Popular name for a diagnostic machine originally created by Albert ABRAMS. In the late 19th century, as a professor of pathology at Cooper Medical College in San Francisco, California, Abrams turned his attention to cancer. Out of his study, he conceived the notion that each disease had a special vibration, and he built a machine to measure that vibration. During the first decade of the new century, he began to use the “dynamizer,” which allowed diagnosis from a sample of a patient’s blood. This blood sample was placed inside the machine, and a healthy patient was then attached to the machine by a wire. Abrams would tap on the stomach of the person next to the machine, which would reportedly measure the vibrations along the spine. By reading the gauges on the dynamizer, he could render a diagnosis. Abrams termed his system “electronics;” it has more recently been called radionics.
Building on his hypothesis, Abrams built the ERA (for “Electronic Reaction of Abrams”) machine or “oscillocast.” He maintained that it could not only diagnose but treat; it sent healthy vibrations back to the diseased patient. He leased oscillocasts to his colleagues. Toward the end of his career, Abrams proposed a diagnostic technique based on handwriting. From his examination of autographs, he concluded that a number of famous 19th- century figures had been suffering from syphilis.