Albert Abrams
From SkepticWiki
Dr Albert Abrams (1963 - 1924) is the acknowledged founder of the pseudoscience of radionics.
His early career was very different to that of the average quack. Having received an MD from the University of Heidelberg, Dr Abrams rose to be vice-president of the California State Medical Society, a professor of pathology at Cooper Medical College, and president of the San Francisco Medico-Chirurgical Society. His first venture into crank science came in 1909 with a book entitled Spinal Therapeutics --- an early venture into osteopathy.
In 1916 Dr Abrams published his masterwork New Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment, which introduced to a grateful world the "Electronic Reactions of Abrams" (or "ERA"). The practical fruits of his research were a machine which could, he claimed, diagnose any disease given a blood sample, photograph, or handwriting sample of the patient, by analysing the vibrations given off; and a machine known as an "oscilloclast" (Greek for "vibration breaker") which would cure the diseases by broadcasting the same vibrations back at the patient --- in exchange for a nice fat fee.
No doubt Dr Abrams' impressive track record in orthodox medicine helped him to gain early acceptance of his ideas, even amongst other doctors. His methods were also lucrative, gaining him a following amongst those in and out of the medical profession who liked the colour of dollar bills.
Like many quacks who profess to diagnose as well as to cure, Abrams was all too ready to find that his patients were extremely ill, and usually suffering from a combination of the most unpleasant and least socially acceptable diseases in the medical dictionary. It was probably this flamboyant habit of diagnosis, rather than Abram's claims to cure, which attracted the censure of his medical colleagues and of medical and scientific journals.
Despite this criticism, Dr Abrams died a millionaire, his fortune a testament to the gullibility of the American public.
Other quacks continued to use Abram's machines, or their own variations on such machines, after Abrams' death: and under the name of radionics the pseudoscience that Dr Abrams founded still flourishes today.
