THE ELECTROMAGNETIC PRINCIPLE OF CREATION. 
A NEW THEORY 
Circulation of the Blood, 
ON THE 
ON THE 
ELECTRO-MAGNETIC PRINCIPLE. 
ALSO, OE 
THE TRANCE STATE. 
BY 
A. W. TIPTON, M, D. 
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: 
LIBBY .V SHERWOOD PRINTING CO. 
fSg2. ENTERED ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS 
IN THE YEAR 1892, 
BY 
DR. A. W. TIPTON, Author and Proprietor, 
IN THE OFFICE OF THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, D.C, 
(ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.) “ Cuilibet in art sua crededum est.” 
“ MULTUM IN PARVO.” 
Rochefoncanltd:— “Men of limited under- 
standings, in general find fault with everything 
which is beyond their comprehension.” 
Age by age, for centuries past, systems and 
practices that were considered scientific have 
dwindled away to nothingness, as time passed. 
To-day there are many things that are consid- 
ered scientific in theories and practices, especially 
in the treatment of female diseases, that must 
meet with the same fate. INTRODUCTORY. 
There has been a revolutionary action going 
on in my mind to which, twenty years ago, I 
said “Stop!” It stopped not, but the end is 
now. If a demonstrator of anatomy will give a 
natural, rational and practical solution of the 
reason why nerves uniformly accompany the 
arteries and not so uniformly the veins in the 
human system, which they have failed to do up 
to time of publication, I think I can prove, on a 
rational and natural basis, that the heart does 
not circulate the blood, but that the positive and 
negative electricities, generated from the air in 
the lungs and from them conveyed to the brain, 
thence distributed through the system to supply 
the natural demands of the body, circulate the 
blood and are the physical life and the motive 6 
INTRODUCTORY. 
power of the body, acting in harmony with the 
spirit life; this may be likened unto the electri- 
city, positive and negative, generated by steam, 
by water power or other known generative power 
of electricity, the principles of which are attrac- 
tion and repulsion, push and pull, motive force 
or power. Everything is kept in motion by it 
as long as the power lasts or until the machinery 
wears out. So with the body. As long as you 
take air into the lungs, the machinery of the 
body will be kept in motion, until the machinery 
is worn out or destroyed by disease or outside 
influences, etc. 
Spinal menengitis, congestions and inflamma- 
tions of the human system can be explained and 
removed on scientific principles. Will wood and 
water run an engine without steam ? Is not 
steam the motive power of the engine ? Can 
you force water through a pump without a motive 
power ? Will electric cars run without a motive 
power ? Are not horses the motive power of our 
street cars ? Can you run or keep in motion 
any kind of machinery without a motive power INTRODUCTORY. 
of some kind ? Is not the world kept in motion 
by a motive power ? Are not the lords of creation 
kept in motion by a motive power? etc., etc. 
And the man died for the want of air and the 
heart failed for the want of motive power. The 
engine failed for the want of steam and the 
pump failed to deliver water for want of a motive 
power, and' every variety of machinery died for 
the want of a motive power, and the world may 
collapse from the same cause. 
Is not the horse-shoe magnet in equilibrium, 
electrically considered, and every molecule of 
the magnet, a perfect magnet, electrically con- 
sidered ? And does not the same principle hold 
good in all animate and inanimate matter ? Is 
not the electro-magnetic principle in stone the 
life and cohesive principle of the inanimate sub- 
stance ? And would not the destruction of this 
principle in nature destroy everything animate 
and inanimate, in part or whole, in proportion to 
the destruction of the substance or being ? And 
will not the horse-shoe magnet become deranged, 
or the electro-magnetic equilibrium in a great 8 
INTRODUCTORY. 
measure be destroyed, by dealing the magnet a 
heavy blow with a sledge hammer, or otherwise ? 
And would not a person resort to electricity to 
restore the magnet to its original equilibrium, as 
the most efficient agent ? And if not, why not ? 
When a person is in perfect health, are not 
the electrical conditions, positive and negative, 
in equilibrium or harmony in every organ or 
part of the body, like the magnet in equilibrium, 
electrically considered ? And would not a heavy 
blow upon the person’s head derange the polar 
and electrical equilibrium of all organs and parts 
of the body, through the nerves (motor and 
sentient), in proportion to the extent of the in- 
jury received by the blow, or otherwise ? And 
would not electricity, properly and scientifically 
administered, restore harmony and an equili- 
brium in the system as in the magnet ? And 
why not ? Can animate matter or a person live 
without electricities, positive and negative, or 
north and south polarities ? And if the motive 
power of electricity be great enough to raise a 
stone weighing thousands of pounds and convey INTRODUCTORY. 
9 
it from the earth to the top of a building 200 
feet or more in height, run cars loaded with pas- 
sengers, and do many other strange and wonder- 
ful things, cannot the positive and negative elec- 
tricities in equilibrium, generated from the air 
in the lungs, circulate the blood ? And is not 
the physical life and motive power of the body 
acting in harmony with spirit life ? If not, why 
not? Trance states can only be accounted for, 
by me, on the principle that the physical life 
departs or is divorced from the spirit while the 
trance lasts. Cause, inco-ordination between the 
electrical and spirit life, produced by the sus- 
pension of the physical forces. If not, why not ? 
(See page 73 for an explanation of the trance 
state.) CONTENTS. 
Introduction, - 5 
Progress of Blectric Science, - - 13 
Circulation of the Blood, 63 
Trance State, - - - - -73 
Analysis of the Practice of Medicine, - - 75 
Inflammation, and What it Is, - - - 77 
Eaura Bridgman’s Brain, condition of at death, 
rational treatment for the prevention of her 
ailments of 60 years, 79 
Iflfe and Death, Electricity and Water, - 83 
Electrical Medication, 86 
Philosopher and Infidel, - - - 91 
Old Theories are Passing Away, - = - 95 PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
It is not a little interesting to note the pro- 
gress by which electric science has advanced 
from its small beginnings, and some of the ex- 
periments employed for its development. 
The first recorded discovery of the electric 
principle was by Thales, a distinguished Greek 
philosopher of lonia, about 600 years before the 
birth of Christ. He observed it in amber, a 
resinous substance, which the most of yon have 
probably seen in articles of adornment. Because 
he first found it in amber he called it electricity, 
from the Greek word which 
means amber. With a curious and philosophical 
eye, Thales observed that amber, immediately 
after being briskly rubbed, as in polishing, drew 
to itself other lighter substances lying near it, 
such as feathers, bits of paper or papyrus, etc. 
13 PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
With him, however, this seems to have been re- 
garded merely as a curious phenomenon. No 
practical results were deduced from it, nor do 
there appear to have been any further discoveries 
of consequence made of the presence or the 
properties of this remarkable agent, for the next 
two and one-half centuries, or thereabouts. 
Then Thenphrastus, a celebrated Greek phil- 
osopher of Lesbos, who flourished over 300 years 
before Christ, detected it in the mineral called 
tourmaline. After him no advance worthy of 
note was made, in the knowledge of electricity, 
for nearly 2,000 years. 
In the year 1600 of the Christian era, Dr. 
Gilbert, physician to King James I, of England, 
ascertained that a large variety of bodies, as opal, 
diamond, carbuncle, sapphire, quartz, amethyst, 
rock alum and several others, when excited by 
friction, attract to themselves other, light sub- 
stances. 
About the same time Ott Guericke, Burgomas- 
ter of Magdeburg, discovered electric repulsion, 
and himself, with two or three others—Dr. Wall,r PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
15 
of England, among them—discovered also the 
electric spark. Dr. Wall procured a long stick 
of amber, slightly tapering, and excited it by 
drawing it swiftly through a bit of woolen cloth 
in the hand, when frequent little cracklings were 
heaid and each was accompanied by a small 
flash of light. But by presenting his finger to 
the amber, thus excited, a much larger flash of 
light was elicited, attended by a loud and dis- 
tinct snap. Dr. Wall says, “It strikes the finger 
very sensibly, wherever applied, with a push or 
pull like wind. This light and cracking,” he 
sagaciously adds, “ seem in some degree to rep- 
resent thunder and lightning.” Bear ,in mind 
that this remark of Dr. Wall was made abont 
150 years before Dr. Franklin demonstrated the 
identity of electricity with lightning. 
Again Stephen Gray, of England, in the early 
part of the last century, did considerable for the 
advancement of electrical science. His principal 
experiments extended from about 1734. He 
seems to have been a careful observer, especially 
of analogical relations. Among his other dis- 16 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
coveries, lie was tlie first to note that knobs give 
off larger electric sparks than points, and was 
thus led to the following interesting though 
modest conjecture. He says: “There maybe 
found out a way to collect a great quantity of 
the electric fire and consequently to increase the 
force of that power, which, by several of these 
experiments—silicet magnet, componere parvis (if 
it be permitted to compare great things with 
small)—seems to be of the same nature with 
that of thunder and lightning.” This was about 
twenty-five years before Franklin’s great dis- 
covery. 
The Leyden Jar was the next important dis- 
covery in electrical science. This was about 
the middle of the eighteenth century, a few 
years only before Dr. Franklin used it so suc- 
cessfully both to give grandeur to electrical 
science and immediately to his own fame. The 
honor of this invention is held in dispute. It 
has been most commonly ascribed to Prof. 
Muschenbrock, of the University of Leyden, in 
Holland; but it has lately been claimed, with PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
17 
much seeming confidence and apparently good 
authority, for another native of Leyden, a Mr. 
Cuncres, who, it is affirmed, first made the ex- 
periment by which electricity was accumulated 
“on a glass vial called the Leyden Jar, because 
the experiment was made by a native of Leyden, 
but,” the same writer adds, “the person who 
made the discovery of, or observed first, the 
phenomenon, was a Mr. Von Kleest, the Dean 
of Commin; on the 4th of November, 1745, the 
first shock was felt by this gentleman.” (See 
Dr. A. 0. Garrett’s Medical Uses of Klectricity, 
2d edition, page 67.) 
Cuncres’ experiment was made by placing a 
metal vial or a thick brass wire in an apothe- 
cary’s glass vial and then charging the metal 
with electricity. Von Kleest says ; “ When this 
is done very remarkable effects do follow.” 
Shortly after this Muschenbrock repeated the 
experiment with a very thin glass bowl and got 
a terrible shock. 
These experiments led to the improved Ley- 
den Jar, as we now have it; but its essential 18 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
principles were discovered first by the rude pro- 
cess that I have here stated. Muschenbrock 
says he received such a concussion in his arms, 
shoulders and heart, that he lost his breath, and 
it required two days to recover from the blow 
and terror; and he declared that for the King- 
dom of France he would not take another such 
shock. 
Winkler affirms that his body was thrown into 
such violent convulsions by it, and his blood 
into such an agitation, that he was obliged to 
take cooling medicines to keep off fever. At 
another time, as he says, the shock produced in 
himself hemorrhage at the nose, and the same 
effect was experienced b}/ his wife, who was 
almost deprived of the power to walk. 
The report of these remarkable effects excited 
the attention and curiosity of all classes of people. 
Nearly everybody wanted to experience the sing- 
ular sensation, and a host of men, half taught, 
sought to fill their pockets by wandering over 
the country as electricians, to excite the amaze- 
ment and gratify the curiosity of the people PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
19 
with the strange phenomenon. It is but justice 
to say here that the discovery of the Leyden 
Vial or Jar was due to tho. previous discovery by 
the prince of philosophers, Sir Isaac Newton, 
which was that electricity exerts its power, both 
of attraction and repulsion, through glass. 
The electrical philosophers were entirely un- 
able to account for the operation of the Leyden 
Jar until Dr. Franklin developed its true princi- 
ples. His theory of it was at once adopted as 
satisfactory. Dr. Franklin, having in 1752 dis- 
covered the plus and minus of electrical states, 
or positive and negative polarities, observed that 
the outside of the jar was always negative, and 
this he proved by the following experiment: 
He brought the free ends of the two conduct- 
ing wires near to each other, these opposite ends 
being connected, the one with the outside and 
the other with the inside coatings of the jar, the 
jar being coated with metallic coverings, and 
between these free ends he suspended a small 
cork ball. The ba4l was immediately attracted 
and repelled alternately by each wire, swinging 20 
PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
like a pendulum between them, until the jar was 
discharged. This showed that there were op- 
posing forces exercising control over the ball, 
since it was always repelled from the wire which 
it last touched, and, at the same instant, was 
always attracted by the other. This demon- 
strated the fact of the opposite electrical states ; 
and these opposite states he showed to be plus 
and minus or positive and negative, one side 
losing what the other side gained or gaining 
what the other side lost, by varying the experi- 
ment as follows: 
He suspended a small linen thread from his 
hand, near to a charged jar, and then observed 
that the outside coating of the jar attracted the 
thread to itself whenever he brought a finger of 
the other hand near the wire that was connected 
with the outside coating, the outside coating 
plainly drawing in, by way of the thread, the 
same quantity of the electric fluid that was taken 
from the inside by way of the finger. Here it 
was proved, as Franklin considered, that the 
outside and inside coatings of the jar were not PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
21 
only in opposite electrical states, but also that in 
the changing of the jar the inside of it gains 
simply what the outside loses, and, consequently, 
that the difference between the opposite electrical 
states is only that of plus and minus or positive 
and negative. 
Soon after the invention of the Leyden Jar, 
more than 100 years ago, a good deal of interest 
was excited in philosophic circles by the experi- 
ment of Dr. Watson, afterward Sir William 
Watson. This gentleman associated with him- 
self several other Englishmen for the purpose of 
ascertaining, by trial, the distance to which the 
electrical action could be carried and the velocity 
of its motion. 
The historian says: “On the 14th and 17th 
of July, 1747, they succeeded in conveying the 
shock across the Thames, at Westminster Bridge, 
by an iron wire, the water of the river forming a 
part of the chain of communication.” It is said 
that one of the party held in one hand a wire, 
which communicated with the jar, and received 
the shock by dipping an iron rod, held in the 22 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
other hand, into the water of the river. Of 
course, the wire that ran from the jar across the 
river, on the .bridge, must have had its further 
end placed in the river, or in the moist ground, 
in order to complete the circuit. 
On the 24th of the same month, Dr. Watson 
and his party, at two different places, one at New 
River and the other at Stroke Newington, suc- 
ceeded in sending the charge over two miles. In 
one of these experiments, some 800 feet, or over 
a mile and a half of the distance, was through 
the water. As irf neither of their experiments 
was any perceptible time occupied in the passage, 
they concluded it was instantaneous. 
These experiments of Dr. Watson and his 
associates produced a profound impression on the 
scientific mind at that day, and did much to stim- 
ulate further researches in respect to the myste- 
rious nature and laws of electricity. Yet how 
far they were from gaining the remotest concep- 
tion of what is witnessed in our own time. Who 
could have thought of encircling a continent 
and spanning the ocean with, and making an PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
23 
intelligible messenger of that invisible agent that 
was found playing on the rubbed surface of a bit 
of glass or stick of amber ? 
In June of the same year (1752) in which Dr. 
Franklin discovered the distinction of positive 
and negative electrical states, and explained the 
principles of the Leyden Jar, he made in Phila- 
delphia his celebrated kite experiment by which 
he “ bottled up the lightning ” and demonstrated 
the identity of electricity with lightning. He 
also proved the same fact again by an ingenious 
apparatus in his house, “connected an insulated 
iron rod with two bells, which indicated by their 
ringing that the rod was electrified.,’ In this 
experiment he found the effects from natural and 
artificial electricity to be the same. 
He also made the interesting discovery that 
the clouds are sometimes positively and some- 
times negatively electrified, and that they 
often change their electrical states during 
the same storm. At one time he found the 
atmosphere strongly electrified during a fall of 
snow. 24 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
Dr. Franklin was a man eminently practical, 
and delighted in subordinating philosophical 
research to purposes of utility. When, therefore, 
he found that he could, by means of a conductor, 
draw electricity from the clouds, it was, to such 
a mind as his, perfectly natural that he should 
seek at once to turn his discovery to a practical 
account. He did so, and soon electrical con- 
ductors were seen pointing upward from the tops 
of buildings and ships, designed to divert from 
those structures, to the earth or the sea, the 
spontaneous discharges of this fearful fluid of 
the heavens. His experiments in this direction 
proved a success and were the first application of 
electrical science to practical purposes of life. 
Says an eloquent writer: “ Hitherto elec- 
tricity had not connected itself with any phe- 
nomena of wider range and importance than 
developed during the excitation of glass and 
other electrics.” Astronomy has lifted the mind 
to the contemplation of the most august scenes 
in nature; magnetism connected her facts with 
the attraction of the great globe itself. PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
25 
It has been conjectured, as we have seen, that 
the shock and spark of the electric machine were 
miniature effects of a more tremendous agent, 
but it was reserved for our own Franklin to raise 
electricity to its true dignity among the other 
branches of human knowledge. His discovery 
of the identity of the electric fluid with light- 
ning was the step by which the change was 
effected. 
The vulgar were astonished at the sight of 
fire brought down from heaven, and philosophers 
themselves were startled at the recollections that 
they had been amusing themselves with a thun- 
derbolt and trifling with that terrible agent which 
had so often alarmed the intellectual and moral 
and convulsed the physical world. Indeed it has 
been forcibly said, in reference to that daring 
exploit of the American philosopher, “ Human 
genius seems, on this occasion, to have made an 
impious excursion beyond its mortal range, and 
one victim was demanded to expatiate the auda- 
cious attempt; for, on the 6th day of August, 
1753, Prof. Richmond of St. Petersburg was 26 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
struck dead while making the experiment of 
drawing electricity from the clouds, as he bent 
forward to his instrument, to observe the degree 
or quantity of electricity which he had gained, 
he received a charge in his head which killed 
him instantly.” 
Since the time of Dr. Franklin many able men 
have taken up the study of electricity and prose- 
cuted their researches with commendable zeal 
and much success until, with the greatly im- 
proved and diversified instruments that have been 
invented, this science, as related to both inani- 
mate and animate nature, except in its therapeutic 
bearings, has attained a highly interesting and 
honorable position in the circle of sciences. 
Irregular or fitful agitations of the needle were 
first observed in 1750 by Worgenthin, and in 
1806 by Humboldt, who gave the accompanying 
phenomena the name of “Magnetic storms.” 
There is still another variation of the magnetic 
pole of the earth for which no theory has fully 
accounted. The pole of the magnetic needle 
now points more than one thousand miles away PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
27 
from the geographical pole of the earth. The 
needle pointed due north in 1660, in London, 
where the observation was made. It then moved 
westward until 1818, when it was directed to a 
point 24° 27' from the pole; then it began to 
move back again and will point due north again 
in 1976, making a complete cycle in 320 years. 
Self-recording apparatus, now used in magnetic 
observatories, give daily and hourly reports of 
all magnetic variations, and when sufficient time 
has elapsed to secure enough observations from 
different parts of the world much light will 
undoubtedly be thrown on the cause of the earth’s 
magnetism and its changes. 
The earth, atmosphere and clouds form an 
earthern jar on an extensive scale, the earth and 
clouds representing the coatings of the jar and 
the air fulfilling the part of the glass through 
which the electricity passes by induction or dis- 
charge. It is found that in fine weather the 
atmosphere is almost invariably charged posi- 
tively ; before rain it often assumes a negative 
state. The rain that first falls is usually nega- 28 
PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
tive, although the atmosphere before and after 
the fall may be positive. Fogs, snow and hail, 
if unattended with rain, are nearly always posi- 
tively charged. Clouds are always positive. 
Electricity, like magnetism, has a maximum 
and minimum intensity during the day that 
may be traced to the influence of the sun, and 
another during the night dependent on the moon. 
There is also a yearly variation, dependent upon 
the relative position of the earth and sun, at- 
mospheric electricity having thirteen times as 
great intensity when the earth is in that part of 
its orbit nearest the sun, as when it has receded 
to that part of its orbit most remote from the 
sun. 
There are also irregular or fitful disturbances 
of the electric conditions of the atmosphere, ac- 
companying the agitation of the needle during 
magnetic storms. These perturbations manifest 
themselves, often simultaneously over land and 
sea, over hundreds and thousands of miles, or 
propagate themselves gradually, in a short space 
of time, in every direction over the surface of PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
29 
the land. At these times occur brilliant displays 
of the Aurora Borealis, which are believed to be 
neither the cause nor the effect, but simply an 
accompanying phenomena of the electrical dis- 
turbances and due to the same cause. 
To the German astronomer, Schwabe, is due 
the honor of recording daily observations during 
more than thirty years, by means of which he 
established the periodicity of these phenomena. 
He finds that they increase in number and fre- 
quency during a little more than five years, then 
decrease for the same period, occupying, to com- 
plete a cycle, about eleven years. He also dis- 
covered that they coincide with the appearance 
of dark spots on the sun, although no one can 
say, from any evidence yet produced, that the 
storms are caused by the sun spots or that the 
sun spots are caused by the magnetic storms. 
Whether the sun is the source of electricity, or 
whether the magnetism of both earth and sun is 
derived from some common central reservoir of 
this force,'still remains an unsolved problem. 
The influence of terrestrial magnetism and 30 
PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
atmospheric electricity over health and disease 
is a subject of practical interest to every physi- 
cian. That electricity is at all times present in 
the human body and that under certain circum- 
stances it becomes manifest through sparks 
emitted from the person, as well as by other 
means, has long been known to all who have 
given any attention to the natural sciences* 
Cecil relates an instance of a gentleman whose 
sensitiveness to atmospheric electrical conditions 
was so great that he was advised to insulate him- 
self by wearing silk underclothing. So success- 
ful was this measure that he declared, “It made 
life another thing.” 
Dr. Hosford, of New Hampshire, reported in 
1837 the following, which is interesting as de- 
scribing a condition due to disturbed electrical 
conditions of the human body: “On January 
sth of that year, during a brilliant display of 
Aurora Borealis (magnetic storm), a cheerful, 
intelligent lady, about thirty years of age, be- 
came suddenly and unconsciously charged with 
electricity, which she first discovered on attempt- PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
31 
ing to pass her hand over her brother’s face, 
when all the family were astonished to see a dis- 
play of sparks pass from her fingers to his face. 
This peculiar condition continued without dim- 
inution until the last of February, when it began 
to decline, and disappeared permanently in May. 
During its continuance, being greatly annoyed 
by disagreeable shocks on touching any con- 
ducting substance, such as kitchen utensils, 
needles or springs of chairs, every effort was 
made to relieve her, but neither the change of 
clothing from flannel and silk to cotton, nor any 
other device, gave her relief. She was not con- 
scious, from any internal sensations, of her 
peculiar power, though she could charge others, 
when insulated. She had never been confined 
to her bed by a day’s illness, but had suffered 
for some months, during the previous year, with 
neuralgia, which permanently disappeared with 
the return of her normal electrical condition in 
May.” 
1 D. C. Woodman, of Paw Paw, Mich., (.Medical 
News), reports the following curious case: “A 32 
PROGRESS OE ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
patient, aged 27 years, can generate light through 
the medium of his breath, assisted by manipu- 
lations with his hands. He will take anybody’s 
handkerchief and hold it to his month, rub it 
vigorously with his hands while breathing on it, 
and immediately it bursts into flames and burns 
until consumed. He will strip, and rinse out 
his mouth thoroughly, wash his hands, and sub- 
mit to the most rigid examination, to preclude 
the possibility of any humbug, and then by his 
breath blow upon any paper or cloth, and en- 
velope it in flames. He will, when out gunning 
and without matches and desirous of a fire, lie 
down after collecting dry leaves and by breath- 
ing on them start the fire, and then coolly take 
off his wet stockings and dry them. It is im- 
possible to persuade him to do this more than 
twice a day, and the effort is attended with the 
most extreme exhaustion. He will sink into a 
chair after doing it, and, on one occasion, after 
he had set a newspaper on fire, as narrated, I 
placed my hand on his head and discovered his 
scalp to be violently twitching, as if under in- PROGRESS OE EEECTRIC SCIENCE. 
33 
tense excitement. He can do this at any time, 
no matter where he is, and under any circum- 
stances.” Dr. Woodman has repeatedly known 
of his sitting back from the dinner table, taking 
a swallow of water, and by blowing on his nap- 
kin, at once setting it on fire. He says that he 
first discovered his strange power by inhaling 
and exhaling on a perfumed handkerchief that 
suddenly burned while in his hands. 
The following case was reported by Dr. C A. 
Leal (Journal of Nervous and Mental Diseases, 
October, 1876): “A strong man was able to light 
the gas with ease after a few frictions with his 
finger. He was recommended to rub his wife, 
who was suffering with neurasthenia. She re- 
covered, but he became morose and restless, and 
complained of a disagreeable feeling when his 
wife touched him. He finally recovered but was 
not able to engage in his former business.” 
There are occasionally reports, through the 
newspapers, of the effects of magnetic storms 
upon invalids and nervous people—faintings, 
spasms, palpitations, etc., having occurred when PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
the subjects were not aware that there were any 
electrical disturbances. Many invalids are en- 
abled to foretell changes in the weather by the 
aggravation or amelioration of their disease, and 
their change of symptoms will be found to cor- 
respond with the change in atmospheric elec- 
tricity from positive to negative or vice versa, 
which immediately precedes or follows storms. 
The daily and nightly rise and fall of the grave 
symptoms attendant upon many acute diseases 
correspond very nearly with the variations in 
terrestrial electricity, and are recognized as 
occurring with such regularity that the ex- 
perienced practitioner can often readily predict 
the condition of the patient for hours in advance. 
Certain groups of diseases are influenced by 
the seasons. The greater prevalence of lung- 
diseases during the winter months and of bowel 
complaints during the summer months cannot 
be fully explained by the differences in tempera- 
ture and diet; while of the epidemics, small pox 
is recognized as a winter disease and cholera as a 
summer disease. PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
35 
Although no feasible theory for this has hith- 
erto been advanced, so far as known to the writer 
of the paragraph regarding the agitation of the 
needle and those subsequent to it (W. S. Haines, 
M. D.), the variation in atmospheric pressure 
undoubtedly exerts considerable influence over 
the state of health, but this very variation of 
pressure would of itself greatly influence the 
electrical conditions of the human body. 
From the days when the Greek slave of 
Anthero was subjected to the shocks of the tor- 
pedo or electric fish to cure him of his infirmity, 
and the Grecian women and children wore beads 
of amber in the belief that its mysterious soul 
would exert a healing influence over their dis- 
eases, mankind has, from time to time, sought in 
electricity a panacea for all human ills. At times 
its champions have made the most apparently 
impossible promises for it, which, failing to be 
fulfilled, have thrown disfavor upon its power, 
principally on account of the ignorance of those 
who used it, and it would pass into obscurity 
forgotten by the public until an opportunity pre- 36 
PROGRESS OF ELECTRIC SCIENCE. 
sented to again call attention to it as possessing 
almost miraculous properties. 
During the period it has been undergoing 
these alterations in popular favor, a few ardent 
lovers of science have quietly pursued its in- 
vestigation with such a wealth of reward in 
knowledge of its properties and its possibilities 
that it has been recently remarked by many 
writers that probably “ the age of discovery, so 
far as regards electricity, is past, and we have 
actively engaged upon the age of the practical 
application of principles recently demonstrated.” 
To such an extent has this been done as to enable 
a skilled electrical therapeutist to know what sort 
of effect will be produced on acute and chronic 
diseases to a certainty before making an applica- 
tion of electricity, just as it is known what effect 
will be produced by a knife when applied to the 
flesh. Electricity is a mechanical agent like the 
knife, and its therapeutic value can be learned 
by extensive experience with the agent on the 
principles taught in ELECTRIC medication. VITAL FORCES, ANIMAL AND 
VEGETABLE. 
Upon these points I must be permitted to offer 
a few words. Of the animal kingdom I regard 
the nervous fluid or “ influence,” popularly so 
called, as being the principal of animal vitaliza- 
tion, the life force and a modification of the 
ELECTRIC FORCE. It is, I think, pretty generally 
conceded at this day that the “nervous in- 
fluence” is electrical or electro-magnetic. There 
are some alleged facts, and other certain facts, 
which go far to sustain this view. 
It is said that if we transfix with a steel 
needle a large nerve of a living animal, as the 
great ischiatic, and let it remain in that condition 
a suitable time, the needle becomes permanently 
magnetized. So, too, if the point of a lancet be 
held between the severed ends of a newly-divided 
large nerve for some length of time, that point, 
37 38 
VITAL FORCES. 
as I liave heard it affirmed on what appeared to 
be good authority, becomes magnetized; although 
I have not attempted to verify either of these 
cases by experiment. However, admitting them 
to he true, the metal is charged with the nervous 
fluid. 
But the fact on which I, myself, chiefly rely 
for evidence of this identification, being almost 
daily conversant with it in my practice, is this: 
The “ nervous influence ” obeys the laws of 
electrical polarization, attraction and repulsion. 
When I treat a paralyzed part, in which, to all 
appearances, the action of the nerve force is sus- 
pended, I have but to assume that this force is 
electric and apply the poles of my instrument 
accordingly, and I bring it in from the more 
healthy parts along with the inorganic current 
from my machine. Forcing conduction through 
the nerves, by means of my artificial apparatus, 
I rouse the susceptibility of the nerves until they 
will normally conduct the “ nervpus influence” 
or electro-vital fluid, as I term it, and paralysis 
is removed. VITAL FORCES. 
39 
Again, if I treat a part in which the capilla- 
ries are engorged with arterial blood, I have but 
to assume that the affected part is overcharged 
with the electro-vital fluid, through the nerves 
and the arterial blood, and I so apply my elec- 
trodes, according to the well known electrical 
law, as to produce mutual repulsion, and the in- 
flammatory action and congestion are sure to be 
repressed. I manifestly change the polarization 
of the parts. This thing is so constant and 
regular that I am entirely assured, before touch- 
ing the patient, what sort of effect will be pro- 
duced by this or that arrangement in the 
application of the poles of the instrument. If I 
desire to increase or diminish the nervous force 
in any case I find myself able, on this principle, 
to produce the one effect or the other at will. 
Hence, I say, the nervous influence obeys the 
electric laws, just as does the inorganic electricity. 
I find this subtle agent not in the nerves only, 
but in muscle and blood—more especially in arte- 
rial blood. Indeed it seems to pervade, more or 
less, the entire solids and fluids of the animal 40 
VITAL FORCES. 
system, and wherever it exists its action is just 
that of electro-vital force. While, therefore, I 
cannot affirm the identity of animal electricity 
and vitality, the theory of their identification, to 
my view, best accords with manifestations under 
correct therapeutic treatment, and I am unaware 
of any established fact disproving it. 
Vegetable vitality, also, I regard as another 
modification of the electric force. The fact has 
been proved, by repeated experiments, that gal- 
vanic or electro-magnetic currents, passed among 
the roots of vegetables, cause a quickening in 
development of plants to a degree that would be 
deemed incredible by almost any one who had 
neither seen nor learned its rationale. I have 
seen it stated, on authority which commands my 
credence, that by this process lettuce leaves may 
be grown, within a few hours, “ from the size of 
a mouse’s ear to dimensions large enough for 
convenient use on the dinner table.” EXTENT OF ELECTRIC AGENCY. 
When we have settled upon the position, that 
electricity of the heavens and that of the artificial 
machine are identical, and that their identity is 
essentially one with electricity, galvanism1, mag- 
netism, the electro-vital fluid of the animal king- 
dom and the life force of the vegetable kingdom, 
it requires no extravagant imagination nor re- 
markable degree of enthusiastic credulity to 
suppose that all the forms of physical attraction 
and repulsion are due, under God, to the diversi- 
fied modifications of the all-pervading agent, 
ELECTRICITY. 
Indeed, for myself, I feel no hesitation in ex- 
pressing it as my belief that electricity, in one 
phase or another, and controlled only by will, is 
the grand motive power of the universe. I be- 
lieve that, in the form of electro-vital fluid, the 
Creator employs it as his immediate agent to 
41 EXTENT OE ELECTRIC AGENCY. 
carry on all the functions of animal life; and 
that, in respect to voluntary functions, He sub- 
ordinates it. as a servant, to the will of the 
creature, to effect such cerebral action and such 
muscular contractions as are demanded by the 
creature’s volition. lam disposed to think that, 
by the omnipotent power of His will, He con- 
trols and uses electricity, in its various modifi- 
cations, as the immediate moving force by which 
He accomplishes all the changes in the physical 
universe. 
It is fast becoming a generally received opin- 
ion among modern savants that every body in 
in nature is electro-magnetic, more or less, and 
that all visible changes are but the result of 
changing poles. Chemical affinities and revul- 
sions are believed to be only the more delicate 
forms of the electrical attraction and repulsion, 
the ultimate particles of matter, no less than 
matter in masses, being subject to the control of 
electrical laws. 
The imponderable agents, light and caloric, 
under the ingenious tests of scientific scrutiny, EXTENT OE ELECTRIC AGENCY. 
43 
are beginning to give some very decided indica- 
tions of being simply electric phenomena. In- 
deed, the doctrine or theory that supposes caloric 
to be simply atomic motion is even now very 
generally accepted by the scientific world. And 
that motion in the atoms of a body which causes 
in us the sensation of heat, is probably electric 
motion And permit me to observe that though 
the operations of nature seem, at first thought, 
to be wonderfully complex and mysterious, yet, 
if the views here presented be correct, the mar- 
vel is changed, and we are brought to a profound 
admiration of the simplicity of the means b}? 
which the Almighty conducts His material oper- 
ations. A single agent made to perform pro- 
cesses so infinitely numerous, diversified and 
apparently complex! How amazing! Majestic! 
Hike the mind of God! WHAT IS MAN? 
My answer to the above is as follows : Man is 
a three-fold being, composed of a body material, 
a body electrical, and a spirit rational and in- 
destructible. 
I. The Material Body. This is composed 
of various metals, earths, carbon, phosphorus 
and gases. I need not go into a representation 
of their multiplied and curious combinations to 
form the many parts of the body complete; but 
there are the ultimate elements, and a most 
superb and wonderful structure they here com- 
pose. Yet, notwithstanding all the manifest 
skillfulness of its contrivance and the power of 
its accomplishments and the beauty of its ex- 
ecution, it were a useless display if unaccompa- 
nied by the invisible agents which compose the 
other two grand constituents of man, to-wit: it 
45 WHAT IS MAN. 
would quickly fall into decay, as we see it when 
deprived of them, and would be resolved into its 
original elements again. But to our gross ma- 
terial bodies the creator bas added: 
11. The Body Electrical. By this I mean 
that which commonly has been termed “nervous 
influence,” “ nervous fluid,” “ nervo-vital fluid” 
and "‘nervo-electric fluid.” I object, however, to 
each and all of these designations. They are too 
restricted and specific. They all seem to imply 
that it is an influence which appertains es- 
pecially to the nervous system; whereas the 
entire system is under its pervading force. Ido 
not doubt that its chief action is in and through 
the nervous system, but it also pervades, and, as 
I think, vitalizes the whole body. The nervous 
system seems to be created as one principal 
means for its replenishment and to serve as the 
medium of its ministrations to the body at large. 
I choose to term it electro-vital fluid or electro- 
vitality. My reasons for so designating it are 
the following : (i.) It is demonstrably electrical 
in its nature. (2.) It appears to be identified, or WHAT IS MAN. 
at least immediately connected, with, the vitali- 
zation of the body. (3.) I wish, by its name, to 
distinguish it from mental vitality, or the vitality 
of the spirit. 
Whether, as a peculiar manifestation of the 
electrical principle, it vitalizes by its own 
nature and action solely, or whether it be 
charged with another mysterious element, a life 
force, and vitalizes by ministering the latter to 
the material organism, I will not positively 
affirm. Whichever it be, the name I assign to it 
seems sufficiently appropriate. But I strongly 
incline to the theory that this electro-vital prin- 
ciple, by virtue of its own nature, vitalize the 
system. In other words, lam led to think that 
God makes it the immediate agent of vitalization, 
having constituted it the vis vitae of both the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms. Nor does this 
idea, as I conceive, necessarily conflict at all with 
the doctrines of cell-life, as maintained by the 
best physiologists of the present day. I also 
sometimes style this electro-vital element the 
body-electrical, because it is certainly an entity, 48 
WHAT IS MAN. 
Co-extensive with, and, in greater or less force, 
wholly pervading the visible, material body. 
At this point I will take the liberty to intro- 
duce, though somewhat digressively, a few 
thoughts on the distinctions of vitality or life. 
There are, as I suppose, the following kinds of 
life: (i.) Spirit life. (2.) Moral life. (3.) 
Electric life. 
(1.) There is spirit life. And here are to be 
made several divisions. (A.) Uncreated spirit 
life. This is the life of God. Of the nature of 
the Divine Essence we know nothing; yet that 
God is a real, living entity we do know. My own 
conviction is that the Divine Essence and the 
Divine Life are identical; that God, a spirit, is 
necessarily infinite, conscious vitality, the volun- 
tary originator of all existences beside Himself. 
But as to what is the essential nature of this 
vitality, this eternal spirit life, we can have no 
conception, only that this life is God. (B.) 
Created spirit life. Here we make another sub- 
division: (a.) The life of created mortal spirits, 
which is a rational, intelligent entity, represent- WHAT IS MAN. 
49 
ing the spirit of man and of unembodied, created 
intelligences above him, created as it pleased 
God “ in his own image” a living, indestructible 
essence; and, as I suppose, its essence and life 
are the same. (b.) The life of created mortal 
spirit, as the spirit of the beast, of its intrinsic 
essence we are also necessarily ignorant, yet of 
its attributes we know that it has consciousness, 
sensibility and will; of its life we know as little 
as of its essence, both of which, however, as I 
conjecture, are also one and the same, the spirit 
substance being itself essentially vital. 
(2.) We pass next to Moral Life. This life 
is identical with holiness, the very opposite of 
that defilement that characterizes moral death, 
which is a state of sin. But let me again sub- 
divide. (<?.) As the to moral life of God—-it consists 
in His infinite moral purity, His veracity, justice 
and benevolence, or love qualities, which iu their 
combination make up His holiness, (b.) The 
moral life of man, as also of other rational 
creatures, consists in his sympathy of spirit with 
God in respect to those pure qualities which con- 
stitute the Divine holiness. WHAT IS MAN. 
(3.) Finally there is Electric or Physical Life, 
but here again there are varieties, {a.) There 
is animal life as of man and the lower animals, 
which I have already represented as constituting 
the electro-vital force, (d.) Vegetable life, which 
is another modification of the same essential 
electro-vitality. 
But now to return to the physical or animal 
life of man, the electro-vital element. While this 
is in such immediate relation to the visible, on 
the one hand, it holds also, on the other hand, an 
immediate relation to the mental part, both of 
man and of the other animated beings of earth. 
It serves to transmit, through the nervous sys- 
tem, to the mind, all sensations and impressions 
from the outer world. It, moreover, receives 
from the mind the action of its volitions and 
imaginary conceptions, and conveys, through 
the nerves, the impressions or impulsions thus 
obtained to the various parts of the body, and 
there secures the fulfillment of the mind’s be- 
hests. It appears to be only in this way that 
communication is had between the mind and its WHAT IS MAN. 
51 
outer body. The natures of tbe spirit and of 
gross matter are so unlike that it seems im- 
practicable for tbe mind and body to come into 
immediate mutual relations or to act reciprocally 
without the aid of a medium, ethereal, semi- 
material and semi-spiritual, such as is the elec- 
tro-vital fluid. The Creator has accordingly 
provided this mysterious, invisible medium be- 
tween the two, and thus, in a degree, extended 
man’s likeness to Himself by making him a 
trinity in unity. 
111. The Mind or Spirit. This is immeasura- 
bly the highest and most important constituent 
of man. His body material will fall back to 
dust; his body electrical may be reabsorbed in 
the great ocean of natural electricity that fills 
the earth and the heavens ; but his spirit is im- 
mortal. His spirit, made in the Divine image, 
lives and acts, thinks and feels, independently 
of every other existence save Him from whom 
it came. While in connection with its visible 
body, its good or ills, its woes or bliss, has indeed 
much to do with its bodily state; but, when 52 
WHAT IS MAN. 
separated from this body, its high and more in- 
dependent existence is at once asserted, and then 
its good or ill are determined by its Author only 
in accordance with the workings and affections 
within itself. A spiritual and indestructible 
being, like its Creator, it can never cease to be 
while He exists. 
But our present concern is with the mind in 
its relation to that electro-vital medium between 
it and the body, and to the body itself. The 
mind’s influence upon both of these parts of the 
entire man is truly wonderful, although percept- 
ible mostly on the material body. Few persons 
are aware how much the state of the mind affects 
the bodily health, although the degree is often 
very great. Yet this is done by the mind’s 
action, first on the electro-vital functions, and 
through these, by way of the nerves, upon the 
bodily tissues. Changes in the mental state 
will frequently produce change of polarization 
in the physical organs, and thus determine in- 
falliby the matter of health or disease. So, too, 
the condition of the bodily health will often WHAT IS MAN. 
53 
determine irresistibly tbe mental state. What- 
ever bodily changes affect the polarization of the 
electro-vital medium, in any part of the organism, 
do thereby produce corresponding change in the 
mind. 
These views of the reciprocal action between 
mind and body, through the medium of the 
electro-vital element, may serve to explain those 
psychological wonders exhibited in the cure of 
diseases by the imagination, as well as in diseases 
and even death induced by the imagination. I 
would like to unfold and illustrate this bearing 
on the subject,and also, in the light of it, to show 
the philosophy of one’s mind acting intelligibly 
on another mind with, and even without, the aid 
of the physical organs, as is sometimes seen in 
the feats of mesmerism. 
There is another thought which I will offer in 
this connection. I maintain that all functional 
action of our bodily organism, ab initio, is con- 
ducted by thinking mind, through the medium 
of organic electricity or the electro-vital fluid. 
Every organ as a whole and every life-cell in 54 
WHAT IS MAH. 
detail, is charged with this active principle. I 
believe that every one of them is controlled and 
guided incessantly in its propagatory, organizing 
and entire functional force by intelligent mind, 
acting through this wonder-working agent, the 
electro-vital fluid. In respect to our voluntary 
exercises, this organic electrical force is made 
subject to our own mental activities, and exe- 
cutes its office upon the bodily organism mainly 
through the medium of the nerves. But, as re- 
gards all the involuntary functions, I believe 
that control is exercised directly by the omnis- 
cient and all-pervading God, directly in accord- 
ance with His own established laws. 
Once more let me remark of the mind that 
consciousness, sensation and will belong to it alone. 
The body never feels nor thinks, nor does the 
organic electricity within it. The popular idea, 
especially with the uneducated masses, is that, 
if a man burn his finger, it is the finger that 
smarts. But this cannot be true. Pain cannot 
exist except where consciousness is, and there is 
no consciousness in the finger nor in any ma- WHAT IS MAN. 
terial part. Only tlie mind is conscious of ex- 
istence even, and hence only the mind can be 
conscious of pain. If a limb be paralyzed by 
interrupting in any way the flow of the electro- 
vital fluid through its nerves and thus depriving 
the mind of its medium of communication with 
it, you may burn that limb to a crisp and the 
subject will feel no pain. When you burn your 
finger or break your arm, you disturb the action 
of the electro-vitality in the injured part, de- 
ranging its poles. This electric agent instanta- 
neously communicates its disturbance along the 
nerves to the brain, where it reports to the mind 
and locates the disturbance. The conscious 
mind takes cognizance of the fact and feels 
distress. THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
It may, by some, be objected that, if we regard 
sensation as existing only in the mind, as 
affirmed above, we must concede mind to the 
lower animal tribes, since they are subjects of 
consciousness, sensation and will, as ourselves. 
I admit this necessity and unhesitatingly take 
the position, as has already been done in classi- 
fication of minds, that the lower animals are, in 
fact, endowed with a something, higher and 
more spiritual than their material bodies or 
their animal vitality, something which bears dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of mind. I would 
not, however, be understood to imply that they 
possess all the characteristics of our minds, even 
in a rudimentary degree, for I do not believe 
they do. My theory does not accord to them 
either reason or immortality. Yet, in respect to 
the latter, my views are less discursive and my 
57 58 
THE LOWER ANIMALS. 
utterances usually more reserved. But I think 
their minds may and probably do perish with 
their bodies. Nevertheless, the existence of con- 
sciousness, sensation and will, in any orders, 
does evidently presuppose some sort of mental 
constitution. And such mental structure, in 
them as well as in us, must be distinct from and 
superior to the animal vitality, compelling ser- 
vice from the latter and using it as a medium 
for communicating with the body and with the 
outer world in general. THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 
As to the vegetable kingdom, there is here, 
so far as we can discover, only a quality of prin- 
ciple, viz: the material body and a modified 
phase of electro-vitality. These component 
parts appear to sustain each other in the vege- 
table relations, quite analogous to those of the 
corresponding parts in the animal. But here 
the mental part is wanting, and consequently 
there is no consciousness, sensation or will, and 
the electro-vital action is guided, in its elaborate 
and beautiful operations, for the forming and 
development of the plant, and in all its vital 
functions, by the all-pervading mind of God. 
59 NATURAL POLARIZATION OF MAN’S 
PHYSICAL ORGANISM. 
The electro-vital fluid, in the animal economy, 
is subject to the same principles of polarization 
as the magnetic current from the artificial ma- 
chine or the magnetism of the bar magnet. In 
the material organism of man, the great nerve 
centers, the brain, the spinal cord, and the gang- 
lions, appear to act the part of fixed magnets, 
charged with the electro-vital fluid. Indeed, 
there is much reason to believe that this fluid is 
elaborated within the nerve centers, more es- 
pecially within the brain, from the inorganic 
electricity of the outer world, which is supplied 
through the lungs in respiration and conducted 
thence to these laboratories, by a remarkably 
interesting process. These nerve centers, viewed 
as magnets of electro-vitality, require to be re- 
garded as having each a positive nucleus in 62 
NATURAL POLARIZATION. 
every direction to the surface of the medullary 
organ, radiating, as it were, from center to peri- 
phery. And the nerve lines and ramifications 
which issue from these great nerve centers are 
polarized evidently in the same way, the electro- 
vital fluid being disposed with its negative ends 
to the positive surfaces of the nerve centers and 
its positive ends to the “vital organs” and es- 
pecially to the surfaces of the organism as a 
whole. There are many other polarizations in 
the human system, subordinate to those men- 
tioned above. The foregoing is preparatory to 
the introduction of the theory of the circulation 
of the blood. THEORY OF THE CIRCUEATION OF 
THE BLOOD. 
A NEW THEORY ON THE CIRCULATION OF THE 
BLOOD, ON THE ELECTRO-MAGNETIC 
PRINCIPLE. 
The air is taken into the lungs and with great 
rapidity is combined with the elements of the 
venous blood, thereby liberating a great quantity 
of electricity, which now, as free electricity, takes 
to the oxidized arterial blood, as its conductor; 
just as, in our electrical machines, when, by the 
combination of the acid with the zinc, electricity 
is liberated, it rushes to the conducting platina 
plate. The presence of this free electricity in 
the arterial blood is believed to be indispensable 
to complete its essential character as arterial 
blood. The lungs are the great battery of the 
system; in them, chiefly, the system gets its 
63 CIRCULATION OR THE BLOOD. 
magnetism, obtained from the elements of the 
venous blood, especially from metals and carbon, 
by action of the oxygen of the air upon them, 
in the function of breathing. The brain nerves 
are the agents or instruments of the distribution 
of the blood to the system in general. 
Allow me to ask you to bear in mind the car- 
dinal principle of electrical polarity, that posi- 
tives repel positives, while positives and neg- 
atives attract each other. You inhale your 
breath, as a vital function, by the action of the 
electrical principle sent out from your brain to 
the organs employed. That breath is full of 
oxygen. The venous blood, in the lungs, is 
composed largely of oxidizable elements, as the 
carbonaceous and the metallic. The inhaled 
oxygen, coming in contact with these elements 
in the lungs, and having a powerful electrical 
affinity for them, combines chemically with them. 
This combination or oxidization of the sanguine- 
ous fluid changes it from the dark venous to the 
red arterial blood, and, by charging it somatically 
with the magnetism which was liberated in the CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 
65 
process of oxidization, makes it strongly positive. 
But two positives repel each other. The lungs, 
being constantly replenished and filled with this 
electricity, set free by the action of the oxygen 
on the venous blood, are also positive. The 
lungs, therefore, and the arterial blood, repel 
each other; their mutual repulsion necessitates 
and compels their separation; the one or the 
other must give place; the lungs cannot retreat, 
and the blood must. Its only course to get away 
is through the pulmonary veins, and it rushes 
through them into the left auricle of the heart. 
But it is yet within the sphere of the mutual 
repulsion between it and the lungs, and, being 
also crowded along by the succeeding current 
from the lungs, it is urged onward. 
The auricle, under the influence of the electro- 
vital force, performs its proper function, con- 
tracting on the blood within it. The blood 
shoots through the passage down into the left 
ventricle, where it still feels the powerful repul- 
sion of the lungs and the propulsion of the 
advancing current behind, and here also the CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 
ventricle, actuated by tbe electro-vital force, per- 
forms its duty and contracts with much force 
upon the blood. This action of the heart, sup- 
plemented and sustained by the forces in the 
rear, drives it to the extremities of the arterial 
system. Here the propulsion from behind is 
aided by the electrical attraction of the capillaries 
in the advance, of which Prof. Draper speaks. 
Hence the blood is both crowded and drawn for- 
ward into these minute vessels. 
But all along its way, so far, there has been a 
friction between it and the arterial walls, causing 
it to part with more or less of its electricity. In 
the capillaries this process is completed. The 
chemical changes there, which, by the way, I 
think to be really electrical changes, take from 
it the balance of its oxygen and with that its 
relatively positive electricity, and so change it 
into negative venous blood. Now its electrical 
relations to the lungs are changed. Here in 
these systematic capillaries, it reaches the cen- 
tral point of its circuit. Being now electrically 
negative, it both attracts and is attracted by the CIRCULATION OF THK BLOOD. 
67 
positive lungs. It therefore rushes to them by 
the only route that is open to it; that is, through 
the veins, heart and pulmonary artery. 
In the lungs it enters the pulmonic capillaries, 
where it again comes into contact with the 
oxygen inhaled as an element of the air. By 
the above mentioned action of the oxygen, it is 
immediately charged with electricity and thus 
becomes positive again, when the old repulsion 
between it and the lungs is renewed and it is 
again repelled to the left auricle of the heart, 
driven through it into the left ventricle, whence 
it is thrust out into the aorta by the heart’s 
mechanical contraction and urged on by mag- 
netic repulsion through the arterial system as 
before. 
Thus it continues its rounds ; on the one side 
being driven off to distribute through the system 
its nutritive and life-sustaining freight, which 
had been received along the veins from the ab- 
sorbent vessels of the alimentary canal and in 
the lungs; and, having delivered its charge, 
being called back, on the other side, by a resist- 68 
CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 
less power, to tlie lungs to be freighted anew. 
Such is the circulation of the blood; and such 
are the forces, as I humbly conceive, by which, 
in its circulation, the blood is impelled. 
At this point, the question may very properly 
be raised: What becomes of the electricity or 
magnetism that is given off from the arterial 
blood in its passage from the heart through the 
aorta and the arterial ramifications ? A very im- 
portant inquiry and one the answer of which 
should be well understood. This question brings 
under consideration one of the many beautiful 
exhibitions of contrivance, in the structure of the 
human body, which proclaim with clearness and 
force the existence of a conscious, intelligent 
God, the Contriver and Creator of all. I refer to 
the well known, fact that the arteries are in- 
variably accompanied, in all their flexions and 
ramifications, by, at least single, and much of 
the way double, lines of closely attendant and 
interwining nerves; a fact which is not true of 
the veins. CIRCULATION OR THR BLOOD. 
69 
Now for what purpose, do you suppose, is this 
special nervous attendance granted to the arter- 
ies and nofcalfe the veins ? That at least a single 
line of nerves should be served out to the arteries 
would seem to be for the purpose of exciting, by 
means of the electro-vital fluid, through the 
nerve filaments that penetrate the arterial issues, 
those contractions which co-operate with the con- 
tractions of the heart to facilitate the circulation 
of the blood. But for what purpose is this dupli- 
cate nerve line that accompanies the vessels con- 
taining arterial blood ? Most manifestly, as it 
seems to me, for the purpose of taking up, by 
induction through its filaments, which entwine 
about those blood vessels, that electricity which 
is discharged from the arterial blood by its 
friction against the walls of the arteries, and 
conducting it to the great sympathetic, and 
thence, by anastomosis, to the spinal cord and up 
to the brain; there to undergo some secret elabor- 
ation in conjunction with the mind or spirit, con- 
verting it into electro-vital fluid, to be sent forth 
again as the vital force of the whole organism. 70 
CIRCULATION OR THE BLOOD. 
You will remember that the arterial blood is 
highly charged with electricity, and therefore 
positive. But when it harassed from 
the arteries to the veins, it has lost its magnet- 
ism and becomes negative, venous blood. This 
loss is, and must be, largely sustained along its 
passage, since there is considerable friction there. 
It is true that the inner surface of the arteries is 
highly polished, but the same is true also 
throughout the whole circulatory system, and 
yet, in the capillaries and other small blood 
vessels, as seen in the web of a frog’s foot, there 
is so much friction that the red corpuscles are 
visibly retarded in their motion along the parietes, 
while those in the center move by them and pass 
along with greater ease and speed. So in a river 
the friction of the water with the banks necessi- 
tates a slower current along the edges than in 
the middle of the stream. 
Precisely this is seen in the blood vessels. No 
matter, therefore, how polished are the inner 
walls of the arteries, there is a friction there with 
the flowing blood, and that friction must dis- CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD. 
71 
charge the electricity of the blood throughout 
the arterial course. This electricity, I doubt not, 
is disposed of in the manner that I have already 
stated. Thus I have endeavored to indicate to 
you that most admirable replenishing apparatus 
by which is kept up, in health, a continual and 
abundant supply of the electro-vital fluid to the 
system, while every exercise of mind and of 
body is put forth at an expenditure of this vital 
element, to exhaustion, prostration and death. The trance state. 
The trance state is a condition produced by the 
suspension of physical life—cause, inco-ordina- 
tion between the electrical life and mind, or spirit 
life—in which condition the person is supposed 
to be dead, yet lives, and in many instances is 
buried alive, as numerous undertakers and others 
will testify. The state or condition simulates 
Catalepsy more nearly than any other known 
disease, and the same cause of the disease may 
be attributable to the same or similar causes as 
those of Catalepsy. This trance state or cata- 
leptic condition may continue for weeks, without 
a sign of life in the body, when, from some un- 
known cause the physical life reunites with the 
mind or spirit life, and the person becomes a 
living, moving being. From a Bible standpoint, 
God made man from the dust .of the earth and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and 
73 74 
THE TRANCE STATE. 
lie became a living soul or spirit. Now, wben in 
tbe trance state, the physical life is suspended 
or departs from the body, the spirit life remains 
in the body, which in itself is unchanged and 
will remain so as long as the trance lasts. This 
proves the authenticity of the Bible statement, 
that man is endowed with a living spirit, 
beyond a question of doubt. 
When the spirit departs from the body it 
returns to God, who gave it, and the body re- 
turns to dust, whence it came. This may be 
likened unto the separation or removal of the 
electricity from our street cars. First, the elec- 
tricity, or physical life was suspended or left the 
body; eventually the mind or spirit left the 
body, which ended all until the resurrection of 
the dead; just as the electricity leaves the car 
standing on the track until the motorneer turns 
his electricity on to put his car in motion. 
Now, if any person has a more practical, nat- 
ural and rational theory on the subject, I should 
be pleased to hear from him. ANALYSIS OF THE PRACTICE OF 
MEDICINE. 
GIVING THE REASONS WHY ELECTRICITY SHOULD 
BE USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH MEDICINES, 
ACCORDING TO THE PRINCIPLES 
TAUGHT IN MY WORK 
ON ELECTRICAL 
MEDICATION. 
The practice of medicine is based on the theory 
that medicines act, on diseased organs, through 
the medium of the nervous system, circulation, 
etc. The experiments with medicines have been 
made on persons who were in a normal or 
healthy condition, and if administered when in 
this condition, they will have the effect they are 
accredited with. If the mediums are one-fourth 
less healthy, on the same principle, the medi- 
cines will have one-fourth less effect. If they 
75 ANALYSIS OF PRACTICE. 
are one-half less healthy they will have one- 
half less effect. When used without the aid of 
electricity, they will rarely, if ever, effect a cure. 
Less medium, less action. No medium, no 
action. INFLAMMATION AND WHAT IT IS. 
The term inflammation is derived from the 
Latin words “ in ” and “ flamma" in flame, fire, 
combustion, because of the burning pain attend- 
ing it and the appearance of the parts affected. 
This is correct as far as appearances go. But 
what it is, and how to get rid of it, are the con- 
cern of the physician, if he has a severe case of 
inflammation or congestion on his hands. In- 
flammation is an excess of nerve force, or elec- 
tricity and blood, in the parts inflamed. Elec- 
tricity is the fire, while blood is the fuel; hence, 
also, the philosophy of redness, pain, unnatural 
heat, etc. 
Now for the evidence of the correctness of the 
theory. In severe cases of congestion or inflam- 
mation, you will find a coldness of the surface 
and extremities in every direction from the local 
congestion or inflammation, for the reason that 78 
INFLAMMATION. 
the electricity and blood have receded from the 
surface and extremities to the parts inflamed, 
impairing the mediums through which medicines 
act. It is a law of nature that a greater force 
will repel a lesser one. Therefore electricity, 
scientifically administered, will force or repel the 
excessive amount of electricity from the in- 
flamed parts to the surface and extremities, from 
which it had receded, re-establish an equilibrium 
in the system and maintain it; thereby prevent- 
ing all possibility of death from inflammation, 
if applied before mortification ensues. This it 
has not failed to do, in my hands, for the last 
twenty-three years, excepting in two cases. A 
partial record of my practice for twenty-two 
years will explain. Price 10 cents. LAURA BRIDGMAN’S BRAIN. 
The brain of Laura Bridgman, the famous 
woman who lived her alloted years, devoid of 
sight, hearing, speech, smell and taste, brought 
some time ago to Clark University for examina- 
tion, has just told its story. The result of the 
investigation proves that the peculiarities were 
due solely to arrested development in the portion 
relating to the disused senses. Up to the time 
of the girl’s illness, when she was two years 
old, the brain developed normally. After that it 
grew unevenly. It is a well known and undis- 
puted fact that the use or disuse of certain por- 
tions of the body, or of certain sets of muscles, 
results in a marked development or lack of de- 
velopment of these portions or muscles. The 
theory quite naturally was advanced that the 
development of the brain tissue depended, to a 
considerable extent at least, on the use or disuse 
79 80 
Laura bridgman’s brain. 
of senses directly connected with and relating 
to the cells of the brain,* There was never so 
good an opportunity to test its truth as in the 
case of Laura Bridgman, a healthy woman, with 
an originally normal brain, but which lacked 
development, living to be nearly 60 years old, 
exercising to a very considerable extent the 
powers left her, and never moody or despondent. 
The weight was but slightly less than that of 
the entirely normal brain. Both hemispheres 
were developed alike. The extent of the cortex 
(which receives and imparts sensations) was, if 
in any way unusual, somewhat less than the 
average brain. All of the affected cranial or 
brain nerves were small, and the regions of the 
cortex associated with the defective senses and 
motor or articulate tongue-speech were partly or 
peculiarly developed. In general the entire cor- 
tex was thinner than in the normal brain with 
which it was compared. The nerve terminations 
of the nose and eyes were destroyed or highly 
disordered and there was great destruction of 
the middle ear and of the nerves connected with LAURA BRIDGMAN’S BRAIN. 
81 
the organs of taste. The most striking and 
conclusive feature, however, was the condition 
of the parts connected with the nerves of sight. 
The right eye of Miss Bridgman remained use- 
ful, to a slight extent, some time longer than 
the left. This resulted in developing that por- 
tion of the brain connected with the right eye 
to a greater extent than that connected with the 
left. This is sufficient proof in itself that the 
development depends upon the use of the or- 
gan.—Clipping from newspaper. 
EXPLANATION. 
Analysis of tlie case goes to prove that during 
her sickness, the cortex (which receives and im- 
parts sensations) was engorged with electricity 
and blood; this, owing to the suspension of the 
electro-magnetic forces from remote parts to the 
cortex of the brain, was the cause of inflamma- 
tion, which continued long enough to disarrange 
or destroy the conductors or nerves leading from 
the cortex to the diseased parts named, leaving 
a deathlike state, upon subsidence of the in- 82 
LAURA BRIDGMAN’S BRAIN. 
flammation, in the conductors from their origin 
in the brain to their termini. Had electricity 
been scientifically administered at the time the 
cortex was engorged, and the inflammation dis- 
persed, there would not have been a diseased 
condition left in her brain. This I positively 
believe from actual practice or experience in 
treating congestions and inflammations of the 
brain. (See Electrical Medication, page 22, 
1888, for treatment of the brain in congestions 
and inflammations of the same.) LIFE AND DEATH, ELECTRICITY AND 
WATER. 
THE HUMAN SYSTEM, IN HEALTH AND DISEASE, 
COMPARED TO A POND OE WATER WITH AND 
WITHOUT A LIVING STREAM OF WATER 
RUNNING THROUGH THE SAME. 
Suspension of nerve force in the system sus- 
pends the circnlation of the blood and weakens 
the muscular fibers and capillary system in pro- 
portion to the suspension of said nerve force. 
The whole human structure will become de- 
ranged and diseased to the same extent of the 
suspension of nerve force in every organ and 
part of the body. In proportion to the amount 
of pure water running through the pond will 
the stagnant and impure water be purified. 
83 84 
FIFE AND DEATH. 
Stagnation in the system, as in water, is death- 
like. Electricity, scientifically administered, will 
purify and restore action in the system on the 
same principle that a stream of water running 
through a pond of stagnant water will purify 
the same. See Electrical Medication for general 
principles. PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE. 
85 
Contents : Polarization, The Electric Cir- 
cuit, Polarization of the Circuit, The Current, 
Modifications of Electricity, The Vital Forces— 
Animal and Vegetable, Extent of Electric 
Agency, Theory of Man, The Lower Animals, 
The Vegetable Kingdom, Natural Polarization 
of Man’s Physical Organism, Electrical Classi- 
fication of Diseases, Philosophy of Disease and 
Cure. 
PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE. 
Polar Antagonisms, Importance of Noting the 
Central Point, Distinctive Use of Each Pole, 
The Use of the Long Cord, The Inward and the 
Outward Current, Mechanical Effect of Each 
Pole, Relaxed and Atrophied Conditions, General 
Directions of the Current, Treating with Elec- 
trolytic Currents, Positive and Negative Mani- 
festations, Healing Diagnosis. ELECTRICAL MEDICATION 
teaches how to treat numerous acute and chronic 
diseases with electricity. It teaches how to con- 
trol inflammation to a certainty by using elec- 
tricity in conjunction with medicines, thereby 
saving the lives of many that would perish or die 
without it. Over thirty-eight years’ experience 
with medicines, twenty-three years of the time a 
clinical experience with electricity, justifies the 
above assertions of the author. REFERENCE REVIEWS. 
J. J. Lawrence, A. M., M. D., editor of Medical 
Brief\ St. Louis, Mo., April, 1885, says: Elec- 
trical Medication is worth many times the price 
asked for it. (Send for it.’’) 
J. S. Zerbe, editor American Inventor, March, 
1884, says in conclusion of a review on Electri- 
cal Medication: “Dr. Tipton is to be congratu- 
lated for the succesful manner in which he has 
presented the subject.” 
D. B. Goldsmith, M. D., Ramsey, Fayette Co., 
111., June, 1883: “I have read all the works of 
prominent electricians of Europe and the United 
States, but saw nothing based upon common 
sense and backed up by logical reasoning until 
I read your book.” 88 
REFERENCE REVIEWS. 
Hovnoeopathic News, St. Louis, April, 1882 : 
“ Physicians desiring to adopt the battery in 
their practice will find this a comprehensive and 
practical work.” 
American Medical Digest, New York, April, 
1882 : “ From reading this work we are impressed 
with the author’s true discipleship and his spe- 
cific adaptation of electrical medicine to almost 
every malady to which man is heir.” 
Minnesota Medical Mirror, Cambridge City, 
April, 1882 : “ The very liberal and reasonable 
deductions of the author are convincing at once 
that he is not riding a hobby,’’ etc. 89 
reference reviews. 
American Medical Journal, St. Louis, Mo,, 
April, 1882 ; “ The subject of Electrical Medica- 
tion is presented in a different manner from that 
to be found anywhere else. In this book we 
have a practice of medicine characterized by 
variety—electricity and all therapeutic agents 
employed by all branches of the profession.” 
E. O. Neil, M. D., Member Royal College 
Physicians and Surgeons, England—See review 
in the work. 
From the G. E. Medical Journal, Atlanta, 
Georgia, 1882, conclusion of review: u Dr. Tip- 
ton has presented these subjects of Electrical 
Therapeutics in a manner that will not fail to 
interest every reader; nor has he made a humor- 
ous hobby out of it.” 90 
reference reviews. 
We could furnish any number of endorse- 
ments similar to the foregoing and following: 
Dr. J. A. Dougherty, United States Medical 
Examiner for Pensions, says: “ The work is 
worth its weight in gold ; entirely unlike any- 
thing of the kind that I have ever read.” 
Upon receipt of $3.00, I will send the book to 
any address by return mail, post-paid. After 
sixty days, if you do not consider the work 
worth ten times the price asked for it, return the 
same and get your money, less transportation. 
A. W. TIPTON, M. D., 
Topeka, Kansas. 
FOR SAEE BY BOOK DEALERS PHILOSOPHER AND INFIDEL. 
Sir Isaac Newton, the celebrated astronomer 
of the seventeenth century, was greatly inter- 
ested in the statements of the Prophet Daniel, 
and declared his belief that in the fulfillment of 
them, human knowledge would so increase that 
men would possibly travel at the rate of fifty 
miles an hour. Voltaire, the noted French in- 
fidel, got hold of this statement and scornfully 
remarked : “Now look at the mighty mind of 
Newton, the great philosopher who discovered 
the law of gravitation; when he became an old 
man and got into his dotage he began to study 
the book called the Bible, and in order to credit 
its fabulous nonsense he would have ns believe 
that knowledge of mankind will yet be so in- 
91 92 
PHILOSOPHER AND INFIDEL. 
creased that we shall by-and-by be able to travel 
fifty miles an hour! “ Poor dotard.” (Millen- 
nial Dawn, volume 3, pages 63-64. Published in 
Allegheny, Penn., by the Tower Publishing Co.) 
There has been progression beyond Newton’s 
expectations. In ’92 steam cars run 80 miles 
an hour. In ’93, at the exposition in Chicago, 
miniature electric cars will run 100 miles an 
hour. Later on passenger cars will run 150 
miles an hour. 
Those desirous of further information, see 
the arguments for and against in Ludwig: 
“Lehrbuch der Physiol.’’ Todd and Bowmans’s : 
“ Physiological Anatomy.’’ Longet: “Traite de 
Physiologic.’’ Funke : “ Lehrbuch der Physiol.” 
This fact concerning the nervous fluid has 
been one of much dispute among eminent 
physiologists, both in this country and in Europe. 
We do not consider that this is absolutely be- 
yond dispute, yet, after examining most all the 93 
PHILOSOPHER AND INFIDEL. 
works extant on the subject, and experimenting 
much with Electricity, both on dead and living 
subjects, we are fully convinced of the truth of 
the above statement. Electricity is the motive 
power, Carpenter’s Human Physiology to the 
contrary notwithstanding. The following occurs 
on page 269 of the above named work, referring 
to the heart and circulation : “It is not possible 
to imagine that it has any other relation than this 
to their function; since the formation of each 
separate element of the organ, of which-that of 
the entire organ is the aggregate, is due to its 
own inherent vital powers—the supply of blood 
being only required as furnishing the material 
on which these are to be exercised. (Nonsense.) 
The azotized articles of food yield up their 
nitrogen for the formation of blood and flesh. 
But the nitrogen taken into the circulation 
through the act of respiration is again thrown 
off. The only or main object of respiration is 94 
PHILOSOPHER AND INFIDEL. 
to produce animal heat and to carry away, as it 
were, the ashes. Respiration makes room for 
growth, but in no way produces it; all the 
material used in building up the system comes 
to the blood through the digestive and assimila- 
tive apparatuses. By the digestive force is 
meant electricity. OLD THEORIES ARE PASSING AWAY. 
Science has at last discovered that the sun is 
not a dead center, with planets wheeling about 
it, but itself stationary. It is now ascertained 
that the sun also is in motion, carrying with it 
its splendid retinue of comets, planets, its satel- 
lites and theirs, around some other and vastly 
mightier center. Astronomers are not yet fully 
agreed as to what or where that center is. Some, 
however, believe that they have found the direc- 
tion of it to be the Pleiades, particularly Alcyone, 
the central one of the renowned Pleiadic stars. 
To the distinguished German astronomer, Prof. 
J. H. Maeidler, belongs the honor of having 
made this discovery. Alcyone, then, as far as 
science has been able to perceive, would seem to 
95 96 OLD THEORIES ARE PASSING AWAY. 
be “the midnight throne” in which the whole 
system of gravitation has its seat, and from 
which the Almighty governs his universe.— 
Millennial Dawn, volume 111, page 321.