I was happily lost in The Public Domain Review the other day, and came across High Frequency Electric Currents in Medicine and Dentistry from 1910. I know there was great excitement over electricity, and there were phases of “miracle cures” where it was concerned, but in this case, it was the photos which got my attention, including one which just about had me screaming, and I’m not even a parent:
The text reads:
Plate XXII. – This beautiful picture (as exquisite as Manet’s “Boy with the Sword” which is one of the classics of the Painting Art), sets forth this boy bringing his pocket “Tesla” for the enjoyment of his beloved tonic. His sturdy strength at the age of three is a tribute to the efficacy of high frequency currents, for at the age of three days, when his treatment with them was begun, he was an illy-thriving and frail infant with but the feeblest hold on life. Look at him well, and think how many myriads of pallid children – of all ages – need the same remedy.
There is So. Much. Wrong. there, it just leaves me sputtering. Applying electrical currents to a three day old infant? All I can think is how very easily that could kill said infant. As for the photo being as exquisite as Boy with a Sword, let’s see:
L’Enfant à l’épée’ par Edouard Manet, 1861.
Yeah, I don’t think there’s any honest comparison there at all. There are other questionable and frightening photos to be seen with the magical Tesla wand, but have a care, there’s some nudity, so NSFW.
1. That looks like a vibrator
2. WTF?
Yeah, I know! Scary shit, all the way around. One of the photos is of a woman applying this thing to her breast, to facilitate lactation. Noooooo.
Now, high-frequency currents have this thing called skin effect, but still, I wonder how much of the current went through instead of over the surface and did the possible internal burns cause kidney problems in the long run?
I have no idea, but using this on young children, no, that’s unconscionable.
Caine @ 4
Yes, that can’t be emphasized too much.
I have no words.
Marcus, I know the feeling.
I did not know the CIA had been in operation that long.
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It’s very ‘HIGH FREQUENCY’ (measured in ‘Herz’, ‘Hz’) and very high Voltage alternating current (measured in ‘Volt’ ‘V’).. withe a very very low current ‘flow’ (measured in ‘Ampère’ ‘A’)
It does NOT do any harm at all.. it cannot penetrate the skin because of the high frequency alternance of the current
And probably it does not do any ‘good’ either.
It’s stuff for illusionist’s shows..
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