Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1919-08-07
SUPERSTITIONS Of
MEDICINE RELATED
BY DR.. W. C. HOPE
Physician Tells Of Royal Curel
Perkins metallic Tractors"
and the Mysterious Healer
of Old Town,


AS usual. things were doing at the
luncheon of the Kiwanis club yester-
day The features were the oral boost
by DIR. w. G. Hope. who delivered an
address on Medical Decisions and
Superstitions," and brief talk BY II.
3. Watkins, the new secretary OF the
Chamber of Commerce. BE 1t sald Tor
Mr.. Watkins that he impressed the
Kiwanians as having ability to put
things across and he was told by the
Kiwanians that he was just as well
come in Albuquerque at this time as
Bluecher was by Wellington at
Waterloo and as the Americans We're
by the allies when they got to Europe.
He might well pass for one of
Raphaefs cherubs, so chubby and
smiling and baldheaded. is he, and he
asked the members when they met
him on the street to call him Wat"
the name by which he was commonly
known in Winona, Mimi. the city
from which he comes to Albuquerque.
Two new members. Superintendent
II. C. Donaldson of the Menaul school
and w. C. Raabe. We're elected. but
the club loses Herman II. Chapman,
assistant district forester. who leaves
the city soon to become q teacher of
forestry.
The silent boost was a box of cigars
from e. N. Boule of Gross Kelly Il
Co., and the attendance prize, flash
light, given by DR.. Charles A. Eller
was won by c. r. French.
DR.. Hope as oral booster told of the
decisions and superstitions of medi-
cine in a paper that seldom has been
equalled in Albuquerque for the
amount of interest il awakened in
l. L. oil ..f
the royal cure" for scrofula but of
the metallic tractors" in use 100 years
ago, to the efficacy of which there
were more than 5000 testimonials,
many of them from the learned or
the great.
DR.. Hope probably aroused the
greatest interest when he told of hav-
ing seen Schlatter the alleged divine
healer who started his career in AL
buquerque, followed by hundreds of
people in Old Town when he made his
first appearance here.
But DR.. HOPES address is well
worth reproduction in full, so interest
ing and instructive IS it.
Dr. Hope said:
The Royal Cure.
From the time of Edward the
Confessor to queen Anne, the mon
archs of England were in the habit of
touching those who were Brought to
them suffering from scrofula. Will
liam the Third had sense enough to
discontinue the practice, but Anne re-
sumed it, and among her patients, per-
formed the royal operation upon a
child who grew up into Samuel John
son, of dictionary fame
After laying his hand upon the pa
tent it was customary for the mon
arch to hang a gold piece around the
neck of each patient. Very strict pre-
cautions were adopted to prevent
those who thought more of the golden
angel hung round the neck by white
ribbon, than of relief of their bodily
infirmities from making too many
calls. According to the statement of
the advocates of this remedy none
ever failed of receiving benefit unless
their little faith and incredulity was
the cause of failure. Some are said
to have been cured Immediately on the
very touch, others did not so easily
get rid of their swellings until they
were touched second time.
Several cases are related of per-
sons who had been blind for several
weeks and months, and obliged to be
led to Whitehall, yet recovered their
sight Immediately upon being touch
ed, so as to walk away without any
guide. So widely was the belief at one
time diffused that IN the course of
twelve years nearly 100000 people
were touched by Charles the Second.
Catholic divines in disputes upon the
orthodoxy of their church, did not
deny that the power had descended
to Protestant princes; Protestant and
Catholic bishops We'd with each other
In their testimonials relative to the
miraculous healing power of the royal
touch"
Metallic Tractors.
Few of those present have ever
heard of the metallic tractors invented
by one Dr. Perkins, an American, and
formerly enjoying great reputation for
the cure of various diseases. For 100
years this great discovery, which was
to Danish at least half Of the evils
that afflict humanity, has been sleep
ing undisturbed in the grave of OBJ
livion. We will let Oliver Wendell
Holmes tell you about the wonderful
Perkins tractors-quoting from one of
his medical essays:
"Dr. Elisha Perkins was born in
Norwich, Conn. 1910. He had prac-
ticed medicine with good local repu-
tation for many years when he fell
upon a course of experiments, as it is
related, Whlcn leo TO MS great as
covery. He conceived the idea that
metallic substances might have the
effect of removing disease, If applied
in certain manner over certain nerves,
a notion suggested probably by the
recent experiments of Galvani.
1t was in 1895 that his discovery
was promulgated in the shape of me-
tallic tractors, two pieces of metal
one apparently iron and the other
brass, about three inches long, blunt
at one end and pointed at the other.
These instruments were applied for
the cure of different complaints, such
as rheumatism, local pains, inflamma-
tons, and even tumors, by drawing
them over the affected parts for
about twenty minutes. DIR. Perkins
took out a patent for his discovery
and travelled over the country to diff
fuse the new practice. He soon found