Early
American Energy Medicine
High-Frequency
Currents
Frederick F. Strong, M.D.
1908
PREFACE
IN all ages of which we have any authentic knowledge,
and among all races, there have existed Philosophers, Investigators or
Students of the Occult, who have in divers forms, and many languages, repeatedly
averred that the Universe – both visible and invisible – exemplified varied
expressions of a single principle – VIBRATION. During the last two centuries
we have abandoned the theoretical and hypothetical science of the Ancients,
and have gradually built up a coherent fabric by logical deductions from
actual study of the facts and phenomena of the objective world. Up to a
few decades, ago, the various truths postulated by science had not fully
conformed to a condition of "harmonious correlated Unity," which theoretically
should be the case according to Herbert Spencer. The Chemical Elements
were apparently distinct, unalterable, and bore no mathematical relation
to each other. Seventy or more varieties of solid indivisible atoms formed
the basis of the material universe, and behind these was a hypothetical
"Ether" of absolutely unknown nature. Matter was called "dead,"
or "living," according to the reflected phenomena, and an apparently boundless
gulf existed between the two. Science was becoming more and more complex
when the advance guards of a new era appeared, headed by Clerk Maxwell
with his "Electro-magnetic Theory of Light," and Mendelejeff with
his "Periodic Law of the Elements," and rapidly followed by Crookes,
Tesla, Curie, Becquerel, Hertz and J. J. Thompson, whose labors
and researches have focused in the greatest discovery of any ageTHE ELECTRON
THEORY. Although recent and revolutionary, this hypothesis has met with
instant and eager acceptance on the part of the leading scientists throughout
the world. In the bright light which it throws on the phenomena of the
universe, much that was dark and undefined has become lucid and coherent.
All sciences have become united by invisible links, and we have for the
first time in the history of the world a complete, harmonious system of
natural philosophy, by which all facts of nature, however diverse, may
be co-related and traced to a common origin. And the crowning postulate
of this wonderful new system is identical with the most ancient theory
of the universe which history records. In other words science informs us
that all natural phenomena result from VIBRATION in a medium of a primitive
nature, which appears to be nothing more nor less than Electricity.
All forms of Force, from the attraction of the Sun for the Earth to
the vital phenomena of the Human Organism, are fundamentally Electrical
Vibrations.
The "High-frequency Currents" are Electrical
Vibrations artificially produced, which bear a certain relation to the
currents which traverse the nerves in the maintenance of life in the human
body. Being Vibrations, rather than flowing streams of Electrical
particles, the High-frequency Currents penetrate glass as readily as a
sound wave would traverse a plate of metal, and pass through the human
organism without producing the slightest sensation.
The discovery and application of High-frequency
Currents has resulted mainly from the work of two American Scientists,
Tesla and Elihu Thomson. Tesla first recognized the wonderful
therapeutic possibilities of High-frequency Currents and prophesied
that they would ultimately supersede the older systems based upon the therapeutic
use of Drugs; clinical results recorded during the past five years go far
to confirm the accuracy of Tesla's prophecy.
Although a greater part of the literature of High-frequency
Therapeutics ascribes the development of these currents for the treatment
of disease to d'Arsonval and Oudin, it is a fact of record
that the subject was developed independently by the present writer on distinctly
different lines. Whereas d'Arsonval's work was solely with Low
Potential Currents, while Oudin's High-potential effects were
of Alono-polar character and therefore limited to the treatment
of local conditions-the writer from the very first employed the Bipolar
High-potential Currents of Tesla, and it is due to this fact
that the System of Technic developed by him for the therapeutic application
of Tesla Currents possesses so much wider a field of usefulness and produces
so many more distinct physiological effects than the methods developed
by Oudin and d'Arsontal. For the past decade the writer has
been continuously engaged in a clinical and laboratory study of the various
types of High-frequency Currents; hundreds of cases have been treated,
and many important facts recorded, which are given to the profession for
the first time in the present volume.
At the request of a number of his colleagues the
present writer has not only gone into minute details in connection with
the physical laws and methods of using the various apparatus herein described,
but has compiled a concise Elementary Textbook containing the Essentials
of the entire subject of Electrotherapeutics. This little book, which
is a pocket-edition, should be carefully studied as a preliminary introduction
to the present volume.
In conclusion, the writer desires to acknowledge
his indebtedness for the help which he has obtained from the works of Freund,
Belot, Guilleminot and Chisholm Williams. He also extends his
hearty thanks for the collaboration and valuable assistance accorded him
by Dr. H. G. Piffard, Professor Elihu Thomson, Dr. J. P. Sutherland.
and Professor Northrop. Valuable clinical information has been
received from a number of physicians, for which due acknowledgment will
be made in the Treatise on the Therapeutic results of High-frequency Treatment,
which the writer purposes to compile during the next two years, as a more
or less necessary sequel or complement to the present volume.