600 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC QUACKERY, 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC QUACKERY. 



In this last quarter of the nineteenth centur}' we are accustomed, and 

 with good reason, to believe the reign of superstition at an end. It is true 

 that the Astronomer-Koyal still receives an occasional communication from 

 some love-lorn maidservant, asking him the lowest "figure" at which he can 

 work the stars in her behalf, or from some alarmed countryman begging 

 him to arrange the spheres into a conjunction favorable to his cows' dis- 

 order ; but such exceptional cases are very rare, even amongst the most 

 illiterate classes of England, and other civilized countries. The business of 

 the witch has become extinct, and fortune telling is punished by imprison- 

 ment. Supernaturalism has given place to science, and the spells of magic 

 to the reign of law. But although the witch no longer exists, and the 

 fortune-teller is dragged to jail, the cro]^ of charlatans who prey upon the 

 ignorant and credulous is not thereby diminished. The snake is scotched, 

 but not killed ; and the ancient Necromancy comes forth in a bran new skin 

 as Quackery. 



From their marvellous results and occult effects, electricity and magnet- 

 ism are marked out as the instruments of the quack. We are, of course, far 

 from wishing to i'r.ply that electricity has not proved itself a serviceable 

 agent in medicine and surgery, and that there are not further triumphs in 

 store for it as a healer. We wish here to deal, not with its legitimate prac- 

 tice by the faculty, but with open and manifest quackery. 



Of the liundreds of pamphlets and advertisements circulated throughout 

 the country to set forth the wonderful virtues of electric and magnetic cura- 

 tives, on the "gentle current" principle, it is easy to recognize certain gen- 

 eral features. They are usually headed by some striking motto, such as 

 "Electricity is life" (a statement, by the way, which pi-actical electricians 

 may be inclined to call in question in these dull times); and garnished by 

 bar magnets radiating "lines of force" in the most refreshing and stimulat- 

 ing manner, but in curves, which vve need hardly say, were never drawn by 

 Faraday. The various curative systems are distinguished by such names 

 as "Polymagnctica," "Skeuasma," "Amynterion," "Magnetine" — titles which 

 at once satisfy the prevailing taste for classical terminology in new inven- 

 tions, and lend a foreign air pleasing to the fancj', like the Circassian dress 

 in which Mr. Maskeyline clothes his automaton "Psycho," or the Italian and 

 Mexican pseudonyms frequently adopted by trapezists. Sometimes the 

 author of a pamphlet rises with the glory of his theme, the "Skeuasma" or 

 the "Amynterion," into a true state of what Prof Clifford would call "Cos- 

 mic Emotion," and blends poetry Avith his science. "Electricity," says one 

 inspired writer, in treating of the "Magnetic Spine Band" and "Knee Cap," 

 "electricity is the prime factor in chemical action, and in all atmospheric 

 changes ; it influences the production and growth of plants, and is essential 

 to the life of every living thing. Where, indeed, is this subtle and powerful, 



