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V 4
THE baFfeON STATESMAN, SALEM. OREGON
SUNDAY MORNING. APRIL 15, 1923
,By,
s
Upton Sinclair
i .
An Account of the Revolutionary Discovery of Dr. Albert! Abrams, the Diagnosis of Disease
: from the Radio Activity of the Blood j
(Reprinted from Pearson's Magazine for June, 1922)
, r ; . . . . , ,. . ' 1 . r J -'',:!.
1
: For 1 tome fifteen ?r eighteen
years. I i have had the good, for
tune to count among my friends
on of America's greatest poets
and1 most lovable ot men, Georg
Sterling. For ten or twelve of
' these velars I have been accus
tomed i td read in his letters ex
travagant statements ' concerning
- a certain San Francisco physician.
He" would say. I should never
again 'be afra'd of getting any
disease. Abrams would cure it in
m weekoor two." He would say,
"My friend .Abrams continues to
work new inlracles, so rapidly that
the medical profession have been
frightened away from htm." These
- statements were so extreme, that I
failed to Jake them as seriously
as I should? I wish now to profit
by that blunder, and tell what I
hate to tell as cautiously and con-
rervatively. as possible, so as not
to frighten the reader away.
AC few months ago I received
from George Sterling a letter from
which i I quote a couple ' of para--!j
graphs : j;-; '. '..;; . '" .'
j "I am iglad to see you're in
1 terested In Dr. Abrams. and wish
1 could, orally discuss him ..with
! you. He has utterly revolutionised
medicine, land henceforth! nine op
i erations out of tn willbe unneces
sary; especially those where -bac-'
11 If are concerned. I send you one
of bis quarterly pamphlets, which
' he publishes for the many physi
cians who have taken, "his course.
There's always a lot of them In
his! laboratory, and. taey fell me
that ; his ' diagnosis , are .100 per
centi eorjrect.' In this quarterly,
read especially' the 'article' by Sir
James -Barr, late president of the
British Medical Association; real
Iziag meanwhile what It means for
. a conservative English physician
, to j make such '. statements! ; , And
' ,Barr s going jto be convinced even
as to cancer. ; t know of many
cases that Abrams has cured late
' ly.flour of;them personal friends
of mine. And tuberculosa is noth
ing to him. To me he seems the
greatest man ever born. . '.' ;V;
Se I decided to go to San Fran
cisco and Investigate. I planned
to spend a day. or two, but what
I found there held me a couple of
'Weeks, and it might have been
months or even years, if urgent
' duties i had not called me home.
X Chink the best way for me to
. present ! to you the work of Dr.
Albert Abrams is to take you Into
nis' clinic, iand let yon see-what
J saw at my first visit, without any
preparation or- explanation. It is
a two-story; building en Sacramen
to (street, and after I had visited
it a' tew times;' X took: to caUing It
T5' House of Wonder,", for I
saw 'in it such miracles as I had
never dreamed of la this world.
; ,Tou; are In a physician's labork
; tory. with rows of raised chairs
along one aide of the wall These
chairs .are occupied by a score or
so of physicians, .who have come I
from all over the country to study
'Abrams work. In the center of
the, room is a long table eqtitaln
lng some electrical apparatus. One
(tf the wires from this apparatus
ends In an electrode,! and In front
tti the ; table, upon j a grounded
blate, stands a young man,
stripped to- the .waist, and with
the" electrode pressed .to his fore
head, i Dr. Abrams sits on a chair
r before the (young man. and taps
with his ringer upon the tatter's
abdomen, a method known to phy
sicians as "percussion." To save
yoa usaecesBary bewilderment. I
explain at once that this young
man la not the. patient being ex
amined; this young man is known
as ;the subject,", and his body , Is
merely, ooe v ot the Instruments
which Abrams uses lnhls exami
nation The patient Is In Toronto,
or .Boston, or Mexico City, and all ;
that Dr.-Abrams has is half a dos-
, en ; drops of his blood upon a bit
! of clean white blotting; paper, t
j f'Nekt 8pecImen,, ,- eay I)rl
Abrams, iand his assistant takes
r from aa envelope a blood, speci
men which has come In that morn-
' lag's mail, and cuts. It to the right
: slfn d i puts it In a little box
which is connected by wire with a
rheostat, ; in turn connected .with
the bod ot the subject. J
''I The . doctor's assistant hands
him a letter which has come with
the specimen, and, the doctor reads
it to his clinic: il send the blood
OfjMrs. J.. age 46 years." That
H i J all.' "No symptoms!" grum
bles Abrams.: f'They want to try
me out i ot course, and I can't
b(ame them, but it Is a waste of
my time, to begin at the beginning
in each easev All right, gentle
men, we set' the instrument at 49,
which Is the vibratory Tate of hu
man blood.. . .1 don't; happen to
kbow i this doctor; who sends - the
specirnen, and - there are people
trying to play tricks on me all the
time. ; If this - specimen contains
haman blood, the vibratory rate
will come through oh the body of,
the subject, and we shall have a
dull area oni this spot, if it is a
V male.T UThe doctor indicates : a
liae just below the navel, and
i about an inch to the left. "If if Is
a female, the dull area' will be, on
tbfe corresponding " spot fo the
rliht-l .Now ll3ten." - .v;
iHe presses the 'second finger of
: hla left hand against the abdomen
ot his subject, and with? the second
v fiager of his right hand, used as, a
little.. hammer. : he begihs to tap.
He starts a couple of Inches off
'v trtm the correct spot., and you
harj;a slightly resonant sound.
He moves his fing-r,' and when he
comes upon the correct; spot you
notice a difference in the sound
V least you come to notice it af
ter you have listened through sev
eral sessions of the clinic and your
ear : has become practiced. The
sound Is duller the same dltfer-
ence you would noticef if you were
percussing a table, and changed
from the middle of the table to a
spot over one of the pegs. .
"It is human blood, female."
: says Abrams, "In order 'to verify
It, 1. set the rheostat at 50, and
you notice that .the dallness dis
appears I set it back lat- 49, and
the dullness returns. I call your
attention to the fact that the sub
ject is I facing west. I turn his
body slightly out of the line, so,
and you note the dullness is goae,
even ail 49. I have to impress
upon you again and again. the im
portance of these minute details.
I do not know why it is necessary
to facejwest; it must have some
thing to do with the magnetic cur
rents of the earth, of course. All
I know 'is that if you fate the west'
you get these reactions,: and if you
tace any other way, you don't get
them. All this work pf mine is
empirical, you understand. I ex
periment and find; what happens.
il try one way, and then I try an-rl
i other; so little bylittle !I am grop-1
ing , my way to these 3 secrets of
nature, j . j
"Now we have here a specimen
of a woman's blood and. without
being given any symptoms we , are
asked to find the disease, if there
be a disease.. "Wei begn with the
most common of all diseases, that
Is ' to say, , congenital! syphilis.
There are latent syphilitic condi
tions in the blood, which can be
recognised only by thisi method of
electronic analysis. find that
aa enormous percentage1 of human
beings have a hereditary syphilitic
affection, and, , this prepares the
body soil for numerous other dis
eases, such as tuberculosis and
cancer, if We now aet the rheostat
at 57, which is the vibratory rate
for congenital syphilis, j If this vibratory-rate
is j present In the
blood. It "will come through and
manifest Itself , upon the body of
the subject In i what, we call the
'dumbbel area, extending across
the upper portion of the abdomen.
Now listen." And the doctor be
gins to tap. You her?-r he says.
"Congenital syphilis. 4 We will
how determine; the strain. If it is
bovine, there will be an area, of
dullness here." He indicates a
spot above the navel 'of his sub
ject. Yes, bovine strain. Vac
cination, as usual! We will next
determine the virulence of the dis
ease. We will; set this dial of the
rheostat at 30 ohms as a gnessJt
comes through, you see.' We try
35 ohms. A very severe Case. 37
ohms, 38 ohms. At 38 you notice
that the dullness disappears. We
set It back fo37 It comes through
at 37. I We will now examine the
specimen for tuberculosis. We set
the rheostat at; 4?,' ' No reaction.
We will try cancer, (0; the dull
area should be here. lAh! Tou no
tice? - Unmistakable! To show you
the' difference, I set it at 49. At
'4?, you see, ' there" is Ithe reaction
for human bloof , at this spot by
the navel, but so reaction in the
cancer area. We set it back at
60 and the dullness j returns at
once. A - Y ' ' '
"We have now to determine the
location of the disease. Cerebro
spinal? That should confe through
here. Nocerebrb-spinal. Digest
ive? Yes. Cancer ot ihev digestive
tract, Where? ( We try here and
here, ' Ah, yes. cancer of the pylor
us. We will ; determine the oh
mage. Five! ohms?; ; 4lf comes
through. ; Ten ohms?r Again! A
very severe - case. Twelve ohms,
yes. It has passed the stage where
It Is operable. In a case of this
sort, gentlemen, we arel In posi
tion to destroy the malignancy
of the disease, but we cannot re
move the growth, nor can we cor
rect any structural changes 'which
may have taken place. This speci
men comes from Detroit,; and we
are asked to telegraph the diag
nosis. We telegraph that we find
Congenital syphilis, 37 ohms, bo
vine strain ; also cancer ot the
pylorus, 12 ohms. . We prescribe
treatment with the oscilloclast at
the rates ot 2 and 5. Next speci
men." Xli-V ' '. V
The assistant takes the blood
specimen from rl he little box and
throws : It into , the trash basket.
She touches the top and inside and
cover of the box with." a little-horse-shoe
magnet' t'o destroy the
radio-activity of! the last specimen,
and puts in another specimen, this
time from a physician in Boston.
I This specimen is marked . "male,1
age 62."
"Another physician I do not
know," says Abrams. "And again
no symptoms given. It seems that
we have to spend the whole morn
ing dorng this a-b-c work; every
physician in the countryihas to be
separately convinced and. . then
they aren't convinced!.., All right,
no help for it First', is it human
lblood?i We feet the dial at 49.
Forehead, please." ..
The subject1 places the electrode
upon -his ffcrrehead, and Dr.!
Abrams begins to tap. "Aha!" he
says. A practical joker.'; Not hu
man blood! You see, gentlemen,!
it is clear and unmistakable. The;
area for human blood is precisely
here Now listen carefully; there
is no difference whatever in the!
sound. Neither male nor female!!
About once a . week we have some
one trying to play this silly Joke
upon us. . Jurt for fun, let ns de4
termine what kind of blood it ls.'f
And the doctor sets the rheostat
at one figure after another. "Cow's,
blood? r No. : Dog's blood? No.
Chit ken's blood? - No.,.,, Monkey,
cat. sheep ah yes, sheep's bipod
He has: pressed the paper against
his Sunday dinner before it went
Into the oven. All right, we wljl
waste no. more time upon that
The : doctor itajces the , envelopfii
and the venemence of his pencil as
he . writes the . words "shenr
blood" ought surely. If there be
anything in his theory of radlt4
activfty, to convey a vigorous
shock to the doctor In Boston who
has played the trick. 'i
"Next specimen." And so we
proceed. Another sample is put
in, and the tapping begins, and we
are told that this person has 25
ohms of tuberculosis, located in
the spinal cord ' and left kidney.
We are fold that the disease is of
12' years standing, also that there
is "strep," that is to say strepto
cocci, or pus infectioh fn the teetH
on the lower left hand side. 1 W
are told that ; the next specimen
which comes from a town in Texasi
indications whatever, and we are
tain precise spot of the brain. The
next specimen comes .without any
indications whatever, "and we are
told that it is a woman 52 years
of age, and that she is suffering
from acquired syphilis of 14 years
standing, and that the lesion will
be located on the right forefinger.
Some of these findings are made
in two or three minutes. None 61
them take more than ten minutes,
and after you' have watched the
work for an hour, you find your?
self with one clear-cut conclusion
in your mind i this eager and ex
citable - little Jewish doctor is
either one of the greatest geniuses
in the history of mankind, or else
one of the greatest maniacs. You
are not quite sure whteh. and you
go on day after day, and still you
cannot be sure, because the thing
unveiled to your view is so amaz-f
ing, you cannot make it real to
yourself.- ;;. j t . H
! But one thing quickly become!
clear, to you. jj The hypothesis ot
fraud must be excluded. This man
Is passionately, even furiously conj
vinced ijf the realfty of his phe-
entist, working in' the highest tra
ditions of the healing art. He Is a
much over-worked man, irritable
and nervous. ; Things go wrong
with his apparatus'; the wires get
In his way, or his assistants make
blunders, and he says "Damn it!"
and has to apologize to the lady
doctors. But present him with a
hew idea, some way to verify or
perfect his work, and he pounces
on iff like a cat'J He is a veritable
incarnation of Nietzsche's phrase
about the human! soul, which
"hungers for knowledge 'as the
lion for his food." There is no exj
periment he will not try.tyou sug
gest an idea to him one morning,
and discover next day that he has
slept' only two hours he Was
working the rest of the time on
that idea. There is hardly any
subject of human thought about
which he has not read and has
not something vivid aud vital fo
say. Incidentally he Is a warm
hearted, lovable! man. whose., work
it is a personal pleasure to aid. j
He has a marvelous acquain
tance with the human .body; -He
calls it the most delicate scien
tific instrument: in existence, and
he has not merely that knowledge
of its structure and functions
which other physicians and sur
geons possess he has gone on to
explore the radio-activity it mani
fests, and the tnflnife variety of
reaction resulting therefrom.
Many years ago this man was
known in the medical profession
as the discoverer ot "the reflexes
of Abrams." He studied thener
jvous. system of the body, tracing
out each minute thread of nerve,
and showing exactly where dis
turbances In the functions and
structure would manifest them
selves.: It is this knowledge about
nerve reactfons which he has now
turned to use. The nerve threads
all cafry different vibrations, and
If radio-activity is Introduced Into
the body, they Instantly sort it
out, and manifest It at a certain
area, which can be found.'.
Vou decide that the man is not
a fraud, and then you begin to
wonder, can It be, that he is de
ceiving himself, and that he only
imagines he 13 getting these re
actions? You talk with the phy
sicians who sit watching, i Why
ddyou come here?" you ask, and
the answer is. "jl sent Abrams
some blood specimens, and found
his diagnoses were right every
time." You ask another, and get
the same response. You ask a
third, and he says, "He diagnosed
ray cancer while I was in Illindis,
and cured it, so I came to learn
about it." Half the physicians
here have been cured of some
thing, you find, and several .are in
process of cure. I
One came in while 11 was there,
and t watched an entertaining lit
tle drama. He was an ) elderly
gentleman, "retired from practice
because of nervous breakdown.
His case had been diagnosed ' at
a certain famouB sanitarium, so he
knew all about himself, and you
could see that he was highly sus
picious! of these electronic gym
nastics. He told me that his mind
was open jto any new truth; but
my wife, ho is a Judge of charac
ter, remjarked to me, "There
hasn't, anything .new got into his
mind in twenty-five , years."
Abrams examined his blood and
found tuberculosis, cerebro-spinai.
and you could- see that the old
gentleman wasj not satisfied.; Evi
dently he said so, for next, morn
ing he was on hand again, and
Abrams said. "I have told Dr. So-and-so.
that I will locate for him
the precise spot where he suffers
intense pain, and he agrees that if
& can uo ma ue win lwi rea-
aurt-u iuuui my jnciuuu.
Dr. So-and-so has! stripped to
the waist, and sits facing the west,
wlfh his arms stretched out and
hts feet on grounded plates. . An
assistant takes an electrode and
places it on Dr. So-and-so's spine
below the waist. Abrams, mean
time, remains In his seat before
the feubject; for strange as It may
seem, he learns more about' the
patient from the subject's body
than from the patient's body!
"Draw down the curtain, please,"
he; says, and a shade is drawn,
separating the patient from the
subject' and from Abrams. "I do
this." he expla'ns, "In order to ex
clude the personal equation. I
might be influenced -by watching
the patiest, and I want to con
vince him that these tests are de
pendent upon nothing- but the" radio-activity
of his disease. We
set the dial at 42, which is the
vibratory rate of tuberculosis. My
assistant will move the electrode
up the spine of the patient, and
when it comes to the seat of the
disease the dull area will mani
fest itself on the body of the sub
ject here and here. I want you to
listen for the sound. My assistant
will move the electrode slowly.
Each reaction takes twelve sec
onds, and if you move foo quickly
I do not get the reactions prop
erly, on I confuse one area with
another. Now, ready." f
The doctor begins to tap upon
the abdomen of his subject, and
the assistant moves the electrode,
covering a new spot each time. Fi
nally the dull sound is henrd, and
Abram-s cries, "Stop! Mark.j it
please." The assistant .takesj, a
pencil and makes a mark about
the electrode. "That ts where you
have the pain. Dr. So-and-so," says
Abrams, and Dr. ' So-and-so looks
bewtldered and answers, . "Yes,
that is the" spot." ; 1 1
"Now," says Abrams. ''we wHl
begin at the top and work down
the spine and I will tell you when
you come to the same spot." This
is done. "And now,"; says Abrams,
"I am going to show you how -this
experiment may be entirely separ
ated from the personal equation.
I am troing to demonstrate it with
the pith ball." He takes from the
drawer a rod, having a ball of
drred pith about the size of your
little finger-nail suspended by a
thread. The assistant takes a,
flannel cloth and , a rod of hard
rubber, and rubs; It vigorously, to
electrify it. and touches' the pith
ball with it several tlmes- The
p'th ball now carries a Blight
charge of electricity. "You see
that it leaps away, from the rod.
Like repels like. But the radio
activity of the disease is of the op
posite polarity, and ;will attract'
this pith ball. I press the end of.
the rod upon the body of the pa-l
tient. so that the pith ball bangs
about one inch away. I put it
here, where, there is no disease,
and you note that it hangs per
fectly motionless; but now I f put
it over the spot "which is. marked,
andj we wait a few seconds for the
reaction, and you see the pith ball
move3 in. It is drawn, in unmis
takably, sometimes it touches the.
skin; 'and we can repeat th's ex
periment as often as we wish. We
can check it up by putting the
electrode at the seat of the . dis
ease, and bringing the pith ball
over to the body of the subject:;
at the dull area we see It move."
I assume that the reader Is
skeptical concerning these- mira
cles. It Is proper that he should
be. Some one may -point out that
the little drama with Drj. So-and-so
might easily have been arranged
in advance, after a fashion under
stood In the "medium parlors,"
where you talk with the spirit of
your deceased grandmother for
the1 sum of two dollars. But I sat
in this clinic twice a day for a
couple of weeks, and in that time
I saw several hundred blood spec
imens . examined, ,'and , letters and
telegrams i sent to physicians all
over the United States. Abrams
has examined to date over 12.000
blood specimens for .other phy
sicians, and the fact that letters
continue to arrive by special de
livery can have only one meaning
that the physicians find hia di
agnosfs correct. Also I saw in this
clinic more than a hundred pa
tient's who had been treated, or
were being treated, by Abrams
methods, and he must have been
a stage manager of supernatural
skill to have taken all this variety
of people, men and women from
a dozen races-.and of ages varying
from eight to' eighty, and taught
them to play the strange roles
which they played before the crlt
ical audience! Again and again
I saw Abrams make 'a? diagnosis
from the blood, and their bring in
the patient', and invite some phy-
sicianln the clinic whoi happened
to be a specialist, to make an ex
amlnation and see if he 'could find
slims of the disease. Once it was
adenoids, again it was a tumor
in the thigh, again tuberculosis
of the skin, again epithelioma.
Here, for example, is an Irish
lady with a vigorous temperament.
She has been treated in one of the
largest hospitals of San Francisco
for cancer of the breast. Six phy
sicians diagnosed her ' case, and
when she refused to lose her
breast, one-; of them threat
ened to have a certificate
signed by all six oft them declar
ing her insane: She defied them
and came to Abrams, and had been
treated a couple of weeks. "Do
you believe in him?" asked my
wife; and she answered, "BelieVe
In him?. He saved my .breast t"
She states that' all the pain is
rone, and the enlargement is re
duced by one-half. ' '
And here Is a' Creek boy, who
has been almost totally blind from
acquired syphilis. He is taellig
good, and the doctor, who likes to
"jolly" his patients, lets him dis
play himself. "How well can your
see now. Joe?", j ,1
; "As good as ever I could in my
life, doctor. : . i
You don't mean It. Joe!" i 1
s f
"Sure I mean It. Why shouldn't I
I mean It?" I j - .
. "Can you see meJoe?"
"Sure I can see you."
"And what have I in my
hand?" . !
, "You-got a silver dollar."
"Don't you wish! you had It,
Joe?" ;. I
i "I reckon I could use It if I
had it." j
"And you really couldn't see at
all two months ago?. You couldn't
have seen, this dollar?"
"No, sir, I couldn't have seen It
It you had held It before my eyes."
1 And here comes an actor, who
has had a tumor on the brain, and
had lost the power to make con
nected sounds, and; was rapidly
losing the power to; walk: Now,
after .two months' treatment, he
can both talk' and walk again, and
his stage ambitions have revived.
He is a tall, black-coated figure,
presenting a weird appearance, be
cause a part of his treatment has
consisted of shaving his head and
painting it a vivid red, some sub
stance whose, vibratory Tate cor
rexponds to that of sarcoma.
j "Now show . us how you can
walk," says Abrams. "Can you
stand on your toe?"!,
f "Yes. sir,"; says the actor, aid
he toddles around.
! "You couldn't dd, that a few
Weeks ago?"
;-"I fell on my face every time I
tried it." v
-!"And now on your heels. You
couldn't do that?" j
'"No; sir. if I got' up on my heels
when I got out of bed, I fell back
ou the bed helpless.?' ,
'"And your voice Is coming back
all right?"
. i'fWell, you can hear it," says
the actor proudly. His voice still
falters, but he tells us. how in the
old days he acted in England, and
how some day he is going to act
Richard III. He shows us how he
will do It, with many expansive
gestures: j
"Now is the winter of, our dis
content !
' Made glorious summer by this
sun of York!" j
What is the' principle upon
which these marvels are based?
Let us bear in mindljo begin wth
that' all our explanations in this
matter are guesses. iWhat Abrams
has done is to find but what hap
pens. He has done; this by twen
ty years of minute and painstaking
experiment. Having found out. he
tries to account for the happen
ings, to rationalize! them," but if
ail hia guesses are wrong, that
does not alter his facts.
Let! us begin with first" princi
ples. Modern physical science has
discovered that all matter con
sists pf electrical energy. Each
molecule of matter is composed
of millions of minute electrical
charges. This is not: a theory of
Abrams, but something which is
taught in all school text-books of
physics. No eye has ever-beheld
these "electrons," they are mil
lions of millions of times smaller
than anything the. miscroscope
can reveal; but it has been found
possible by various devices to pho
tograph or .otherwise ; record the
effects of their 'activity, and if
you are curious you may find such
photographs reproduced in modern
next-books of advanced physics.
These electrons constitute uni
verses In themselves; the t'ny elecr
trical charges revolve about a cen
tral nucleus just as our planets re
volve about the sun; Some of the
electrons are thrown off, and this
constitutes what is known, as radio-activity.
It Is known that all
matter .has radio-activity, and
Abrams has proven by many in
teresting experiment's that the hu
man body Is an Infinitely compli
cated electronic machine, with ja
vast variety of radio-activities, j.
Every, high school boy knows
that water consists' of two mole
cules of hydrogen and one of oxy
gen, and if it" varied from that
composition, it would be some
thing else than water. In the same
way, Abrams has discovered ex
perimentally that every disease
has a radio-actrvity peculiar to it-;
self, and uniform and invariable.
He calls this; the "vibratory rate"
of the disease: but you must bear
in mind that this terms is purely
arbitrary, a name which he gives
to- certain effects which he has
observed and measured, though he
does -not know what' they are or
how they came to be. Tubercular
tissue, and the tubercle bacillus
and every drop of! blood from a
body which contains the tubercle
bacillus all these substances pro
duce a reaction when the rheostat
i set at 42, and if the reaction
does . not come i through at this
point, there s no tuberculosis in
that body. That this is amazing
and new does not in any way alter
the fact that it is so. It has been
demonstrated by Abrams in many
thousands of cases. It is demon
strated ever and over again scores
of times every day in his clinic.
and.it can be demonstrated by any
one who will take thg trouble ;fo
understand hs method. j
It would be impossible to ex
aeeerate the revolutionary nature
of this 'one discovery. It gives us
for the first time - an infallible
method for the1 diagnosis of dis
ease; it gives us also a means lot
exploring disease and understand
ing Its real nature. ' By. this meth
od we learn that many of the prin
ciDal diseases exist in forms hith
erto not recognized; also that
some diseases, supposed to be en
tirely separate and distinct, are in
reality-different symptoms of the
same disease. For example, the
so-called pernicious anemia, or de-'
ficiency of red cornuscles In the
blood, turns ;out to be a symptom"
of congenital svohillis affeetlnsr
hia .nltiAn in-liV.' A r. n -v. I
thereon. Neurasthenia in all iti
.UV oiricil. rT.ll.JI: iailLCI KlflllfU
forms turns rout,! to be congenial
syphilis, human dr bovine,' of cere- j reaction! appear upon th abdo-hro-spinal
activity. Cancer and I men. He then places the electrode
tuberculosis turn out to be con-! a little further up on his head,
sequences' of syphilis; either con
genital or acquired; that is, you
never find blood
which there
is either carcinoma, sarcoma, tu-
berculosis. or dementia, that vou
do not also find 'the reaction of
some form of syph'ilis. This 'dis
ease turns out tdr be the basic
source of our worst troubles;
lurking iu our blood in forms hith
erto unrecognized and in places
not accessible to other researches.
As Abrams phrases It. picturesque
ly: "Realized pathology is syph
ilized pathology. Our sainted an
cestors were tainted ancestors."
He has obtained thai reactidu of
syphilis, both congenital and ac
quired, from the bones of Egyp
tian mummies, three thousand
years eld
'4
I :n
I-
Human blood contains many vi
bratory rates it contains not
rmerely the vibratory rates, of dis
ease, it contains other rates de
pendent upon sge and sex, others
upon race, others upon family.
All these things Abrams has
worked out by elaborate and
painstaking experiment, and he
provides you with tables so that
by examining a drop of blood you
can determine whether it contains
a Negrostrain. a Japanese," or Inr
dian,. or what you will. He has
also an lnXallfble, method for de
termining: paternity. He finds , a
number of different vibratory
rates in the blood of the child,
and then he tests the blood of the
father and finds the same rates.
This aspect othis work brings him
notoriety, because it has to do
with court proceedings, and scan
dals, appealing to the newspapers.
It is a curious! commentary upon
our journalism; that it telegraphs
all over the country the news that
Abraras has pronounced a certain
child to be illegitimate, while it
says not a word about the fact
that there come to his clinic every
day people who have been cured of
all three of the dread scourges of
our , race, syphilis, tuberculosis
and cancer. M :.'.
I repeat: disease In all its mani
festations, its perms, the poisons
produced by these germs, and the
body tissues in which these germs
have I been active, all yield the
same Invariable vibratory rate.
Abrams has specimens of all-' the
various diseases In test-tubes bear
ing the. label of a well-known la
boratory. With: his divine patience
he will stop his work and show
you that if you place a tube near
the instrument you get the same
reaction that you get" from the
blood of a diseased person. He
will take in his clinic a patient
suffering from cancer, and will
bring the electrode near this can
eer and show you the reaction. He
will j show you that this reaction
comes through at the number 50.
and does not come through at the
number 51. He will bring sam
ples! of healthy blood, or will put
the electrode upon a patient who
has no cancer, and show you that
no reaction comes through. He
will show you that' certain persons
ara immune to cancer; that is to
sayv- samples ot their blood, placed
between the cancer specimen and
the) Instrument, will cancel the
cancer rate, and there will be no
reaction. ; Abrams himself is one
of these immune persons, and he
proved it long ago. He was one
of six physicians fn a certain hos
pital who experimented "with Xbiospitals,- recognized-as the author
ravs in the early days. All the
mother five died of cancer, and
iAbrams shows you tne scars upon
us nanus, ; wuiiu wumu umo
turned to cancer had he, not pos
sessed the natural Immunity. If
happen that he has been twice
married, and both his wives d'ed
of cancer, which accounts for some
of the energy ; with "which he has
gone at the problem or this ais
ease. He , has undoubtedly con
quered it. He can produce immu
nity in the blood, and will dem
onstrate that' Immunity to you.
N6w to continue: It is Impos
sible as yet; to measure these In
finitely minute vibrations, mil
lions of millions of times smaller
than anything; our senses can per
ceive. There ! had . fo be an In
strument to sfort them out and
man'fest them!, and the most sub
tle1 instrument Abrams could find
was the human body. That ac
counts for his curious practice of
using a "subject." iHe explains
that the nervous system of the
body consists ot millions of min
ute! fibers and lines of communi
cation, and! these apparently cor
respond to different vibratory
rates. At any ; rate, he has ob
served that if he presses an-electrode
to the forehead of a human
being, and admits to that body ra-iio-activity:
of a certain vibratory
rate, that activy will affect cer
ain nerve channels and no others;
it will travel through the body,
and will manifest itself at certain
nerve ends.l ' locations which can
be) detected by patient; search.
Wherever the impulse goes.' there
will be a minute Increase' In the
vctivity of the cells; a little more
blood will flow to that spot, the
cells will dilate, and there will
be what physicians, know; "as - a
"dull area," to be discovered by
"percussion.
So her is Abrams technic of
exploring" the human body; first,
the specimen of blood, placed In
a;ox connected with an, electrode;
second, an instrument which stops
11 electrical manifestations from
this blood, except those at one cer
tain rate; third, the body of the
"subject," which takes the vibra
tions coming through, and turns
them into cell activity at a cer
tain area. In Abrams practice
the subject i first places the elec
trode upon his forehead, and the
and the reactions appear upon the
back. He then places the elec
trode upon, the top" of his head.
just' back of a line between the
ears, and the reactions again ap
pear upon tVe jtbdomen, but at a
different area than when the elec
trode was upon the forehead."
!The ' method of determining
these reactions by-percussion is an
unsatisfactory one.; Percussion Is
to soma extent a lost-art. and few
physicians have1 the necessary skill J
fo recognize the dull area. Abrams
himself, I think, would . never
make a mistake If he were not
hurried, If the work piled upon"
him were not several "times too
much for one .man. ' But; it shduld
be understood that if his facts are
correct, they are not" In the- least"
Invalidated by. errors inj practice;
any more than, for example, the
method of wireless telegraphy Is
Invalidated by sun spots, or a
drunken operator. What is wanted
la an instrument that' will" record
the reactions from the JJdy auto-J
matlcally perhaps oy tne miuuio
Increase of heat ( at the "dull
area,".- or; .the still - more minute
Increase of moisture. . If such an
instrument can: be contrived, the
method will be. "fool-proof," and
Abrams can die in peace. He has
been robbing his sleep in order to
seek thlsl Instrument. He hoped
to f'nd it In the pith ball, but this
depends too much upon the elec
trical conditions of the room and
other accidental factors. He hoped
to find it in a vibrating wire, but
such wires have -their "nodes,
their own "dull " areas." not de
pendent upon the radio-acflvlty
of the blood. I carry in my mind
the image of this devoted andf he-'
roic man staggering under his too
heavy burde". ui I fe3l like, call
ing out to all the inventors of the
world to come and ;help him solve
this problem t'o find some way of
recording minute changes of vas
cular activity upon a dial! j
Meantime, until the Inventor
comes, Albert- Abrams must con
tinue to spend his precious hours
tapping." tapping, "tapping upon
the bare skin of a bored young
man. and people .In Boston, To-,
ronto. and Mexico City, .waiting
anxiouslyi to know from what
deadly disease they are suffering,
are -dependent in part Upon the
fact that this young man may have
ea'len ! too many waffles for his
breakfast: I see Abrams wrink
ling lip his forehead with exas
peration ! and exclaiming, ," "Oh,
your reactions are very poor this
morning!" . He takes the Hat cS
his hand; and pounds upon the
seventh cervical vertebra of. the
bored young man. There will be
perhaps twenty-five ' blood- speci
mens to examine, that morning,
and as many patients to be Inter
viewed, each one a. desperate case
demanding compassion .from a
man who Is as tender-hearteid as
a child; and if In the -midst of all
that pressure he should make "one
slip, and miss the reaction at 49,
then some, vulgar-rid iculer will
call In the newspaper reporters
and proclaim the. fact that he sent
Abrams , a specimen , of his own
blood and got a diagnosis of ani
mal blood! ;
Up to a few years - ago Albert
Abrams was one of the most emi
nent' practitioners iin Sa Francis
co the -head physician or large
of important discover'es. .But
now, when you mention his name,
the average San Francisco physi
cian shakes his head' and- says,
"Oh, Abrams! He's crazy!" .And
if you ask ' why he is crazy, you
will be told, first, he claims to
locate diseasel from a drop of
blood; second! he claims to fell
paternity; from a drop of blood;
third, he claims that cattle, have
syphilis and 'fhatj you can get it
from vaccination. You see what
has happened. He has gone ahead
a little; too fast, and so they say
about him what they said. about
Harvey, who discovered the cir
culation of the blood, and about
Lister, who discovered antisepi
He's crazy !"j
J
Why should not cattle have
syphyis? For nearly two centur
ies nofw we have, been inoculatisrg
them 'With the virus of. human
smallpox. We know that cattle
can take that disease: we know
also that they can . take tubercu
losis. Why should they not have
taken syphilis, -and .developed a
form of this disease which, can be
reinoculated f into the ' human
body? JWhsether or not this hap
pens is piJrelya matter for experi
ment. Abrams finds-thaf-he gets
a reaction , of bovine syphilis and
he has the courage to say so; also
he has., the patience to take you
in his clinic and . show you the re
action. He will show it on your
vaccination scar; be will; have
someone i move the electrode up
your arm. and "tell you when it
gets' to that spot. And you can
go to a drug store and" buy some
vaccination points, and put them
in j front ot the electrode, and
Abraras will show you, the vibrat
ory rate of 57 in five cases out of
sixj If you want to have yourself
inoculated by one of these points,
he i will show you the reactions
some hours later j in your ' own
blood. If he is mistaken inh all
this If for example, It Is some
other disease which yields this
rate somebody is free to prove It,
but! that somebody will ' have to
start on the basis of AbramsV find
ings. ' ' - j '
George Sterling said to me,
"When the, antl-vaccinationists
get on to Abrams: work, what a
howl they will raise!! But Abrams
has j found a 'method of destroying
tne syphilitic proclivities ot these
vaccination points. All that h
necessary to tfurify the virus is to
expose 4t for five minutes to the
influence of blue light, which de
stroys the activity of the spiro
chetes; and then to expose it to
yellow light, which destroys the
tuberculous factor. If you doubt
fhis, Abrams has his ever ready
answer. He will put a tube of bo
vine syphilis to the, electrode acj
show you the reaction; and then
he will have his assistant throw t
blue light on; the tube and be
hold the reaction lstgone! ,;
'This brings1 us to the most Im
portant aspect of Abrams work
the curey It means, of course, a
great deal to physicians to be able
to "diagnose infallibly, but to the
patient it Is cold comfort to "be
told that he has some-deadly dis
ease, if he' has to go on having
It. Abrams claims to cure and
here again we have, two things to
consider: first, the facts, and sec
ond, the theory. The theory may
be wrong', but the facts are beyond
dispute. . Having ascertained, the
vibratory rate of cancer, .if oc-
cured . to him In his gropingrs to i I
find out what would be. the effect '
upon a cancer specimen of a con
tinued exposure to that same vi
bratory rate. ! He constructed aa
Instrument called " the "oscillo
clast," which breaks up an ordin-
ary alternating -current of elec
tricity Intouvarious vibrations. Ha
measured: these by the same ia-,
strument that measures the radio
activity, of the disease: and whea
he had sot a rate which gave tha e
'same reaction as the cancer speci
men, he applied this rate to the
cancer .specimen, and discovered'
that the effect was to destroy the
cancer reaction. After such treat
ment had been given, yott might
put the cancer specimen near the
electrode,, but you would get no
dull area."- What could this mean?
Opuld it mean that the cancer was
no longer cancer? - Imagine tha
state of mind of a physician who:
has seen two . wives and many of
his colleagues die of this hideous
disease, and I suddenly ., discovers
that he can destroy Its vibratory
rate! How ; quickly he would
hasten to get some, animal that'
was suffering from cancer and try
the experiment upon it. And then
to take some- human subject, ia
the last' stages of the disease, and
make the . final, all-Important
test! - ; ; .
What , happens? I have just
read a letter, written by Dr. Wffl.
O. Doern. of Milwaukee, describ
ing a case of cancer of the pylorus,'
the opening from the stomach in
to the small intestine. ' This was a
far advanced Case, and the patient .
was treated. ,by the oscilloclast,1;
and the malignancy- of the dlaeasa
destroyed; but the digestive dis
turbances continued, because-c4 ,
the - mass blocking the stomach,
and so an operation. Was i per
formed. It was found that th'i j
cancer had i degenerated, an4 j
around the edges the body had be. )
gun turning It info connective tis
sue, or what In everyday language
is known as gristle. In a case of -sarcoma
of the. leg bone, the siz
of two fists.' it was' found that
the mass could be scooped out by
the handful; and all around the
edges the body was turning It in
to fibrous tissue. As you may
know, cancer and malignant tn
mor are the mysterious turning of.
human tissue into a lower form ot
unorganized-cell life; those. lower
forms ot cells begin to eat: up the :
body. But here, suddenly, the pro
cess was reversed ; the mysterious
power of the; evil cells was gone."
and the body was eating up the ,
cancer! . ' . ; j T , t '
' . What nappeneed In these cases J
of cancer happens with every
form of germ infection. Ascertain"
the vibratory rate of the disease,- ;
ascertain what current will cancel
that reaction,! and then pour Into- :
the body a current of that rate,,
and you destroy the activity of-
the germs. Youcan not, of cburs$. i
always restore tissue; If a lung
has been eaten up by tuberculosis, 1
you. cannot: build a new lung. But
arrest the-course of the disease, V
and - take good care of yourself, j
and often you wil be astonished
to see how far the healing forces ,
of; nature can rebuild what has
been' ruined, j I have known this
from ten years' experience, watch- j
ing what the body can do after the 1
bloocLhas been purified by a long
fast? Here in Abrams' clinic you
seejit jiappening. and you feel as
Ifyou were watching the old-time'
Bible-miracles. The blind begin
to see, the deaf begin to hear, the
lame begin to walk! I speak thfe.
literal truth when I say that after
I had sat for a week In Abrams
clinic I had lost all feeling ot the ,
horror of the three dread diseases.
tuberculos's. syphilis and . cancer.
Why; does . the same, vibratory ;
rate- destroy the disease activity?
Abrams makes -a guess, and the
guess Is interesting. He tells how
he once saw. Caruso, at a dinner
party, tap upon a wine glass and
determine the musical . note at
which it vibrated. , and then sing
that, musical note at the glass and
shatter it to fragments. You can
see how fhis happens. The vibra
tion Is reinforced by new-energy.
Its violence J Is continually; in
creased as a swng U made to ro
farther and farther by each addl
t tonal shove. f. You know that sol
diers marching over a.' bridge al
ways have to break step, otherwise
they would bring down tho bridge.
In my .wjfe's family they tell a
well authenticated, fncident of an
old gentleman who caused a stam
pedeJ In a country church by Tite
absent-minded habit ot sitting
with his legs crossed and one foot
shaking persistently up and dos.
-They thought It was the f'rst
earthquake in the history of Kis-
-x
t i