DRUG POTENCY AND DR ABRAMS


The result of this research has been the production in Great Britain of an instrument known as “The Emanometer,” which, owing to its special method of construction, is a very efficient inductance and contains no gaps whatever in its tuning arrangement. With it, the same waves as described by Dr. Abrams can be picked up, but also, in addition, other ones of very great clinical value.


In the November issue of THE HOMOEOPATHIC RECORDER there was an extremely interesting article on the “Potentiality of Drugs” as borne out by references to the work of Dr. Abrams, of San Francisco.

For almost two years the writer has began engaged in investigating the potency question under the Beit Research Fund of the British Homoeopathic Association. In connection with this the methods of Dr. Abrams came under review and it is felt essential that some of the findings of this work should be put before American homoeopathic practitioners.

The findings, it will be noted, are contradictory in some respects to those described by Drs. Woodbury and Baker; in others, they will be found far more in keeping with homoeopathic theory and practice. They involve a criticism of the theory of Dr. Abrams. The instrument known as the Reflexophone has been submitted to careful physical tests and it has been found that its true method of action is very different from that claimed by Dr. Abrams.

A paper presented to the British Homoeopathic Congress in June, 1922, describes these findings. The research work upon which they are based is in the hands of the Beit Research Committee. It is somewhat technical and involves a good deal of physical experimental work. For the benefit of our American confreres a summary of the findings is given.

The Abrams Reflexophone was investigated and it was found that it was not acting as a resistance, but as an inductance, in spite of the method of non-inductive writing used by Dr. Abrams. The sequel to this discovery was that the Abrams instrument, in conjunction with the human body, is simply a wireless instrument.

The term “vibratory rate” is empirical, but can now be regarded as, in a sense, true. It has, however, been proved that the measurement in ohms and the use of resistance terms, is entirely false and the value of the numbers on the instrument is simply to give a reading for the point at which the instrument is “in tune” with the energy produced by any specimen. The 25th of an ohm on Abrams Reflexophone do not in any way measure the potentiality of the energy, nor its intensity. They simply perform the part of fractional tuning to the oncoming wave. The readings quoted as designating the so-called potentiality of drugs, are simply designative of the points at which the Abrams Reflexophone is “in tune” with the wave of the drug.

It has been proved that the homoeopathic potencies are electrically active, but the varying readings of these potencies in their various forms, are due not to variations in intensity, so much as to variations in wave length. Each potency has been found by these new methods to contain a great number of varying wave lengths, and the differences between the potencies are minute differences between these wave lengths.

In the same way, the Abrams Reflexophone used with Abrams technique as a possible diagnostic instrument, is only of value where the energy of a particular disease happens to be “in true” with his unit readings. If the Abrams instrument is used in the correct manner as described in the paper referred to, it will be found that far more disease forces can be picked up, that better diagnoses can be made and far better results obtained if the 25ths ohms are used for fractional tuning.

However, when used in the correct way according to modern wireless methods, Abrams instrument fails on many occasions, owing to its poor inductance value, which is due to the faulty winding and also owing to the fact that waves may be missed because of the gaps between the studs.

The result of this research has been the production in Great Britain of an instrument known as “The Emanometer,” which, owing to its special method of construction, is a very efficient inductance and contains no gaps whatever in its tuning arrangement. With it, the same waves as described by Dr. Abrams can be picked up, but also, in addition, other ones of very great clinical value. Furthermore, this instrument demonstrates that there is no single were length for Tubercular disease, for example, but a great variation of wave lengths within a certain very limited range.

These minute differences in the Tubercular wave depend on the individual patient. In other words, this new instrument demonstrates the long-standing claim of homoeopathy that even a particular infection has the stamp on the individual upon it.

Further, now that it has been made clear by experiment, that the 25ths in Abrams instrument are merely of value for fractional tuning, the use of them to measure so-called potentiality, either of disease or of drug, is physically incorrect. Careful clinical investigation has shown that the 25th are of no value in estimating the intensity of the disease force. For those who know the Abrams instrument I cite a case:.

Advanced carcinoma of the breast with marked secondaries, the patient eventually dying. Registered at 50 ohms, using Abrams terminology, but ceased to register when 2/25ths ohms extra had been inserted in the circuit.

A case of a milder character registered a carcinoma wave at 50 and 8/25ths ohms. This being so, it is clear that even if the Abrams instrument is used for diagnosis, employing the 25ths ohms for finer tuning, there is no evidence as to which disease force is the most intense in its action.

To consider now the British instrument, this gives absolutely continuous tuning down to the slightest fraction. With it, no waves can be missed, provided that it is properly used. In addition, it has in it an entirely new invention called a “Terminal Detector.” This is an arrangement, which, by using a certain electrical principle, new so far as this work is concerned, the intensity of each were picked up by the coil can be measured. Ordinarily, a specimen will register across a fairly large distance, but this patent arrangement automatically subtracts a fixed proportion of the energy of each specimen, leaving a fixed proportion which can be easily measured. Thus the Emanometer not only picks up all the waves, but also measures the intensity of their source and gives a clue to the most active on in the patient.

The difference between the two instruments can best be illustrated by the following example:

(a) Case of Dr. F. Woods, London. Tested by Dr. Mather Thomson with Abrams technique. Wave found Streptococcus, no intensity obtainable.

(b) Specimen tested by Dr. Boyd with Abrams instrument and Boyd technique, using the 25ths for fractional tuning. The following waves were obtained: Strep., Staph., Chronic Inflammation, Syph., Carcinoma.

(c) Using the Emanometer, the following waves were obtained with their intensity in addition:

Staph., intensity 2.

Inflammation, intensity 4.

Syph., intensity 1.

Strep., intensity 1.

Scrofular Psora, intensity 4.

Tubercle, intensity 15.

Carcinoma, intensity 23.

In addition, three other waves with intensities respectively 17, 6 and 3. The Tub. wave was found to register on the Abrams instrument by a special electrical arrangement, between two of the 25th studs.

To show the radical difference between the two instruments, it may be stated that the total resistance of the Emanometer coil is less than 2 ohms, yet it picks up not only the same waves as the Abrams instrument, but even more, and measures the intensities thereof.

Further, in the Boyd technique, there is a wave used which is, according to Abrams, indicative of sex. This wave, when measured for intensity, has been shown clinically to provide a definite guide, not to the age of the patient, but to his or her vitality. If treatment is successful, the intensity of this wave rises, while the intensity of the disease waves falls.

Turning to treatment, it is to be noted that Dr. Abrams instrument, the “Oscilloclast,” is based on the picking up of waves which it is intended to treat at unit readings on the Reflexophone. Where that is done, the Oscilloclast apparently has a most excellent effect, provided that the wave under treatment is the one causing the complaint. It treats only one wave at a time and destroys this, and the wave treated must be picked up as I said, at unit readings.

Treatment with the Emanometer is effected, not by the application of a destructive wave, but by the use of an interfering wave.

Not only this, but all the waves which can be picked up are interfered with synchronously. The source of these waves for interfering purposes, is the true similimum or a particular potency of autogenous saliva or vaccine. Through this technique and by means of what is known as the “Boyd Interference Test” (B. I. T. ) the correct potency of the similimum is selected. This correct potency can be shown by the interference test, not only to interfere with all the disease waves, but also to enhance the vitality wave. Space will not permit me to describe this technique further.

The conclusion is that the homoeopathic world is indebted to Dr. Abrams to an enormous degree of his most wonderful discovery of the use of the human subject and of a method of detection of these emanations. It is necessary, however, for the greatest care to be taken, to see that, in our eagerness to prove the truth of homoeopathy, we do not jump at sudden conclusions regarding the so-called potentialities of potencies and that we endeavor to elaborate these methods and make them electrically and physically accurate. This we of the British School of Homoeopathy are attempting to do.

W. E. Boyd