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	'''Albert Abrams''' (]–]) ~~Practice~~ is most commonly referred to as Radionics.		'''Albert Abrams''' (]–]) was a quack and a fraud, posing as a doctor in ], whose tool for gaining profit from the gullible was a variety of "]" he called '''ERA''', or '''Electronic Reactions of Abrams'''. This practice is most commonly referred to as Radionics.

	==Early days==		==Early days==

			Abrams was born in ] around ], giving dates a couple of years either way on occasions. He fraudulently<ref> : . Wilson</ref> claimed to have qualified in medicine from the ] at the age of variously 18 to 20.
	"ŸInventor of Radionics. Dr. Albert Abrams

			In 1910 Abrams published a book on a medical technique he called Spondylotherapy. In his view this was his version of Chiropractic and Osteopathy which were criticised by orthodox medicine at the time. Courses in Spondylotherapy and ERA cost $200.00 and the equipment was leased at about $200.00 with a monthly $5.00 charge thereafter. The lessee had to sign a contract stating the device would never be opened.
	It is said that Dr. Albert Abrams(1863-1924) was the original inventor of Radionics.

	He didn't call his device or an idea "Radionics".

	He called it "Radio Therapy".

	Albert Abrams was born in 1863 in San Francisco.

	He graduated first in his class in medicine at Heidelberg University, studied medicine at Berlin, Paris, Vienna and London.

	He studied at Heidelberg University under Herman Von Helmholts , who was a famous medical scientist, physical scientist and philosopher.

	From that time they maintained a good relationship with each other.

	Dr.Abrams got inspiration from Helmholts.

	Abrams tried to find a connection between the theories of biology and physics.

	This experience destined him to new discovery and reserch.

	After this time in Europe, he went back to America to teach pathology at Stanford University, became a dean of the medical school and received a doctorate of pathology.

	He carried on reserch work until he died in 1942, at age 61.
	== Hubris ==		== Hubris ==
			Abrams promoted an idea that ] were the basic element of all life. He called this '''ERA''', for '''Electronic Reactions of Abrams''', and introduced a number of different machines. One of these was the Dynomizer, which he claimed could diagnose any known ] from a single drop of ] or alternatively the subject's handwriting.
	ŸNew discovery: The Relationship between geometric fields and percussion sounds.

	Abrams was skilled at diagnosis, especially "percussive diagnosis".

	Percussion is a kind of diagnostic technique.

	The practitioner make a diagnosis by thumping the abdomen of the patient and listening to the changes in the percussion sound for evidence of a tumor or other disease.


	One day, while he was examining a patient with percussive diagnosis, an X-ray machine near the laboratory was turned on without being noticed.

	He found the percussion sound turned dull.

	This leaded him to examine the relationship between the patient's aspect and percussion sound.

	He also found that when a patient faced to the west, the percussion sound became dull but if a patient faced to the south or the north the sound didn't change.

	He examined a patient who had lip cancer again and again, he found that the dull percussion sound occured in a similar manner to that of X-ray machine affect only when the patient faced west.

	Since then, he examined many cases with many kinds of patients and he found that constricted response of the upper abdomen occuered when it responded to the molecular oscillation of cancer forming its group or the radiation of X-ray machine.

	He decided to experiment based on this discovery.

	He laid a healthy man facing west and thumping his upper abdomen, told a student to listen carefully the changes of reverberation.

	Then, he let a doctor hold a sample of cancer cells near the subject's forehead.

	He asked the doctor to touch the man's forehead with the cancer cells in intervals of several seconds.

	When a sample of the cancer cells touched the man's forehead, the percussion sound changed from resonant sound to a dull sound.

	He concluded that the vibration of a diseased cell sample was received by the human body and affected the human cells.

	This phenomenon was published 1916, titled "New Consepts in Diagnosis and Treatment".

	==The devices==		==The devices==

			The Dynomizer looked something like a ], The blood did not have to be fresh; Abrams performed diagnoses on dried blood samples sent to him on pieces of paper in envelopes through the mail. Apparently Abrams even claimed he could conduct medical practice over the ] with his machines, and that he could determine ] characteristics.
	ŸElectronic responce

			The Dynomizer was big business by ], then Abrams decided to take the next step: treating the diagnosed diseases. Abrams came up with a new and even more impressive gadget, the "Oscilloclast", apparently also known as the "Radioclast". It came with tables of ] that it was to be set to, to "attack" specific diseases. Clients were told cures required repeated treatments.
	When a doctor examins a patient with percussive diagnosis, the patient need to stand up, so, a patient must have the physical strength to stand up.

			The Dynomizer operator tended to give alarming diagnoses, involving combinations of such maladies as ], ] and ]. Abrams often included a disease called "bovine syphilis," unknown to other medical practitioners. He claimed the Oscilloclast was capable of defeating most of these diseases, most of the time.
	After many kinds of experimentation, Abrams linked the head of a patient who was bedridden and a healthy assistant using an electrical leed.

			Students attended Abrams' San Francisco clinic for training courses listed at $200 USD a head, a significant sum at the time, and then leased the devices to take back home. Abrams developed a range of different devices. The rules specified that the boxes could not be opened excusing this as fear of disrupting their delicate adjustment.
	Then he thumpped the abdomen of the assistant.

			By ], there were claimed to be <!--where though?--> 3,500 practitioners using ERA technology. Conventional medical practitioners were extremely suspicious.<!-- no reasns needed, nor reliably adduced yet-->
	He found that the same response occured in the assistant in the same particular part of his abdomen as in the patient's.

	He found a way to examine a bedridden patient with percussive diagnosis.

	He concluded that disease has somekind of energy that can run through an electrical lead.

	Then he attached two metal disks, one to each end of a 1.8m electrical lead, and put one disk to the patient's forehead while moving other disk to trace the body of his healthy assistant.

	He found that percussion sound turned dull when it came to the same particular part of the assistant's abdomen.

	1. He could diagnose a bedridden patient with this technique.2. Information about diseases runs through electrical lead. Next to examine if information about a disease behaves like electricity, he attached a variable resister in the middle of an electrical lead.

	He connect the electrical lead to a syphilis patient and turned the dial to a variety of resisters. The percussion sound changed at 55 ohm.

	When he experimented on a cancer patient, it changed at 50, a gonorrheal patient, at 42.

	He repeated similar experiments, and found the ohm rate of many types of disease.

	He also found that he could give a patient's diagnosis from the ohm rate.

	He called the rate "Rate" and the numeration table "Rate book".

	At first, he used only one variable resister to identify disease, but he tripled it to pinpoint an affected area and named the device "Bio-meter".

	The first variable resister identified the name of a disease, such as cancer, and the second one pinpointed an affected area, such as the stomack.



	He used that device himself and sold it to other doctors on request.

	Next, he found that he was able to identify pathogenic organisms as well.

	He put tubercle bacillus in a laboratory dish and connected it through an electrical lead to a healthy assistant.

	Then when he adjusted the "Rate" to tubercle bacillus, there was a response.

	He found that not only disease but also pathogenic organism could be identified using the device.

	Moreover, he found that he could get the same result by using a patient's infected blood.

	They called the phenomenon that Abrams discovered "Electronic Reaction of Abrams-ERA".

			== Nemesis ==
			In ], an elderly man who was diagnosed in the ] with inoperable ] cancer went to an ERA practitioner, who declared him "completely cured" after treatments. The man died a month later, and a public uproar followed.

	==Investigation==		==Investigation==

			The dispute between Abrams and his followers and the ] (AMA) was intensified. Defenders included American radical author ] and the famously credulous Sir ], the creator of ].
	ŸAttacked by the American Medical Association.

	Abrams taught percussive diagnosis to his students, but there was always ten percent of the group of the students who weren't able to acquire this tecnique.

	He was serching for a way to teach percussive diagnosis to this 10 percent by trial and error.

	He finally conceived the technique of rubbing together a glass rod and a rubber rod to find the disharmonious area.

	This technique consisted of touching an assistant's abdomen with a glass rod and then rubbing the glass rod vertically with a rubber rod.

	The rods made squeaky sound under normal conditions, but at a certain point they stuck together and stopped making the sound.

	This indicated the disharmonious area the same as the dull sound of percussive diagnosis did.

	He taught this technique to the students who couldn't work with the percussive diagnosis.

	Some time later, Abrams stopped using a rubber rod when he conceived the technique to rub a patient's abdomen with a glass rod.

	When a glass rod came to an disharmonious area it stuck to the abdomen.

	The same result occured when he employed the percussive diagnosis.

	Then he recorded these certain points on a biometar when the glass rod responded.

	This process was important as it evolved into stickpad later.

	In 1922, Abrams succeeded in remotely diagonising a patient, who never entered his laboratory, using a sample of patient's blood.

	He reported on this success in a physical medicine magazine.

	This report aroused the antipathy of the American Medical Association and the association attacked Abrams for inadequate diagnosis.

			Resolution of the dispute through the intervention of a scientifically respected third party was pursued. '']'' magazine decided to investigate Dr. Abrams' claims. ''Scientific American'' was interested in the matter as readers were writing letters to the editor saying that Abrams' revolutionary machines were one of the greatest inventions of the century and so needed to be discussed in the pages of the magazine.
	After Abrams died in 1924, he had been written up in "Scientific American" 18 times.

			''Scientific American'' assembled a team of investigators who worked with a senior Abrams associate pseudonymised as "Doctor X." The investigators developed a series of tests and the magazine asked readers to suggest their own tests. The investigators gave Doctor X six vials containing unknown ] and asked him to identify them. It seems likely that Doctor X honestly believed in his Abrams machines, since he would not have agreed to cooperate if he hadn't, and in fact he allowed the ''Scientific American'' investigators to observe his procedure.
	He wrote several books but he never used the word "Radionics" in his books. He used the word "Radio Therapy" instead.

			Doctor X got the contents of all six vials completely wrong. He examined the vials and pointed out that they had labels in red ink, whose vibrations confounded the instruments. The investigators gave him the vials again with less offensive labels, and he got the contents wrong again.
	He didn't invented the word "Radionics".

			The results were published in ''Scientific American''<ref>Austin C. Lescarboura, "Our Abrams Investigation - VI." A Study of the Late Dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco and His Work. Scientific American 1924 March; 130 (3):159. <br>
	No one knows who started to call his device "Radionics", but still, Abrams is the originator of Radionics.
			Austin C. Lescarboura, "Our Abrams Verdict. The Electronic Reactions of Abrams and Electronic Medicine in General Found Utterly Worthless. Scientific American 1924 Sep; 131 (3):158-159</ref> and led to a predictable "]" in the letters pages between advocates and critics. The investigators continued their work. Abrams offered to "cooperate" with the investigators, but always failed to do so on various pretexts. Abrams never actually participated in the investigation, and in ERA publications asserted he was a victim of unjust persecution.

			==Debunking==
	He used the oscillator for Oscilloclast but it didn't make any sound and it needed very little electricity to activate something.

			Then an AMA member sent a blood sample to an Abrams practitioner, and got back a diagnosis that the patient had ], diabetes, cancer and syphilis. The blood sample was in fact from a ].
	It was 1920 when radio was invented.

			Similar samples were sent to other Abrams practitioners, and a few found themselves facing fraud charges in court. In a case in ], Abrams was called<!--this would be a sub poena? Should be on file somewhere still--> to be a witness. Abrams instead died of ] at age 62 in January ].
	He may have used these parts for his device because of his insight into this new technology."
	by http://www.omnijapan.co.jp/english/albert.htm

			<!-- Ate -->
	@
			With Abrams gone, the AMA publicly opened up one of his machines. Its internals consisted of nothing more than wires connected to lights and buzzers. "Dr" Abrams had been demonstrated to be a fraud.

			The fad was over, but others moved into the vacuum and built devices claimed to be based on similar principles.
	=

	== References ==		== References ==
			<references />
	http://www.omnijapan.co.jp/english/albert.htm

	==See also==		==See also==

			* ]
	* ]		* ]
	* ]		* ]
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Revision as of 12:01, 1 October 2006

Albert Abrams (1863–1924) was a quack and a fraud, posing as a doctor in San Francisco, whose tool for gaining profit from the gullible was a variety of "electricity therapy" he called ERA, or Electronic Reactions of Abrams. This practice is most commonly referred to as Radionics.

Early days

Abrams was born in San Francisco around 1863, giving dates a couple of years either way on occasions. He fraudulently claimed to have qualified in medicine from the University of Heidelberg at the age of variously 18 to 20.

In 1910 Abrams published a book on a medical technique he called Spondylotherapy. In his view this was his version of Chiropractic and Osteopathy which were criticised by orthodox medicine at the time. Courses in Spondylotherapy and ERA cost $200.00 and the equipment was leased at about $200.00 with a monthly $5.00 charge thereafter. The lessee had to sign a contract stating the device would never be opened.

Hubris

Abrams promoted an idea that electrons were the basic element of all life. He called this ERA, for Electronic Reactions of Abrams, and introduced a number of different machines. One of these was the Dynomizer, which he claimed could diagnose any known disease from a single drop of blood or alternatively the subject's handwriting.

The devices

The Dynomizer looked something like a radio, The blood did not have to be fresh; Abrams performed diagnoses on dried blood samples sent to him on pieces of paper in envelopes through the mail. Apparently Abrams even claimed he could conduct medical practice over the telephone with his machines, and that he could determine personality characteristics.

The Dynomizer was big business by 1918, then Abrams decided to take the next step: treating the diagnosed diseases. Abrams came up with a new and even more impressive gadget, the "Oscilloclast", apparently also known as the "Radioclast". It came with tables of frequencies that it was to be set to, to "attack" specific diseases. Clients were told cures required repeated treatments.

The Dynomizer operator tended to give alarming diagnoses, involving combinations of such maladies as cancer, diabetes and syphilis. Abrams often included a disease called "bovine syphilis," unknown to other medical practitioners. He claimed the Oscilloclast was capable of defeating most of these diseases, most of the time.

Students attended Abrams' San Francisco clinic for training courses listed at $200 USD a head, a significant sum at the time, and then leased the devices to take back home. Abrams developed a range of different devices. The rules specified that the boxes could not be opened excusing this as fear of disrupting their delicate adjustment.

By 1921, there were claimed to be 3,500 practitioners using ERA technology. Conventional medical practitioners were extremely suspicious.

Nemesis

In 1923, an elderly man who was diagnosed in the Mayo Clinic with inoperable stomach cancer went to an ERA practitioner, who declared him "completely cured" after treatments. The man died a month later, and a public uproar followed.

Investigation

The dispute between Abrams and his followers and the American Medical Association (AMA) was intensified. Defenders included American radical author Upton Sinclair and the famously credulous Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes.

Resolution of the dispute through the intervention of a scientifically respected third party was pursued. Scientific American magazine decided to investigate Dr. Abrams' claims. Scientific American was interested in the matter as readers were writing letters to the editor saying that Abrams' revolutionary machines were one of the greatest inventions of the century and so needed to be discussed in the pages of the magazine.

Scientific American assembled a team of investigators who worked with a senior Abrams associate pseudonymised as "Doctor X." The investigators developed a series of tests and the magazine asked readers to suggest their own tests. The investigators gave Doctor X six vials containing unknown pathogens and asked him to identify them. It seems likely that Doctor X honestly believed in his Abrams machines, since he would not have agreed to cooperate if he hadn't, and in fact he allowed the Scientific American investigators to observe his procedure.

Doctor X got the contents of all six vials completely wrong. He examined the vials and pointed out that they had labels in red ink, whose vibrations confounded the instruments. The investigators gave him the vials again with less offensive labels, and he got the contents wrong again.

The results were published in Scientific American and led to a predictable "flame war" in the letters pages between advocates and critics. The investigators continued their work. Abrams offered to "cooperate" with the investigators, but always failed to do so on various pretexts. Abrams never actually participated in the investigation, and in ERA publications asserted he was a victim of unjust persecution.

Debunking

Then an AMA member sent a blood sample to an Abrams practitioner, and got back a diagnosis that the patient had malaria, diabetes, cancer and syphilis. The blood sample was in fact from a Rock rooster.

Similar samples were sent to other Abrams practitioners, and a few found themselves facing fraud charges in court. In a case in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Abrams was called to be a witness. Abrams instead died of pneumonia at age 62 in January 1924.

With Abrams gone, the AMA publicly opened up one of his machines. Its internals consisted of nothing more than wires connected to lights and buzzers. "Dr" Abrams had been demonstrated to be a fraud.

The fad was over, but others moved into the vacuum and built devices claimed to be based on similar principles.

References

History of Stanford medical school and predeccessors : Chapter 26. Wilson
Austin C. Lescarboura, "Our Abrams Investigation - VI." A Study of the Late Dr. Albert Abrams of San Francisco and His Work. Scientific American 1924 March; 130 (3):159.
Austin C. Lescarboura, "Our Abrams Verdict. The Electronic Reactions of Abrams and Electronic Medicine in General Found Utterly Worthless. Scientific American 1924 Sep; 131 (3):158-159

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