(;i.i:anin(',s in bp:k culturk. 



567 



Our Homes. 



Oh full of all suMilly and all mischief, thou child of 

 the devil, thou eueniv of all righteousness, wilt thou 

 not cease to per\-ert llie right ways of the Uord? — Acts 

 l:{ : 10. 



Our readers may ren'.etnber that, durinj^ the 

 year 1S<)"), I at different limes mentioned the 

 electrical fraud or humbug called Oxydonor, 

 in connection with my repeated warnings in 

 regard to the humbug toy called Electropoise. 

 The matter would probably have never been 

 referred to again were it not for something I 

 saw in the Patent C)ftlce Official Ciazellc for 

 July (\ 1S97. On page 18") we are told that, on 

 the lath of June, 18!)r, a patent was granted to 

 Hercules Sanche. This Sanche applied for a 

 patent on his swindling Oxydonor as early as 

 18S7. His application was promptly rejected, 

 on the ground that it was not an electrical 

 apparatus — there is no electricity about it ; and 

 also that his claim, that it extracted oxygen 

 from the air for the benefit of the patient, was 

 ridiculous. He then admitted there was no 

 electricity, but claimed that some other force 

 circulated through the wire hitched to the pa- 

 tient's ankle. He also dropped the oxygen 

 part of it ; but it was again rejected. Permit 

 nie to make an extract from the Official Ga- 

 zelle : 



On Januarj- 31, 1888. these claims were rejected by 

 the Primary- Examiner for the reason that the ap- 

 paratus must, if operative at all, be subject to the 

 laws of electricity, or of some other force; it is not at 

 all .satisfactory to present it as an electrical apparatus, 

 and at the same time to say that it is not subject to or- 

 dinary electrical laws, as has been practically done. 

 It is riot admitted that the body is a magnet, or'subject 

 to the laws of magneti.sm ; and if it were, the appara- 

 tus described would have no influence upon it. 



The numerous affidavits which have been filed re- 

 late to the treatment described in another application, 

 and have no bearing on the present case ; and in any 

 event, affidavits of the patients would not demonstrate 

 the operativeness of the apparatus as an electrical de- 

 vice. 



But j-ear after year it seems he has kept on. 

 Let me extract again from the words of the 

 Official Gazelle : 



After a careful re-examination and consideration of 

 the arguments and evidence presented, my conclu.sion 

 is unchanged ; that is, that the invention is not " suffi- 

 ciently useful and important" to warrant the grant 

 of a patent. (Section 48!r2 of the Revised Statutes.) 



The novelty of the apparatus is admitted, and the 

 affidavits and testimonials presented, together with 

 the unsolicited reports that have come to me, leave no 

 doubt in my mind that the use of the apparatus has in 

 some way 'benefited some of the persons who have 

 tried it. I am still of the opinion, however, that the 

 favorable results obtained were due largely, if not 

 wholly, to the imagination of the patient. It is a com- 

 mon practice among physicians to admini.ster bread 

 pills in certain cases ; and the wearing of an iron ring 

 upon the finger, or the carrying of a potato in the pock- 

 et is regarded by hundreds of people as a certain cure 

 for rheumatism. .Scores of .similar remedies could be 

 referred to, all of which depend for their efficacy upon 

 the power of the imagination. The present applica- 

 tion, in my opinion, is of thisde.scription. I could not 

 conscientiously sign a patent for the apparatus in 

 question. 



The former decision is adhered to. 



Finally, however, in June, 1897, this man 

 Sanche, by some hook or crook, has gotten 

 some sort of patent. The reasons for revok- 

 ing the former decisions and granting the 

 patent are given below : 



■■ If some scienti.st will devi.se some way or means of 

 working on the imagination so as to cure physical di.';- 



ea.se, he will be a public benefactor, and this Office will 

 he ])ronipt to issue a patent to protect liim in the en- 

 joyment of his invention or discovery, if it has the ele- 

 ment of novelty. I'or we may be thus able to di.s- 

 pen.se, in part at least! with the nau.seating decoctions 

 that are now presented to our lips whenever we are 

 ailing." 



It is thought that this claimant is ju.stly entitled to a 

 patent under the law, and the decisions heretofore 

 rendered denying him a patent are set aside. 



Now, friends, you have the history of this 

 disgraceful affair, or at least a glimpse of it, 

 before you. It is not only a disgrace to the 

 man Sanche, for he is too hardened a sinner 

 to hesitate at any thing to secure his purpose ; 

 but just consider the fact that our Patent Of- 

 fice should grant a patent, and permit the ])at- 

 entee to go out and humbug sick people, be- 

 cause they would be better humbugged in this 

 way than to be dosed with "nauseating de- 

 coctions"! — taking it for granted, it would 

 seem, that neither the one nor the other has 

 an}- effect on the patient. We might laugh at 

 the matter, and call it a joke ; but this Dr. ( ! ) 

 Sanche calls himself not only a physician and 

 a scientist, but a Chrisliaii. His hypocritical 

 swindle is worked mainl}- through our relig- 

 ious periodicals. A while ago he secured the 

 confidence of the women of the W. C. T. U., 

 and persuaded them that he was a benefactor 

 of mankind, and so got his fraudulent adver- 

 tisements into their publications. He made it 

 appear that he was a companion of Woolley 

 and Moody. Our readers may remember that 

 I exposed the latter scheme, and got a letter 

 from Mr. Mood}- himself, saying that he knew 

 nothing of the man or scheme, and never gave 

 permission for his name to be used in any way 

 whatever. 



In God's holy word w-e have several accounts 

 of the way in w-hich the prophets of old pro- 

 nounced sentence on those who appropriated 

 " the livery of the Lord to serve the Devil in." 

 Ananias was struck down dead ; Gehazi, the 

 servant of Elisha, when he undertook to make 

 a little money because of being a servant of 

 one of God's prophets, was smitten with lep- 

 rosy ; but in this nineteenth century, with all 

 of our progress in science and art, and espe- 

 cially our discoveries in electrical science, 

 such men as Sanche go about and ply their 

 trade almo.st unrebuked. Religious papers 

 accept their advertisements ; and w-hen any- 

 body remonstrates, they reply that it is not 

 their business to inquire into scientific merits 

 of the thing ; and even our Patent Office 

 grants a patent when sufficient importunity is 

 brought to bear, for no other excuse than that 

 many of the drugstore medicines have no 

 more sense or science to back them up than 

 "the wearing of an iron ring on the finger, or 

 the carying of a potato in the pocket," . . . . 

 " as a certain cure for rheumatism." 



Our Patent Office examiners are sharp 

 enough and bright enough. Sanche's tw'addle 

 about oxygen and electricity, and some other 

 force running along a single wire, was not lis- 

 tened to a single moment. He \vas ruled out 

 again and again. If you w-ant the history of 

 the whole tlaing, send for the Official Gazelle 

 of July 6. 



In our previous issue I spoke of letting rats 

 and mice encroach upon us because of our 



