With the coming of the newer discoveries in medicine as to the effects
on the human body of radium, the X-ray and ultra violet light, the
agile-minded exploiters of the public’s interest in keeping young were
again quick to respond with the preparation and sale of such apparatus
and material for purposes of rejuvenation. Of course, rejuvenation is
not a physical state that can be easily determined accurately. The old
man with declining powers is ready to welcome the slightest sign of
increasing ability in physical work or in sexual activity. He forgets
to reason that the rest and the mental stimulation associated with
any new method of treatment are likely to bring about the illusion of
strength.
The manufacturer of a cabinet lined with incandescent lamps, for
example, is not content to claim for it the simple uses of a sweat
bath, or of heat produced by incandescent lamps. Ah! No! This simple
cabinet becomes as by the wave of a magician’s want, an “Inductive
Metabolizing Method.” And the manufacturer says:
The ---- Inductive Metabolizing method gives to the world one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, means of rejuvenation of the human
organism known to medicine, but the part that is most interesting
about this modality is that of its synergetic action with all the
recognized methods of rejuvenation now in use--such as gland therapy,
radioactive drinking water, baths, etc., as the results obtained by
their use, when accompanied by the Inductive Metabolizing treatments,
are increased tenfold.
One can almost picture him rubbing his hands in glee as he murmurs:
“Rejuvenation: That’s the word that gets ’em!”
The makers of apparatus containing radium or the blenders of waters
which have been submitted to the rays of this wondrous element urge
also its potency for rejuvenation. They point knowingly to the
radioactive springs of Germany and Switzerland and cite the records of
the old men who have visited those springs and returned home younger in
body, if not in years. But they too neglect the effect of weeks of rest
and freedom from care, of good diet and salubrious surroundings, and
possibly--in fact, probably--of enforced inactivity for those portions
of the anatomy whose physical functioning persists in remaining the
center of interest when rejuvenation is discussed.
“THE NEW SCIENCE OF RADIENDOCRINOLOGY”
If radiation rejuvenates--although of course it doesn’t--and if
glands rejuvenate--and it has been shown that they do not--then, say
the manufacturers of the Radiendocrinator, the combination will get
the result. Merely ray the glands with the Radiendocrinator--price
$150.00--and you are there! The booklets are a hodgepodge of
exaggerations, fallacies, and confusions regarding chemistry, physics,
biology, glands, radium, and whatnot. But the convincing document is
a blue-colored bonded guarantee of satisfaction or money refunded.
Couched in language that seems to make the chance of financial loss
to the unwary impossible, the guarantee is nevertheless a snare and a
delusion. Launched originally by Dr. Herman H. Rubin, New York, as a
device to be worn at night over the glands and selling at $1,000.00,
the apparatus is now a reflector on a stand and can be purchased for
$150.00 But for pure romance the literature is at least ten times as
fanciful.