The Rheostatic Dynamizer, Electric Belts, Violet Rays and Goat Glands and Other Early 1900's Quack Medicine

As they say, an interesting thing happened while researching western U.S. frontier medicine. for my blog westerntrips.blogspot.com.

I found myself in front of large amounts of information regarding the quackery that transpired in the United States at the start of the 20th century. While I was certainly aware quackery had gone on in this country, I never really appreciated the scope of it and how many people were affected by it.

The first question is..why would people subject themselves to it? There's probably more than a few answers. One is that the medical profession, while being loosely organized, was nothing near what it is today. The other obvious answer is that available medical help was not what it is in today's modern world. In addition to these two answers was that the licensing procedures were questionable at best.

Two of the leading quacks of the early 1900's, and there were many more, were Albert Abrams and John Brinkley. In the case of Abrams, he developed the "rheostatic dynamizer". This was essentially a box with wires in it. Abrams would put a drop of his patients blood inside the box and then run additional wires from the box to the head of a healthy person facing west. Strange but true. When Abrams' tapped the second persons abdomen he could not only tell his patient what was wrong with him but he could also tell him what his religion was. Incredible, unbelievable and you wouldn't think this was true if it didn;t actually happen. It did happen. Abrams was also credited with devising the " oscilloclast" which was an improved "rheostatic dynamizer" that he leased out to other quacks for a hefty price..

In the case of John Brinkley, who actually did try to attend a recognized medical school but really never did, you had a "doctor" with a degree via mail from the Eclectic Medical University from Kansas City. In 1915, for $100 Brinkley received his diploma and a license to practice medicine in eight states. Another amazing fact is that with this "medical" license Brinkley became a U.S. Army doctor at Fort Bliss, Texas when he was inducted. For a variety of reasons this assignment lasted only a few months. After that Brinkley spent a short amount of time as a "physician and clerk" at a Kansas meat packing plant.

'After he established himself as a small town doctor, Brinkley's claim to fame were his "goat gland operations" which he declared would restore vitality and delay aging. he did many of these. Some were successful and some were not. His detractors would claim his patients walked in the front door vertically and exit the back door horizontally. Needless to say, the American medical association based in Chicago chased him down his entire life. Brinkley made large sums of money. If that wasn't enough, John Brinkley even ran for Kansas governor. He built hospitals for his operations and he owned a radio station to help promote his quackery. Thanks to the AMA Brinkley's radio license was eventually rescinded but that didn't stop him. Brinkley approached the Mexican government in 1931 with a proposal to build a radio station across the border from Del Rio, Texas. The Mexican's had no agreements with the U.S. Federal Radio Commission.and welcomed the idea. Brinkley built what eventually became known as the one-million watt "Border Blaster''. His new $350,000 radio station could be heard in every U.S. state plus in fifteen foreign countries. As a comparison, most U.S. radio stations at that time were putting out 5,000 watts of power.The station basically played country music and promoted Brinkley's medical remedies and medical remedies and gadgets from paying advertisers. He lost his small Kansas station and was now broadcasting to the world.Let's remember that these were the years of the Great depression and people were looking for miracles of any kind, especially if they were hurting.

This Border Blaster obviously stirred things up between the U.S. and Mexico as well as with the AMA. Lawsuits were flying left and right and as years went by Brinkley eventually lost the Mexican station as well as his palatial home in Del Rio,Texas.

Tens of thousands of Violet Ray Machines were sold in the second decade of the 20th century. They would claim to restore health and one's sex drive. What's interesting here is that during previous decades a lot was learned about electricity. What was not known by the mainstream scientific community was what effect electricity really had on humans. Selling the Violet Ray Machines was an effort to take advantage of the publicity regarding science discoveries and turning them into something totally different to make large profits from a gullible public. The same can be said regarding the "electric belts" which were sold under a dozen or more brand names. The mysticism of electricity was turned into an imaginary cure-all that brought in huge profits for it's manufacturer's. I'm sure there are many other early 20th century miracle medical devices I haven't even heard of.

The end to quackery, if it truly totally ended, was brought about by several things. Among these were a more organized and formal medical licensing system, better mainstream medical procedures and pharmaceuticals and probably a better educated general public. As an example, today the public wants and expects dietary information labels on food purchased at the supermarket. Something totally unheard of during the 1920's and 30's. I suppose you could make a case that there are cure-all's on the market today. Some also may perform much less than advertised.This is probably true. I think what stands out about the quacks of the early 20th century was the magnitude of their claims and the invasive nature of some of the treatments. Goat gland transplant operations to restore vitality would certainly qualify as one of those.

This was an interesting,if not odd, era in American history and I'm sure there's much more to read about. Interesting to see what you stumble on when researching somewhat of a different topic. For those wishing to research the quackery subject in more detail there are two places I'm aware of. The Kansas State Historical Society has many manuscripts and records of all sorts regarding John Brinkley. In Minnesota the St. Paul Science Museum has an exhibit on quackery with some of the devices on display.