274 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1. 



ELECTROPOISE, OXYDONOR. ETC. 



THE "BLIND LEADING THE BLIND." 



Beware of false prophets, which come to you in 

 sheep's clothing-, but inwardly they are ravening 

 wolves. Ye shall know them hy their fruits. Do 

 men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?— 

 Matt. 7; 15. 16. 



Electropoise has been imitated. Just think 

 of Itl Somebody, excited by the idea of getting 

 $25.00 fo.' what costs about as many cents, has 

 copied Electropoise! The new machine is ad- 

 vertised, with the names of twelve ministers Df 

 the gospel to back it — at least, they have got 

 "Rev." before their names. The thing is 

 more cheeky than even Electropoise itself. It 

 also claims there are many imitations. It will 

 not only cure people, but it will make plants 

 grow. The picture of it is so exactly like that 

 of the Electropoise that you can hardly tell one 

 from the other. Price $25; or you can rent it 

 for S3 a week. They admit there is nothing 

 inside of the little metal case except sulphur 

 and carbon. I really do not understand why 

 people can not copy it and make one them- 

 selves. But the manufacturers say it is "com- 

 bined in certain delicately adjusted propor- 

 tions." Here is a sample of their reasoning, to 

 show how this machine takes oxygen from the 

 air and transfers it to the body: 



We take from page 8 of Oxydonor circular: 



HOW DOES IT CUKE ? „ 



Electricians have known for years that any body 

 connected with the earth by means of a conductor, 

 like a wire, soon becomes "negative." 



A square and positive untruth in the outset. 

 Nothing whatever pa^ses along the wire under 

 the circumstances mentioned. 



The earth attracts the positive fluid from the 

 body; and as all bodies have both po>itive and neg- 

 ative electricity in them, when one is withdrawn 

 the other remains. 



Another untruth. 



We now know that difiference of temperature lies 

 at the bottom of this transfer. Hence, if the little 

 plate of the " Oxydonor " be attached to the ankle, 

 and the metal cylinder— or " vocor"— be placed in a 

 temperature colder than the body (as in ice, cold 

 water, or air), the positive fluid leaves the body and 

 goes to the colder substance, thus leaving the body 

 "negative." So much is plain. 



Exceedingly plain, Mr. Oxydonor ; by sup- 

 porting the human body, or any other body, on 

 a stool with glass legs, or insulating them in 

 any way, this insulated body may be made 

 either positive or negative, by means of a suit- 

 able electrical machine. But the idea that 

 human bodies, or any thing else, becomes posi- 

 tive or negative when standing on the ground 

 uninsulated, is a simple absurdity, even if it is 

 quoted over and over again by venders of quack 

 medicines. 



Now, we are surrounded by the air, four-flfths t)f 

 which is free oxygen gas, and— 



Now, I do not know whether this is a sort of 

 typographical blunder, or whether it is part 

 and parcel of their other awful misstatements. 

 We have given them the benefit of the former. 

 Common air is about one-fifth oxygen and four- 

 fifths nitrogen. See under "air" in Webster's 

 dictionary. But let us now take the last half 

 of the sentence. 



—oxygen gas has a strong affinity for the negative 

 state. 



One begins to be puzzled a little as to what 

 they mean by a "negative state." If they 

 mean electrically negative, then it is another 

 stupid falsehood. Oxygen has no more attrac- 

 tion for a body negatively electrified than a 

 horse has for a snapping-turtle. One statement 

 would be just about as sensible as the other. 



Therefore, because you are connected with a cold- 

 er substance, because that colder substance draws 

 the positive fluid from you, thus leaving you "neg- 

 ative," because the air is touching your body at all 

 points, because the oxygen of the air is free, and 

 has an affinity f.jr the negative state— you absorb 

 the ox.vgen in the skin and tissues. The colder the 

 substance with which you are connected, the more 

 rapid the transfer of positive fluid, the stronger 

 your negative condition, and the more intense the 

 absorption and action of the oxygen. 



This last scientific (?) explanation of the way 

 in which Oxydonor works is just like what I 

 have quoted above. There is just as much 

 science to it as there is in the ravings of a 

 maniac. 



Now, if any of you think A. I. Root is mak- 

 ing a mistake, and that he is doing injustice to 

 an honest invention, find an educated man, if 

 you can, who can make any sense of the above 

 quotation. A good man may pass counterfeit 

 money by mistake, not knowing that it is coun- 

 terfeit; but the man or men who rmi'de the 

 counterfeit money did not make a mistake. 

 And the men who make Electropoise and Oxy- 

 donor did not make a mistake. They knew 

 they were humbugging the people by lies; and 

 the men who put up this little metal case, filled 

 with sulphur and graphite, know that it has 

 no virtue, exactly in the same way that the 

 counterfeiter who is at work with his counter- 

 feiting-tools knows the money he is making is 

 not genuine and honest. Quite a few who use 

 the machine are now admitting that it is not 

 electricity, but they claim these people have 

 discovered some new and heretofore unknown 

 force or agency' for the cure of the disease. My 

 friends, if a new force in nature had been dis- 

 covered, the whole scientific world from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific would be in an uproar 

 about it. It would be of a thousand times 

 more importance than a new planet, comet, or 

 any thing of the kind. But the truth is, scien- 

 tific men and scientific journals know nothing 

 of any such discovery, for no such discovery has 

 been made, in fact; and yet we have a case 

 where a schoolteacher is taking the thing into 

 a school and teaching the pupils that it is a 

 scientific instrument! Again, they are making 

 an excuse for charging $2.5 for a thing that 

 costs only from 40 to .50 cts.. by saying that it is 

 customary nowadays. Everybody who is 

 charging more for a book than it is really worth, 

 or for some secret in agriculture, or for some 

 cure for disease, seems to have got hold of the 

 following story. I will give it briefly in sub- 

 stance: 



A big factory was standing still because they 

 could not make the engine work. They tele- 

 graphed for a man, and with two taps of his 

 hammer he made it all right, and took the next 

 train back to his city home. His bill was $25.25. 

 When asked to explain, he said the 25 cts. was 

 for doing the work, and the $25 was for know- 

 ing how.* Now. a great many people are re- 

 peating this, and thinking it is the honest 

 truth. I want to say that I have never met 

 with such a case in all my experience, nor any 

 thing like it. We get experts from the large 

 cities, to teach us how to do any thing we want 

 done, or to make plans for us, etc. They 

 charge us for only their time and traveling ex- 

 penses; and we seldom pay a man more than 

 three or four dollars a day. 



While in Orlando recently, a subscriber of 

 Gleanings told me that his pastor's wife had 

 recently purchased an Electropoise, and, like 



* Quite a compliment the above story pays to the 

 ability and skill of the engineer placed in charge of 

 the engine belonging to a great factory. I rather 

 think our engineer would smile somewhat to see a 

 city chap— one of the know-how sort— doing things 

 after that fashion. 



