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SUNDAY MAGAZINE
ANN ARBOR ,MICHIGAN, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1922
THE ELECTRONIC REACTIONS OF DR ABRAMS
G U OR ant completes a circuit by attaching
EDITOR'S NOTE: The new GENIUSO CHARLATAN.r us to the, cabinet by- a series of wires.
system of healing and disease On the opposite side of the cabinet is
diagnosis recently brought for- accuracy which marks the majority pf the physician it is a swindle. Dr. a normal man, in perfect health, the
ward by Dr. Albert Abrams has his erratic but interesting works. Abrams supports several revolu- normal vibrations of whose head will
interested and puzzled the read- The purpose of this article, how- tionary theories which he groups un- be transmitted by electricity to our
ing public of the United States. ever, is not literary criticism. der the title of "Electronic React- head where it will correct the ab-
Newspapers have played the Last Friday Dr. Abrams was scored tions." Here is one of the subdivi- normal rate of vibration and cure our
story up as more or less of a by prominent physicians in the state sions, headache.
sensation, and the medical pro- as a "crook," "fraud," "fool," "pseudo- The human body has a normal rate "He maintains," continues Dr.
fession has become aroused to scientist," and other appellations of vibration. When this rate of via Cabot, "that the cure will ensue with
the point of roundly denounc- which scientists make use of when bration becomes abnormal in any ts- the proper adjustment of the rate of
ing the theory. It will be noted they wish to make themselves under- su or all tissues, disease will follow. vibration of the diseased tissue.
that in this article not only has - stood to the English speaking public. A cure may be effected by re-adjustIng Granting that Dr. Abrams under-
a medical man of high repute I At the rate the denunciations were the vibration of the tissue or tissues stands what he means by 'vibration,'
been consulted, but, to insure to flowing to the press last week Dr. to the normal rate. how would he pick out the part of the
the layman an entirely unbiased Abrams and Sinclair will probably In other words, when one has a body having the abnormal rate of
viewpoint, the writer has also I soon stand alone in their fight to es- headache, one's head is not oscillating vibration?
Interviewed a physiologist, a tablish the Abrams theory. Michigan in the proper fashion, but if the fre- "Again he states that the human
man of authority in his profes- physicians believe that the "fraud," as quency of the motion is speeded up- body has a normal rate of vibration.
sion, who is competent to pass they have termed it, will then exist or retarded-lo! the illness will pass How can this be true when the body
judment upon the possibility or only as long as a gullible and open- as if by magic. is made of numerous tissues each of
impossibility of the theory. dinary gold brick, oil well, or fruit Dr. Abrams would have us believe which might have its own rate of vi-
plantation swindle." that a diseased member of the body bration? It is like putting together
Dean Hugh Cabot of the Medical affects its neighbors, in much the a number of elements, such' as iron,
(By Howard A. Donahue) school does not mince his words when same manner as a fiddle out of tune wood and water and attempting to de-
he says that Abrams is a "quack" and in a symphony orchestra would an- termine the rate of rate of vibration
Somewhere in one of his plays his theory is "bunk." noy the other musicians. of the mass as well as each and every
Shakespeare has one of his charac- "Dr. Abram's theory is worded in "The theory," says Dr. qabot, unit in it."
ters say something to this effect: a conglomeration of scientific, espe- "states that every element has a rate Professor Lewis V. Heilbrunn of
"Aye, but I can summon the spirits cially- electrical terms," says Dr. I of vibration, and that 'disease is an the zoology department says, "Abrams
from the briny deep," and in answer Cabot, "which are intended to prey abnormal vibration.' If that were is a fraud. He uses scientific terms,
another character says: "Aye, but will upon the credulity of the layman. A true it would follow that the undoubt- but in a distorted fashion, unfathom-
they come?" cloak of mysticism enshrouds the ed fact that bacteria causes disease able to the layman, and ridiculous to
The position of character number actual process 'of his work, but his must be false. Such a denial is abso- the scientist. He confuses ordinary
one is similar to that of Dr. Albert method of treatment, however dubious, lutely silly. We know that typhoid is physical vibration with the phenome-
Abrams, San Francisco physician, who will undoubtedly benefit many persons caused by typhoid bacillus. With the non of radio-activity, and so muddles
has combined all of the powers of Al- whose ailments exist entirely and introduction of the tubercle bacillus, up his terms that no definite meaning
ladin's lamp and Cinderella's pump- only within their own minds. Many tuberculosis will follow as certainly can be gleaned from them.
kin to form an infallible cure for all ridiculous 'cure systems' have been as day will follow night. With the "We do not vibrate. Abrams uses
human ills-according to Dr. Abrams. !invented and have undoubtedly been introduction of the typhoid baccillus, the word inter-changeably with radio-
The physician bases his theory upon of aid. It all goes back to the idea typhoid fever will follow as surely activity. He leaves nothing which a
experiments with "electronic reac- of the influence of the mind on the as death will follow life. This ap- scientist may grasp.
tions," "vibrations," "blood tests" and body. If we think that we are sick plies to all of the diseases known to "If a disease is caused by vibration,
other more or less vividly described we can produce the symptoms of 'ill- be caused by living organisms. how can it be contagious? Possibly
mysticisms. He has several ardent ness but not of disease-there is a Abrams' theory of disease produced Dr. Abrams would explain that by the
supporters among the literary profes- marked difference. by an abnormal 'vibration' of the tis- tuning fork method. Bring a well
sion, among them Upton Sinclair. "For example you can tell yourself sues of the body is a denial of the re- person in contact with a sick one and
With Pearson's magazine as the medi- that you have a toothache or a toe- lation of bacteria to disease." tune him up until he contracts the
um of publicity, Sinclair has, with ache, and if you concentrate suffici- Dr. Abrams, let us say, proposes to disease."
characteristic inaccuracy attempted ently upon such a conviction you will change the rate of vibration of our Abrams proposed blood test to de-
to play the press agent for Dr. certainly have one. Exactly the op- head to cure our headache. What- termine the disputed paternity of the
Abrams, after having had his manu- posite of this process is true. A cure ever he means by "vibration" remains ten months old son of Mrs. Tiernan,
script rejected by a score of reputable for an ailment existing only in one's a subject for any sort of wild con- wife of a Notre Dame university pro-
magazines, including the journal of mind may be realized if the patient jecture, according to Dr. Cabot. But fessor, was criticized by Prof. Heil-
the American Medical Association. will put his entire faith in the method here we are in the "House of Won- brunn.
The author, in relating the miracles of cure." ders" and Dr. Abrams is about to cure "Potassium is the only radio-active
worked by Abrams refers to Sir James Dr. Abrams' theory, according to our headache. We are placed on a element of moment in a drop of ho-
Barr "former president of the British authorities here, is vague and veiled. platform facing a mysterious looking man blood, and the radio activity of
Medical Association" as one of the Such secretiveness alone is enough to cabinet, which is decorated with rheo- that element is infinitesimal. Abrams
physician's most ardent supporters. awaken the suspicions of scientists. stats, switches, numerous indicators, would find difficulty in drawing a con-
Now Barr never held this position, To the layman it is a hopeless mys- and the usual conductors and non- clusion from such an experiment."
and Sinclair deepens the brand of in- tery. .To the scientist it is funny. To conductors of electricity. The attend- (Continued on Page Seven)
Swinburne-Herald of the New Paganism
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(By Helen G. Lynch.) pounced upon by those whom I shall absorption in the blending of beauti- touch of insolence that verges on to
There was something about Swin- not flatter by calling mediocre. They ful tones fail to remember that sound- bravado where his reserved disdain is
burne's genius that was not at home will, as they have in the past, declare harmonies are, at least, as priceless, almost always gracious and 'calmly
in the British Isles. Perhaps it should that his poetry has no substance, that and certainly rarer, gifts than great bitter. In Swinburne, man is depict-
have flowered on the vine-clad slopes its author was a dabbler and a tink- thoughts. Yet no one need apologize ed as superior to the coarser brutal-
of Olympus instead of in Victorian erer in sound and melody, that his for Swinburne's philosophic factors. ism of the destiny which preys upon
England. Yet he was more than a j verse contains no great ideas or phil- Too many fall down in adoration for him.
belated Greek; though his paganism osophic factors. When Croce pointed the shallow optimism of Browning "Because thou art cruel and men
was absolute, he was a herald of the lout that the philosopher's idea in a while they deny reality to the pene- are piteous,
new, born-old paganism. The Muses work of literary art plays a part com- trating insight of Swinburne's deeper And our hands labour and thine
endowed him with their gift of song; parable to that of the physicist's pig- futilitarianism. Because the "idea" hand scattereth
Melpomene took him as her very own; ment in a work of pictorial art, -he does not rear up like a craggy pro- Lo, with hearts rent and knees
but the Fates denied him what should only formulated what every artist has montory into a jarring discord, but made tremulous
always be their crowning gift to always intuitively known. The idea rather dissolves into the finer subtle- Lo, with ephemeral lips and
Lyric-genius,-the gift of an early is merely a single element in a larger ty of composition, they can see only casual breath,
death. Byron, Shelley and Keats had composition. However the ignorance blurred shadows where those of sen- At least we witness of thee
passed "with shining step" and heads of the so-called educated class on this sitive perception catch glimpses ero we die
held high in their moment of supreme matter is amazing; to many of them through the threshold of the Abso- That these things are not other-
achievement. Vitality seeping out the "idea" contains the poem's sole mands on the intelligence and the wise, bu thus:
from Beauty or from Lyric-genius is significance. The rudely naked lute. Then too, Swinburne makes de- That each man in his heart
offensive to the artist's conception of "messages" of clumsy versifiers are knowledge of his reader which the sigheth but saith
propriety; consequently the Swin- preferred to creative poetry comply- leaden-minded often mistake for the That all men even as I
borne that is described as an old man ing with high standards of artistic poet's own obscurity. All we are against thee, against
does aot exist for us; he is incompat- Derfectrion. In Swinburne's poetry When we come to a consideration of thee, o God Most high."
Ible with that other incarnation ,of every element of beauty converges to Swinburne's feeling and his style we Sometimes, though seldom, the
beauty-seeking and insurgent youth. the music of his art; hence only the recognize the uniqueness of his place lyric-texture quivers and the elec-
Although I do not intend to write isolated few may follow this fleet- in art. trinity darts forth through frayed
an argument or to make a defence, treading songster through ambula- Others have hurled defiance at the edges. For the most part the sea has
I wish to -state that I consider Swin- tories of harmony on his quest for powers that be. Nietzsche and David- lent its austere tonality to this verse,
burne the greatest literary artist in the portals of infinite Beauty, son, in their impetuosity, have chal- but the subdued glow of flesh-tints
English. For this I expect to be Those who accuse .him of complete lenged the Gods; but theirs has a keep it light and graceful.