THE ABRAMS MACHINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19098, 17 August 1925, Page 7

THE ABRAMS MACHINE.

Sir, —In reply to Professor Burbidge'a >.tter I fully acknowledge that he lias made no sucfi statement in the Supreme Court. The statement to which 1 refer was made at the commission of inquiry by the Medical Board, September, 1V23, under section 22 of the Medical Practitioners Act, 1914, I have before me a copy of the ollicial report of the proceedings of this inquiry in which Professor burbidge states, "As a physicist, ,he would say the machine could' have no possible action as a diagnostic machine. It did uot generate or transmit electricity in any way as far as he could see-" I wish to point out, however, that Professor Burbidge not only denies having made the statement in Court, but says "I' have never made any such statement." Tho remainder of Professor Burbidge's letter will no doubt be dealt with shortly by Mr. Marky himself. D. Milbcrn.

Sir, —Those who aro endeavouring to restore the shattered reputation of tho Abrams methods of diagnosis and treatment have recently claimed the endorsement of the London Spectator and tho Horder Committee's report. In its issue of May 9, the Spectator published a review of the latter, and after remarking that it disposed of "the claims of a crank" quoted tho final paragraph of the report as conclusive:—"To sum up, the conclusions arrived at in this communication leave tho position of the practising electronist as scientifically unsound and as ethically unjustified as it was before. They give .no sanction for the use of E. R.A. in the diagnosis or in the treatment of disease. Nor does there appear to be any other sanction for this kind of practico at the present time," If the propaganda published by local enthusiasts is reliable, the Abrams methods are appropriate, for any and all diseases, including some not recognised by orthodox practitioners. Yefc according to the joint authority. of the Spectator and the Horder Committee the author of the system and his followers claimed to be able to diagnose only " the sex of tho patient and the degree in which ho or she might be suffering from syphilis (hereditary or acquired), cancer, tuberculosis, streptococcus infection and colon bacillus infection. To this list was added in due course such items as race, parentage, religion, moral qualities, . . . . The climax was reached with the assertion that both numbers and letters were possessed of sexual" characteristics, odd numbers and vowels being feminine/ while even numbers and consonants were masculine." Whether these claims Jj&* ) s : nce been enlarged, the fact remains that, the tests made by the Horder Committee, claimed as a demonstration of the infallibility of the system, actually led ft tho conclusion that the use of the .Abrams instruments has no sanction of arty-kind--in other words, that the whole" thing is a piece of quackery. Common Sense.