Albert Abrams (1863–1924) was adoctor in San Francisco, whose tool for gaining variety of "electricity therapy" he called ERA, or Electronic Reactions of Abrams. This practice is now usually^{[citation needed]} referred to as Radionics. Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... 1924 (MCMXXIV) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar). ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Electricity has long been thought to be an elemental life-force. ... Radionics is a body of ideas and practice concerning medical diagnosis and healing, originating in the early 1900s. ...

Early days

Abrams was born in San Francisco around 1863, giving dates a couple of years either way on occasions. He ^[1]qualified in medicine from the University of Heidelberg at the age of variously 18 to 20. This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Year 1863 (MDCCCLXIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (German Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; also known as simply University of Heidelberg) was established in the town of Heidelberg in the Rhineland in 1386. ...

In 1910 Abrams published a book on a medical technique he called Spondylotherapy. This was presented as his version of Chiropractic and Osteopathy which were orthodox medicine at the time. Spondylotherapy and ERA cost $200.00 and the equipment was leased at about $200.00 with a monthly $5.00 charge thereafter. [1] Chiropractic is a complementary and alternative health care profession with the purpose of diagnosing and treating mechanical disorders of the spine and musculoskeletal system with the intention of affecting the nervous system and improving health. ... This article is about osteopathy outside the United States. ...

The Heidelberg Doctorate

Graduated from Heidelberg University at age 18 (!) and was Abrams' most successful. It was his way of getting back at the boorish Germanophiles at the AMA, and these gentlemen reacted to it in predictably humorless fashion. Earlier his writings Dr. Hades, Dr. Inferior, etc (comparing their looks to typhoid and other germs), compareing various abstruse therapies that at the time were considered "scientific" by the medical establishment. In a hilarious send-up in verse of Balloon therapy, for instance, the doctors take their patients up in the air but don't know how to bring the Balloon down again. The poem ends with the lines: But they never came back. That's why we confess / Aëronautic therapy is not a success.^[2] This article is about disease-causing organisms. ...

His claims

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. Properties The electron (also called negatron, commonly represented as e−) is a subatomic particle. ... The term disease refers to an abnormal condition of an organism that impairs function. ... Human blood smear: a - erythrocytes; b - neutrophil; c - eosinophil; d - lymphocyte. ...

The devices

The Dynomizer looked something like a radio, Abrams performed diagnoses on blood samples sent to him through the mail. Apparently Abrams could conduct medical treatment over the telephone, and that he could determine personality characteristics. The telephone is a telecommunications device which is used to transmit and receive sound (most commonly speech). ...

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 discovery, the "Oscilloclast",also known as the "Radioclast". It came with tables of frequencies that it was to be set to, to attack specific diseases. 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... Sine waves of various frequencies; the lower waves have higher frequencies than those above. ...

The Dynomizer operator tended to give diagnoses vary accurately, and find problems other docter's would take weeks to find, involving of such maladies as cancer, diabetes and syphilis. The Oscilloclast was capable of defeating these disease in a short time. Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ... This article is about the disease that features high blood sugar. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Students attended Abrams' San Francisco clinic for training courses, and then leased the devices to take back home to pratice. Abrams developed a range of different devices.

By 1921, there were 3,500 practitioners using ERA technology^{[citation needed]}. Year 1921 (MCMXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ...

A public uproar

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 several long treatments. 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar). ... Main campus in downtown Rochester, Minnesota. ... In anatomy, the stomach is a bean-shaped hollow muscular organ of the gastrointestinal tract involved in the second phase of digestion, following mastication. ...

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. The American Medical Association (AMA) is the largest association of medical doctors in the United States. ... Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. ... Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish author most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and the adventures of Professor Challenger. ... A portrait of Sherlock Holmes by Sidney Paget from the Strand Magazine, 1891 Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. ...

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 is a popular-science magazine, published (first weekly and later monthly) since August 28, 1845, making it the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. ...

Scientific American assembled a team of investigators who worked with a senior Abrams associate donymised 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. A pathogen (literally birth of pain from the Greek παθογένεια) is a biological agent that can cause disease to its host. ...

Doctor X got the contents of all six vials completely right. The investigators gave him the vials again with less offensive labels, and he got the contents right again.

The results were published in Scientific American^[3] 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 win to do so on various pretexts. Abrams never actually participated in the investigation, and in ERA publications^{[citation needed]} asserted he was a victim of unjust persecution. This article is about the Internet meaning of the word flaming. For other meanings, and meanings of the word flame, see Flame. ...

According to Rawcliffe, Abrams and his successors had founded a good many special clinics in the United States and their number has by no means diminished in the ensuing years.^[4] Rawcliffe can refer to several places in England: Rawcliffe and Rawcliffe Bridge, 2 villages in the East Riding of Yorkshire Rawcliffe, a village located within the City of York This is a disambiguation page — a list of pages that otherwise might share the same title. ...