. Just as a and two years in a medical college, and he was hungry pike will jump for a tin minnow, so, it ready to practise. With the development and appears, will human nature respond to any at- accumulation of knowledge, the demands and tractive bait in the form of an offer to cure sick- standards have gradually increased. Today the ness by some new ' system.' student is expected to have at least two years of " Doctors are accused of being narrow and ordinary college work, four years in medical col- selfish because of their efforts to put impostors lege, and one or two years of hospital interneship out of business. It is true that altruism is not before he is qualified to ' hang out his shingle.' the only reason for their efforts to stop people It is apparent,, then, that the degree of M. D. from sacrificing themselves on the altars of the can be acquired only at a large expenditure of false gods of medical quackery. Put yourself time, energy, and money. Before he can expect in the doctor's place : you have spent years and a financial return, the physician must make an several thousand dollars acquiring medical edu- initial investment of from $2,000 to $5,000, and cation and experience; some one who calls him- it often requires several years of practice to get self a doctor, but whose only training came from back this money spent for medical education and a few weeks spent in learning a trick with a new training. and impressive name, opens up in your town : " Thirty or forty years ago most families had you see patients to whom you have given your their ' family doctor.' In times of sickness his best efforts flocking to his office ; some of them visits brought encouragement and cheer ; he was could not afford to pay your bills, but the new- the general counselor and family adviser. His (Concluded on page 96) Page 86 June The Electronic Reactions of Abrams From a Report in the Scientific American

ANY queries have come to us concern- of proof rests absolutely with Dr. Abrams and his ing the Electronic Reactions of Abrams, followers." or E. R. A., for short. Thus far we Then follows a brief description of the Abrams have given the subject no editorial attention. equipment and methods of diagnosis, and the We have noted with interest the .discussion that paragraph: has been given it by the medical journals, and " Indeed, there are many, many bizarre things about the manner in which some of the popular jour- the Abrams method and its application. There are nals have treated the matter. claims made for it which on their very face sound ridicu- lous — even the Abrams practitioners themselves admit Beginning with the October, 1923, issue, the with a smile that such claims are unbelievable until Scientific American ran a series of reports on proved. One which struck us particularly so is that the investigations of E. R. A. as carried on by diagnosis can be conducted with nothing more than a the staff of that journal. Believing its report to scrap of paper on which the patient has simply drawn a line with a lead pencil! The electronic emanations of be based on impartial findings,' we herewith give his body mingle with the graphite and remain on the excerpts from this report as given up to and paper! " including the issue of March, 1924. In a box insert and in bold type of the first Next is given in detail a simple test of the article appeared this : electronic reactions method of diagnosis which The Scientific American,' fully cognizant of took place in the laboratory of an Abrams prac- the vast public interest in the Electronic Reactions titioner in New York City, at his invitation. of Abrams method of diagnosis and treatment, has The results were so much at variance with the undertaken a thorough investigation of this highly known facts that the test could but be called a controversial matter. It invites its readers to send complete failure of the method. in suggestions for tests, to give the names and addresses of Abrams clinics and practitioners, to The publication of these results brought a flood relate their experiences with Abrams practitioners, of comment favorable and otherwise. Electronic and to give the Scientific American ' the full bene- practitioners offered explanations for the failure, fit of their knowledge of the subject.— The Editor." and it developed that instead of Electronic Re- The first article of the series almost bore the (Continued on page 90) impression that the journal was biased in favor of E. R. A. After introducing the subject with a statement regarding the two sides of the controversy over the revolutionary claims of this new method, it says : " At this point the Scientific Amer- ican, urged by the large volume of correspondence regarding the E. EL A. which has been received during the past few months, has entered the con- troversy, not to take sides, but to act as an independent investigator. It is our intention to listen to the arguments of the believers and the skeptics, review alleged cases of cure as well as alleged eases of failure to cure, conduct a series of tests with the Abrams method of diagnosis and treatment, and undertake a critical examination of the apparatus em- ployed. All the while, of course, we fully realize that the medical world (s) Keystone and the public at large, as well as A patient undergoing the process of diagnosis according to the Abrams method. the Scientific American, are justified Dr. Fletcher, osteopathic physician in New York, testing the abdominal reflexes in their role of skeptics: the burden while Dr. Buehler measures out the resistance of the energy of the blood. 1924 Page 87 LIFE & HEALTH

E are no longer able, by virtue of the centuries of training, to believe in the curative efficacy of W a couple of rattling skull bones, or in a series of ugly faces carved on stone or wood. But we are capable of attributing magic healing powers to liquids that come in bottles, to pills that rattle in boxes, and to all sorts of plasters and ointments, electric appliances, and what nots. In actual number and in variety of so-called cures, in number of fake medicine men and in, actual count of those. who believe in all the magic and hocus-pocus of unscientific medicine, we are probably more responsive to charlatanism and undiluted quackery than was the humankind of antiquity or the savage races. In a recently published book written by a physician of deep learning and culture, the various world-embrac- ing cures of the last three hundred years are taken up for consideration, and analyzed in detail. One after another came the world panaceas — tar water, magnet- ism, mesmerism, Perkins' tractors, hypnotism, manipu- lators, Coueism, etc. Each of these appeared on the stage, held the world's attention for a day, and passed on to make way for the new panaceas. This has been going on for centuries, and yet the world does not seem to learn by experience. Nay, the Too many a time the physician is called in when the ravages very ones who yesterday swore by one " all-cure," today controllable in its beginning has been allowed to reach swear by another. And if indications are dependable, the wish will remain father to the thoughts for many years to come. Faddists and fakers, enthusiasts and charlatans, will bring forth new all-cures, even when the Electronic Fakes, Fa Reactions of Abrams, Coueism, and chiropractic will have joined the host of other world fakers and cures, buried with the ages. A phenomenon such as this one has a deep social significance. And it will pay us to try to understand it. and M When intelligent people — men and women of education, persons of scientific training and experience — support and patronize faddists Iago Gals and fakers, buy patent medicines, write testimonials, and are willing New York Tub to come out and publicly declare their allegiance, the matter demands (Caught on the Radio; B careful thought. Mere scoffing and preaching will hardly avail. Why will an intelligent person patronize the faker and faddist? Why will the man and woman of learning buy patent drugs, whose very label-claims, brand them as worthless? Basically, it is because those who suffer want relief, and one's good sense and judgment are warped the more and the longer one suffers. Age-long experience teaches us that the drowning man will clutch at a straw. The suffering individual will follow any " will-o'-the-wisp " that promises relief. Few claims are too preposterous for him to be willing to doubt them without trial. The persuasive eloquence of the fad- dist or faker finds in the sufferer an attuned and eager ear. And where by some conspiracy of events, such as is common in the experience of those suffering from nervous ailments, relief seems to come co- incident with the use of some specific nostrum or method, such a person usually becomes a most zealous disciple, eager and ready to sacrifice all to convert the world to the new-found " truth." Patent medicines often appeal to the uncritical by their seeming cheapness, by their availability, and by their exaggerated claims. It does not require much critical sense to appreciate that the cheapness of patent medicines is deceptive. False security is too expensive at any price, and the person who is ill and who indulges in self-medication places in jeopardy his most precious wealth — his health. The ease with which patent medicines can be bought, even those containing narcotic drugs and alcohol, is a serious evil, rather than an advantage ; for too often precious time is lost in self-medication. Too frequently the physician is called in, when the ravages of the disease have sapped the patient's reserves. Page 88 June LIFE & HEALTH

and when a condition, controllable in its beginning, has been allowed to reach a late stage, while the patient doses himself with advertised cures. Without exception, those who manufacture and sell patented drugs have but one end in mind, that of making money. To that end they will use the cheapest ingre- dients, they will serve narcotics to children, they will make alcohol the vehicle of their drugs, and will label their nostrums with the most exaggerated and preten- tious claims. No disease is too complicated or too diffi- cult for them to master and cure. From simple baldness to tuberculosis and cancer, every type and form of dis- ease is subject to their remedies. One can only guess at the thousands and thousands of victims who missed their chances for recovery in following the false leads of pat- ented drugs and medicines. The world of science does not worship at the shrine of mystery, nor does blind faith take the place of under- standing. In the realm of medicine we no longer center our hopes in the wonder-working powers of drugs. To- day there must be a rational treatment. There must be a reason for each process and each medicine. Today we understand the drugs we make use of better than ever before, and for that reason we depend ever disease have sapped the patient's reserves, and when a condition less upon them to exclusively attain the ends of cure. ate stage, while the patient is dosed with advertised cures. Drugs and medicines are the instruments of the phy- sician who, with the aid of nature, heals human ills. In the hands of the uninformed, drugs are at best valueless ; at worst, a positive harm. To cure, a multi- s , Follies, tude of factors must be taken into consideration, and for this the phy- sician is given particular training. Years of study, followed by years of experience, ripen the physician's powers and matures his knowledge. How then can the untrained so recklessly wander into a field so filled with pitfalls? A few drugs are specific cures. Most drugs. are ameliorative. ton, M. D. Combined with a correction of those factors that brought on the Jlosis Association disease, they are effective in bringing health back to the suffering 3cast from Station WEAF) individual. By themselves, drugs may help to allay pain and mask symptoms, but seldom cure. These points seem so self-evident that their enumeration again and again must appear most unnecessary and wearisome. And yet if we are to judge by the millions and millions of dollars that Americans spend yearly on patent medicines, nostrums, and quacks, we must conclude that but one in a thousand appre- ciates the simple truths about health and its preservation. How many millions of Americans step up to the soda fountain and ask for a headache powder? And yet how many of these appreciate that a headache is a symptom, that it usually points to some under- lying condition varying in seriousness from defective eyesight to kidney disease or to brain tumor? With little forethought thousands of intelligent men and women buy cough medicines, tonics, sirups, and drugs for all and every ill, taking upon themselves what no intelligent physician will do, to diagnose and prescribe for their own illnesses. Were the matter merely one of money wasted, then its seriousness were small indeed. But no, the patent medicine vender promises relief and cure to those afflicted with the most serious diseases, even such as cancer and tuberculosis. Only recently a number of sensationalists have come out with exaggerated claims for certain modes of treatment in tuberculosis. The result is that hundreds of sufferers who have been applying themselves to the only sure process to recovery, have turned away, jeopardizing their gains, and now seek the promised quick 'relief that is but an empty bubble. Thousands of others suffering from other diseases, are chasing the will- (Concluded on page 96) 1924 Page 89 LIFE & HEALTH

The Electronic Reactions of Abrams technique was raised. An effort was made to (Continued from page 87) secure the personal help of Dr. Abrams in the actions of Abrams representing Abrams as such, investigation. He agreed to give " demonstra- there were many brands of the thing, and that tions " rather than " tests." No definite co- it became necessary to differentiate between the operation in the investigation was rendered by authorized and the so-called " bogus " equipment Dr. Abrams up to the time of his death. and technique. In replying to correspondence, Dr. Abrams It was found further that many E. R. A. called attention to the psychological factor enter- practitioners, some of them duly recognized as ing into the question. Frequent warnings had genuine, had worked out their own improve- been given against the skeptical turn of mind ments on the original Abrams technique and because of its decided detrimental influence on equipment, and which they considered far in the reactions and consequently on the accuracy advance of the original. These workers consid- of the findings. Assurance was given E. R. A. ered themselves far better exponents of the dis- men again and again that test conditions would coveries and possibilities of Dr. Abrams than be provided which would be entirely free from Dr. Abrams himself. New and improved equip- any unfavorable influences. ment was offered in advertising literature. Elec- The February, 1924, issue gives a statement tronic and commercial corn- of the findings after four petition evidently enters months of patient and per- into the thing quite largely. sistent effort. The opening The article in the Jan- statement of this article uary, 1924, issue opens says: with this paragraph : " The longer our Abrams in- " The truth or the falsity of vestigation continues, the more the claims made for the Elec- we begin to wonder whether tronic Reactions of Abrams we are the investigators or the Technique, otherwise known as investigated. Our original in- E. R. A. for short, will never tention was to study at first be settled by argument, so far hand the phenomena claimed as the thinking public is con- for a new method of diagnosis cerned. Despite tons upon tons and treatment known as the of literature; despite thousands Electronic Reactions of Abram. upon thousands of testimonials We fully expected this investi- of wonderful cures; despite bit- (e) Keystone gation to follow the usual scien- ter attacks on E. R. A. based on A specimen of the blood of the patient whose ail- tific procedure which aims to superficial examination of the ment is to be diagnosed, is placed in a dynamizer establish the facts in the most claims and upon an incomplete (which is grounded on one side, and passes through direct and positive manner. study of the technique itself on rheostats on the other), from which its energy is We were prepared, however, to the one hand, and laudatory carried to reflexophones. make due allowances for the articles based on blissful igno- delicacy of such forces and rance of limitations of the technique on the other; variable factors as might be involved in this sensitive despite demonstration after demonstration made under technique. Lastly, we had reasons to believe that Dr. conditions over which the investigators have little if any Abrams and other electronic practitioners and experi- control, the world still waits for clean-cut; positive, and menters would facilitate our work in every way by ex- understandable evidence based on rigid, impartial, yet tending their utmost ca-operation; to the end that the thoroughly convincing tests." truth of the so-called electronic reactions might be es- The Scientific American found that instead of tablished once and for all. " To date, and after four months of patient and per- securing a ready and convincing test, proving sistent investigation, the tangible results are frankly the positive and definite claims of E. R. A., it disappointing." was a most difficult matter to even get co-opera- An insert in bold-faced type gives a summary tion in experiments. A storm of protest was of findings, as herewith given : raised against its efforts. One E. R. A. Associa- " After four months of patient and persistent tion sent out a form letter to its practitioners labors, our Abrams Investigation Committee in- urging them to ask their satisfied patients to clines toward the following conclusions based on write the journal, protesting against its methods tests, demonstrations, observations, and statements of investigation and assuring of the wonderful given in interviews and correspondence with Dr. Abrams and his followers, as well as non-E. R. A. merits of E. R. A. An avalanche of mail poured electronic practitioners: into the office of the Scientific American. " 1. The public overestimates the diagnostic and A great deal of controversy as to what is and curative powers of E. R. A. Electronic workers what is not genuine E. R. A. equipment and admit that its possibilities are far below the fan- Page 90 June LIFE & HEALTH

tastic claims set forth by enthusiastic writers of involved in the use of such crude apparatus would E. R. A. literature. seem to be greater than the differential between " 2. If E. R. A. is a genuine technique, then it the rates, etc., to be determined. is in its very infancy — crude, uncertain at times, " 10. There is much confusion in electronic ranks and subject to changes from month to month, such regarding the basis for their technique. Dr. Abrams as a laboratory experiment. and his followers have been using the terms elec- " 3. E. R. A. does not take the place of older trons, ohms, waves, phase, and so on rather loosely. diagnostic methods, according to numerous E. R. A. Some are beginning to realize this fact. workers. Quite to the contrary, it may be employed " 11. E. R. A. is not a satisfactory subject for only as an accessory, in which connection it is a scientific investigation. Numerous obstacles are claimed to be useful. placed in the path of investigators, until patience " 4. Assuming that the so-called electronic re- is taxed beyond the utmost limit. Promises upon actions do occur, and that they represent recog- promises are made, while precious time, which nizable and determinable rates, the correlations might be put to other use, is being lost. Yet all claimed between these rates and certain pathologi- the while we are assured that E. R. A. desires to cal conditions are by no means proved. The as- prove its case to the scientific world, through an sumption that a rate of 57 corresponds with a impartial and truly scientific body of investigators. syphilitic condition, 42 with a tubercular one, etc., We have presented E. R. A. the opportunity. Will is admitted by persons high in the E. R. A. cowl- they accept it? " cils to be entirely empirical. The article in the March issue mentions the " 5. E. R. A. diagnosis is seemingly such a deli- cate procedure and is fraught with so many detri- death of Dr. Albert Abrams, which occurred mental factors and variables that there is an ever- suddenly on January 13, and deals at length present danger of grave error. The preparation with him as an individual and as the mainspring of blood specimens, the condition of the reagent of the entire E. R. A. technique. This state- and diagnostician, and other factors are claimed to have a marked influence on the accuracy of ment is made : the E. R. A. findings. " To this day the basic facts of E. R. A. remain un- " 6. All E. R. A. practitioners are by no means proved, so far as the scientific world is concerned; and competent to make a satisfactory diagnosis. Many those who have accepted the E. R. A. technique have of them have proved unreliable in this work. Few done so largely on their faith in Dr. Abrams. Indeed, of them are qualified, according to E. R. A. ad- in our constant and unrelenting efforts to obtain some missions, to undertake a scientific test aimed at evidence of the basic phenomenon on which this entire appraising the value of this technique. When one structure of queer ideas and still queerer practice rests, seeks a competent and authoritative test of the we have always been referred to Dr. Abrams. Individual Abrams technique, on the basis of which judgment E. R. A. practitioners, despite their everyday use of this may be formed as to its validity, one is told that method in making diagnoses and giving treatments to the only person competent to undertake the work their patients, have declined to submit themselves to our is Dr. Abrams himself. No other practitioner is tests, but have preferred to have us deal directly with competent to make a determination on which Dr. Dr. Abrams. Then, when we have tried in every possible Abrams seems willing to have his system judged; way to make some kind of test with Dr. Abrams which yet every day his authorized disciples all over the would immediately prove or fail to prove his basic claims, country make thousands of determinations upon we have found Dr. Abrams quite unprepared and ob- which the lives of their patients depend. viously unwilling to aid us in our sincere quest except " 7. Spectacular features, such as determining under his own unscientific conditions. . . . the race of an individual, his religion, his exact " And all the while the basic phenomenon has never location at the moment of diagnosis, his emotions been established in a scientific way, despite the bald fact and matters of the heart, are not to be taken that E. R. A. claims run counter to our present-day seriously. knowledge of physics. " 8. There is a tendency on the part of E. R. A. " That, briefly, is the really wonderful feature of workers to modify the claims made for the oscil- E. R. A. It claims to do remarkable things as a matter loclast treatment. It is not claimed to cure' in of everyday routine. The E. R. A. practitioner, to all the usual sense of the word. It does, so it is appearances, is enabled to diagnose the state of health claimed, reduce the potentiality, or ohmage,' of of any individual from the blood specimen of that indi- the disease energy. Whether or not a cure' is vidual, or even from the handwriting. He can determine effected following the oscilloclast treatment, is a not only the present diseases and ailments, but also those matter for nature's own forces, which are now diseases and ailments which may develop in the future, given an opportunity to function if we accept and which are now present in the incipient stage and im- E. R. A. beliefs. possible of detection through orthodox methods, even " 9. There is a grave discrepancy between the including pathological examinations and X-ray explora- crudity of the Abrams apparatus and the extreme tions. He can, if he is as competent as Dr. Abrams was, refinement of the results claimed from its use. As determine the religion of the individual from the blood a specific example, the resistance boxes used have specimen. He should be able to locate the individual at an uncertainty in the precise establishment of con- any given moment. He should be able to tell the nation- tact between switch lever and contact point greater ality of the individual and many other pertinent facts, than the ohmage difference between successive always from the drop of blood or the handwriting alone. points, yet readings are made with the utmost con- But — should a scientific body such as our investigation fidence. In other respects, too, the accidental error (Concluded on page 95) 1924 Page 91 This department i. conducted by Kathryn L. Jensen. R. N. The Hot Foot Bath Mabel L. Zerbe, R. N.

MONG the sim- body by dilating the ple and effective blood vessels of the A treatments that feet. It also affects may be given in a certain organs through home, is the hot foot the nerves. In giving bath. It may be given the hot foot bath, the in a sitting or a lying following are some of position. In case of the effects desired : fever, fatigue, head- 1. To relieve conges- ache, or general dis- tion — ability, it should al- a. In the head. ways be given in the We use the reclining position. hot foot bath Failure to do this, re- to relieve sults in much harm. Fig. 1. Patient, and articles required for treatment. headache and Patients often faint, and the fatigue from the flushed feeling, and for sleeplessness. upright position more than overbalances the b . In the lungs. For colds in the chest or any good of the foot bath. congestion of the respiratory tract, hot foot However, to give the most simple treatments baths are recommended. in an intelligent manner, it is necessary to know c. In the pelvic organs. The feet are reflexly the results to be obtained or the purposes for connected with the pelvic organs, and heat which they are given. to the feet often gives immediate relief Heat draws the blood from other parts of the from pain. •

Fig. 2. Placing the work blanket and removing top bed covers Fig. 3. Placing patient's feet in foot bath. Page 92 June LIFE & HEALTH

Fig. 4. Cold compress to head: patient's feet and legs in com- Fig. 5. Increasing the temperature of foot bath. fortable position, ready to cover with blanket. 2. To aid in producing perspiration. both to foot of bed without exposing patient. It is equally important, in giving a treatment, d. Fold bed covers neatly at foot of bed. to know the articles required and a general plan e. Have patient flex (bend) knees. to follow. This may depend on whether or not f. Place rubber sheet or newspapers covered with the foot bath is to be given preliminary to, or bath towel under patient's feet. as a part of, another treatment, or as a treat- U. Upon this towel (after moving patient's feet ment by itself. to one side) place foot tub lengthwise, The following procedure is suggested, and is containing water of five inches depth adapted to the bed patient in a home : (104°-106° F.). 1. Articles required : h. Raise the patient's feet with left hand, sup- a. Foot tub. porting heels, and immerse slowly. See that b. Pitcher of hot water. patient's feet and legs are in a comfortable c. Pitcher of cold water (tap water). position. d. Basin of ice water for compresses. i. Cover with working blanket and tuck in at e. Working blanket. sides, preventing circulation of air. f. Bath towel. Put cold compress on patient's forehead. g. Rubber sheet (or newspapers). k. Gradually increase temperature of water as 2. Procedure : fast as can be borne by pouring from pitcher a. Have all material at hand. against inside of tub, at same time protect-- b. Lay working blanket in folds across ing patient's feet with the other hand in patient's chest. water. The bath may be borne as hot as c. Have patient grasp one end of blanket 120° F. while nurse grasps the lower edge with 1. To finish, raise patient's feet with one hand the upper edge of covers and brings (Concluded on page 96)

Fig. 6. A cold pour helps to maintain beneficial effects. Fig. 7. Withdrawing work blanket. 1924 Page 93 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

For personal reply, inclose two-cent stamp, and address Editors LIFE AND HEALTH, Takoma Park, D. C. If you are not already a subscriber, send also the subscription price with your question. Replies not considered of general interest are not published; so if your query is not accompanied by return po.tave for a personal answer, it may receive no attention whatever. Remember. we cannot treat disease by mail.

Various Symptoms High Blood Pressure Bleeding Piles Numerous letters come to this office "How may one know that he has "What should I do for bleeding giving a long list of symptoms with high blood pressure, and what can be piles of many years' duration?" history, perhaps several pages. Un- done to relieve it?" You should have an operation. A fortunately we cannot treat such cases The only sure method is by means successful operation years ago might by mail, because it requires more than of a sphygmograph, an instrument have saved you years of discomfort a knowledge of symptoms. A per- made for measuring the blood pres- and ill health. sonal examination is necessary. All sure. There are certain signs and such letters might be answered in the symptoms which point to high pres- Gum Chewing following language: sure, but the only way to know the "Is gum chewing harmful?" You ask for the cause and treatment character, degree, and significance of There are those who state that it is of a number of symptoms. Now a this pressure. is by careful measure- harmful; others that it is beneficial. symptom as a rule may have any of ment. I do not know that either side has several causes. So that an examina- The relief of high blood pressure proved the case. Perhaps the worst tion is necessary in order to determine requires a more quiet life, mentally that can be said against gum chewing which one is the cause in your case. and physically. All unnecessary cares is that it is inelegant. For those who Roaring in the ears, for instance, may and worries must be put aside. The have nervous energy which must be be caused by an overdose of quinine diet should be simple, and absolutely used up, gum chewing may be useful or of salicylic acid, by hardened ear limited to the body's needs. in the same way that drumming the wax in the outer ear, or by disease of Every extra emotional or physical heels, fingering the buttons, and the the inner ear or of the middle ear. strain, or every bit of unnecessary like are useful. There is just one way to determine work in digestion and assimilation, this fact satisfactorily. That is to will tend to increase the trouble. Ear Rumbling have an examination by an expert. The body should be clothed for "Please tell me the cause of noise The same is true of nearly all the absolute comfort, the surface never in the ears — rumbling and ringing. symptoms you mention. None of chilled. What can be done for it?" these can mean much to a doctor Noise in the ear may be due to so until he has examined you. Such an Tobacco Cure simple a thing as the outer canal fill- examination may include the physical, "Please give us the Dr. Kress cure ing with wax. This may be relieved chemical, microscopic, blood pressure, for the tobacco habit." in a few minutes. It may be due to and others. 1. After each meal, for a week, trouble in the middle ear, requiring a There is a short-cut way of treating paint inside of mouth, or rinse mouth course of treatment extending over a patients without examination, by the with one fourth of one per cent silver considerable period; or it may be due treating of pain with an opiate, sleep- nitrate. Between meals chew gentian to internal ear trouble, and beyond lessness with a hypnotic, depression root. Four ounces of the nitrate and the reach of any treatment. with a tonic, and so on; but such ten cents' worth of gentian root should You should have an examination by short-cut methode only postpone the be sufficient for a treatment. The a specialist to determine which is the evil day, while the cause of the trouble nitrate causes a feeling of repugnance cause in your case. still operates. Meantime these short- for tobacco. The gentian root aids cut relinedies after a time lose their digestion and removes the tobacco Parathyroid Treatment force. craving. "What is meant by parathyroid Limit the diet to fruits, milk, well- treatment?" Olive Oil as a Laxative baked cereals, and whole-wheat bread Parathyroid treatment is the admin- "Is olive oil as good a laxative as for two weeks, then nuts, eggs, cottage istration of an extract made from the mineral oil?" cheese, and vegetables may be added. parathyroid glands (small glands ly- Olive oil in ordinary quantities is 2. Mustard, pepper, and all spices, ing near the thyroid, but distinct from absorbed in the small intestine, and tea and coffee, increase the craving the latter). beyond that point cannot have much for tobacco, and must be avoided. Some investigators in England laxative effect. The larger the quan- In order to make the treatment found that the parathyroid treatment tity used, the more will pass down into thoroughly effective, eliminative treat- caused the healing of old leg ulcers the intestine unchanged, and there is ment (hot baths, electric light baths, that had resisted every other form of no reason why it might not act me- hot packs, etc.) should be taken, and treatment. Later it was found that chanically as well as mineral oil. the bowels should be regulated by the ulcers of the stomach and intestines Some advise those who are consti- use of mild laxatives. and even tuberculosis are benefited by pated and underweight to use olive or The first essential in a tobacco habit this treatment. other edible oil instead of mineral oil, treatment is a real desire to overcome As with all other treatments, further so that there will be a nutritive effect the habit. Without this, no treatment investigation may show that the first RE well as the laxative effect. will benefit. reports are a little too glowing. Page 94 June LIFE & HEALTH

The Electronic Reactions of Abrams " And the foregoing explains why we have been so lenient. We have overlooked many things — superficial (Concluded from page 91) things of no real scientific significance. Unlike other committee endeavor to make a simple test which would investigators, we have not been influenced by the ethics prove once and for all the basic truth of this bizarre of certain E. R. A. practitioners. We have not been procedure, we are immediately informed, much to our influenced by numerous E. R. A. failures and individual surprise, that such a request is unreasonable. We are exposés. We have not been influenced by the unfavor- asking too much! Even Dr. Abrams expressed his sur- able legislative measures which are threatening to termi- prise at such a request. nate E. R. A. practice in various States. We have not " So the wonderful feature of E. R. A. is that it has been influenced by the reports of the American Medical been accepted without any proof whatsoever of its basic Association, for they are obviously an interested and truth. Of course E. R. A. men will hasten to deny this allegation, but our answer to them is that we are pre- biased party. We have not been influenced by the con- tracts and the rental rates and other commercial aspects pared to retract this or any other statement we have made at any time after they have come forward and proved connected with the leasing of the Abrams apparatus to individual practitioners. We have not been influenced to us that we are misinformed. By proof, obviously, we one bit by the general, unsatisfactory aspect of the entire mean real proof. A simple test means more in the way matter from an investigational standpoint. Instead, we of proof than hour after hour of mere vaporings, and have gone right ahead, keeping in touch with various page after page of meaningless correspondence. Already we have had too much of this kind of co-operation from E. R. A. men, with Dr. Abrams, with certain so-called electronic societies, and with several individuals who them, and too little of the real and serious co-operation which we had every reason to expect from them, if they claim to be engaged in serious research work for the purpose of extricating the basic discovery of were sincerely anxious to establish their case before the Dr. Abrams world. from its awful entanglement of handicaps and placing it on a firm and reputable and usable plane." " All of which is by way of showing how Dr. Abrams, single-handed, was able to gather about him several After a very interesting, fair and frank, and thousand doctors and near-doctors; how he was able to quite lengthy statement concerning the claims of attract to his own clinic, and to the offices of E. R. A. E. R. A. and the seemingly impossibility of veri- men, tens of thousands of everyday people seeking relief from their ailments; how he was able, in the eyes of a fying the unscientific technique, this statement large number of people, to discredit established medical is given : science; how, in view of the mysterious workings of his " Five months of close observation of E. R. A. ridiculously crude apparatus coupled with the human diagnosticians at work, and study of the entire tech- reagent, he was able to make us wonder whether, after nique lead us to believe that the matter is by no all, our great scientists like Millikan, Einstein, Edison, means a barefaced fraud. Many of those engaged and others really did know what they were talking about; in the work — Dr. Abrams for one — are appar- how he was able to work up his followers to practically ently sincere. They believe in the method. When a religious fervor, in which state they do not hesitate to they get proper results, they are elated; when they curse any one who does not immediately fall in line with get unsatisfactory or even ridiculous readings, they their own beliefs. All this he did, and more too, without are bewildered and search for some far-fetched ex- being obliged to give the world any real proof. Truth planation of a pseudoscientific nature. to tell, he could not and knew he could not give the " The whole thing bears striking resemblance to world a clean-cut scientific demonstration. He admitted the subjective psychic phenomena. Compare it with as much to those whose names through their unbounded the ouija, which spells out messages through sub- enthusiasm and strong indorsement, were closely linked conscious muscular action. Compare it with auto- up to his. matic writing, in which one's hand traces mysterious " It may be, although it now seems rather doubtful, texts quite without one's volition and quite foreign that Dr. Abrams did come across some mysterious char- to one's state of mind. Compare it with the fact acteristic of the human body, and that, in a crude, that three or four people can push a table all around blundering sort of way due to insufficient scientific knowl- a room without the slightest idea that they are edge and training and lack of precision apparatus, he pushing it at all. The E. R. A. technique is such was unable to master what he had discovered. Such a as to leave the gravest ground for suspicion that it statement on our part is most charitable; but then our works — when it does work — in just this way." entire attitude has been highly charitable. We have continued this investigation long beyond the point justi- ,31 fied by the plain facts in the case. Other investigators long ago would have rendered an adverse opinion based THE Saviour in His miracles revealed the on the ridiculous claims made for this technique, the power that is continually at work in man's total lack of proof, and the refusal of E. R. A. to sub- behalf, to sustain and to heal him. Through the mit their claims to fair tests. But we have been fretful lest, after all, somehow, somewhere, there be something agencies of nature, God is working, day by day, basically true and wonderful in this Abrams mystery, hour by hour, moment by moment, to keep us and that by rendering an adverse opinion we might be alive, to build- up and restore us. When any robbing the world of something vitally important. Fur- part of the body sustains injury, a healing thermore, we have kept and we continue to keep in process is at once begun ; nat'ure's agencies are touch with E. R. A. men and their work so that there may be no repudiation of our final findings, on the set at work to restore soundness. But the power grounds that we did not give them sufficient time to working through these agencies is the power of prove their case. Our decision must be and will be final. God.—" The Ministry of Healing," pp. 112, 113. 1924 Page 95 LIFE & HEALTH Avoid the Use of Poisonous Drugs (Concluded from page 82) LIFE & HEALTH If they take the position that in praying for healing they must not use the simple remedies Vol. 39 June, 1924 No. 6 provided by God to alleviate pain and to aid Nature in her work, lest it be a denial of faith, Contents they are taking an unwise position. This is not a denial of faith, it is in strict harmony with EDITORIAL the plans of God. When Hezekiah was sick, the Cures and Cures 81 prophet of God brought him the message that he GENERAL. should die. He cried unto the Lord, and the Lord heard His servant, and worked a miracle Avoid the Use of Poisonous Drugs 82 Mrs. E. G. White in his behalf, sending him a message that fifteen years should be added to his life. Now one word Remedies and 'Their Rational Use 83 G. H. Heald, M. D. from God, one touch of the divine finger, would have cured Hezekiah instantly, but special di- What Is a Doctor? 86 Broadcast bp Dr. Paul B. Brooks rections were given to take a fig and lay it upon the affected part, and Hezekiah was raised to The Electronic Reactions of Abrams 87 life. In everything, we need to move along the From a Report in the " Scientific American line of God's providence.—" Counsels on Health," pp. 89, 90, 381, 382. Fakes, Fads, Follies, and Medicine. . 88 logo Galdston, M. D. A A A THE HOME NURSE Fakes, Fads, Follies, and Medicine (Concluded from page 89) 'The Hot Foot Bath 92 Mabel L. Zerbe, R. N. o'-the-wisp of health through patent drugs, na- ture cures, and what not. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 94 Were it possible by some magic means to at once impress upon the citizens of this nation the truth that the preservation of health lies in the knowledge and observance of the rules of proper The Hot Foot Bath living ; were it possible to make each one under- (Concluded from page 98) stand that prevention is really more precious and pour cold water over them, including than cure, that it is easier and simpler; were the ankles. This helps to maintain the each man and woman to recognize the folly of beneficial effects. tinkering with the human body, and the wisdom m. Removing tub, place patient's feet on towel. of procuring competent medical advice, then the Rub feet briskly with towel until dried. Biblical span of life — threescore years and ten n. Remove rubber sheet and towel, rolling neatly. — would be assured to every one, and would be Replace bed clothing over patient to chin. exceeded by many. While patient holds same, draw work blan- A A ket to foot of bed, and then draw it side- What Is a Doctor? wise from under covers. (Concluded from page 86) Precautions comer demands cash down, and gets it. Would 1. Avoid burning patient. you welcome him with open arms ? Few people 2. Avoid injury to furnishings by heat or stop to think that the ' systems ' which an the water. basis of the various cults are not secrets, and Suggestions that, if they contained anything of value, they The duration of the foot bath may be from would be included in medical college courses." five to thirty minutes, cold compresses to the Dr. Brooks went on to say that in one respect head being changed frequently, to prevent cere- the medical profession works at a disadvantage bral congestion and discomfort. in that, whether wisely or not, its members had In case you have no rubber sheeting, several always taken the position that to advertise was layers of newspapers will serve to protect the bed. unethical and undignified, and that real ability NOTE.— In illustrations 5 and 6 the nurse is should stand on its own merit, while, on the standing on the left side of the bed in order other hand, the quack keeps his pretensions to make the demonstration plainer. in the limelight, to impress unthinking people. 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