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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



things that had never been made to " go," but 

 they did not do it any more; but yet in ]8'.il 

 they granted a patent on a thing that did not 

 "go,'" and does not go yet. A brief quotation 

 from the circular they send out ought to be 

 sufficient evidence of the true character of the 

 thing to any intelligent person. I take the fol- 

 lowing from paee 2: 



With eitlier instrument, the treatment consists in 

 the absorption of pureoxj'gen from the atmospliere 

 into the circulation, in consequence of ttie polar 

 attraction produced on the surface of the body by 

 the Electropoise, the rapidity of the process being- 

 Koverned, when using- the pocket instrument, l).v 

 the tempeiature of tlie polarizer. 



Now, if yon are not sufficiently versed in 

 chemistry and physiology to comprehend the 

 above, take it to your family physician and 

 ask him if I am not right about it. If yon 

 think he is prejudiced against it because it 

 spoils his business of curing people, show it to 

 the principal of any school or college where 

 physiology and chemistry are taught: or sub- 

 mit it to any teacher, or even a pupil well along 

 in these studies. Is there either sense or science 

 in claiming that this charm has any power to 

 absorb oxygen from the air, and get it into the 

 circulation of the human system ? What about 

 the expression " polar attraction produced on 

 the surface of the body." when they do not 

 even claim there is any electricity present? 



In the room adjoining we have a new paper- 

 folder. The machine cost *700, and it does its 

 work beautifully. There is, of course, a multi- 

 tude of wheels.' levers, cams, arms, etc.; and 

 there are bits of glittering steel that work like 

 human fingers, and with much greater precision 

 and rapidity. Now, suppose the manufacturer 

 of this beautiful machine had put in a lot of 

 wheels and levers, and polished machinery, 

 only to give the thing a taking look, but things 

 that were of no sort of usp whatever to the 

 working of the machine. Suppose they were 

 to put it in as a sort of excuse for asking a big 

 price. I do not think any manufacturer of 

 labor-saving machinery was ever guilty of such 

 folly. They know better. People who buy 

 machinery expect to use their eyes and ears 

 and common sense: but the inventors of these 

 remedies for disease seem to take it for granted 

 that sick people are a class that never reason. 



Now to the main point before us. How about 

 the testimonials from ministers, and editors of 

 Christian papers? I am forced to conclude 

 that these people are careless and thoughtless. 

 They do not know what they are doing, and, 

 together with a great lot of suffering humanity, 

 they have yet to learn that people often get 

 better without taking any thing or doing any 

 thing. Nature is untiringly at work in making 

 good every wronsr or every damage to the 

 human .system. Nature keeps up this inces- 

 sant struggle whether you take medicine or 

 not. It is the old story of bee-sting remedies 

 over again. More than twenty years ago I 

 tried to make the world believe that no outward 

 application whatever for a bee-sting would do 

 any good, yet thousands of people had rem- 

 edies; and these remedies were faithfully used, 

 and handed down from parent to children. 

 They knew the remedy did good, because the 

 pain often " stopped instantly " after the appli- 

 cation, forgetting that the pain of a bee-sting 

 usually stops instantly any way. Perhaps bee- 

 keep(^rs have finally decided that I was pretty 

 nearly right, for we do not hear much about 

 bee-sting remedies of late. 



This is a large subject, friends. It would fill 

 page after page of this journal were I to give 

 proofs that have come under my own observa- 

 tion. A few weeks ago the ScleiiMJir American 

 gave a case right in this line. Some professor 



had made a startling discovery of a new rem- 

 edy, to be introduced into the circulation by 

 hypodermic injection. Everybody who was 

 treated receivt tJ wonderful benefit. The mat- 

 ter was submitted to an old gray-haired veteran 

 in the science of medicine. He directed the- 

 operators to give a part of the patients an in- 

 jection of clear water, without telling them any 

 thing of the experiment that was being made. 

 Those treated with pure water received just as 

 mtich benefit as those that had the new medi- 

 cine. In fact, some of them were most em- 

 phatic in regard to the virtues of the wonder- 

 ful discovery. Everybody was astonished at 

 this except the old doctor. We need to recog- 

 nize that our pains and aches are greatly the- 

 result of a mental condition. 



When I was little more than a boy I used ta 

 give lectures on chemistry and electricity, and 

 I sold little steel magnets for experimental 

 purposes. I was greatly perplexed to find a 

 large demand for them for curing rheumatism. 

 Old gray-headed men had chunks of lodestone 

 they had carried all their lives, to ward off 

 rheumatism. In fact, money would hardly 

 buv these innocent lumps of metal; and, in 

 spite of all I could say. almost every evening 

 somebody would insist that these little magnets 

 tvoulxl cure aches and pains. A man whose 

 arm had been paralyzed and helpless for 

 months, after receiving several shocks of elec- 

 tricity lifted up his hand and used it almost as 

 well as the other. I too might have claimed 

 " almost a miracle." Put I was satisfied then, 

 and I am now, that brisk rubbing or pounding 

 the partially paralyzed limb would have beeti 

 equally effective. Just look through the 

 papers; look around in your own neighborhood, 

 and you will find the vender of almost every 

 patent medicine, whether he charges 2.t cts. a 

 bottle or $1..50 a bottle, gets, without any trou- 

 ble, scores of wonderful testimonials. It may 

 well make one feel sad when he sees a world of 

 people giving their hard earnings in exchange 

 for imaginary good. It seems impossible that 

 any intelligent p/i.j/S(c/a?j should give an honest 

 testimonial to Electropoise; and I am firmly 

 convinced that the one vtho does this is lacking^ 

 either in sense or conscience.* 



I wish to say a word in regard to the testi- 

 monials for patent medicines and similar things 

 that come from ministers of the (jospel; and 

 may God give me grace to say what I have to- 

 say. in a right and proper spirit. I well re- 

 member the time, years ago, when I had decided 

 that ministers, take them as a whole, had no 

 comprehension of practical business or of real 

 science and scientific truth: and there are a 

 good many people now— some very good friends 

 of mine — who declare that, from force of edu- 

 cation, or something else, the clergy of our 

 land fail to use good cornmoti sense: or. if the 

 expression is not too hard, that they seem to- 

 lack good common sense in many practical 

 every-day matters. Now, mind you, I have 



*So far as I can discover, it is tlie relig-ious press 

 principally that gives place to this Electropoise 

 ad\'ertisement. In fact, the only fuU-itage adver- 

 tisement I have seen was in a religious paper. 

 Now, is it really true thjit the editors of our re- 

 ligious papers have less inielligence than tlie editors 

 of our scientific and asriicult ural papers ? or if tliey 

 have tlie intelligence, iiave tl\ey less cimscieno'.' 

 Why, friends, it Is a fearful thing to contemplate, 

 either wa.v. This cliarge lias been l)i'ought against 

 the religious press before, that tliey will publish 

 any thing they are i)aid for. Perhaps 1 should call 

 atlention to tlie SiDulay-SrliooI Thne.fi, which taltes a 

 remarkably ditlerent stand in this respect. They 

 even agree to make good the consequences of an.y 

 swindle tliat may get into their columns; and many 

 of the agricultural iiapers absolutely refuse to in- 

 sert a medicine advertisement of any kind. 



