Tesla's Cure for All Diseases

He Will Kill the Germs by Applying Millions of Volts of Electricity.

Nikola Tesla, whose boldness in conceiving astonishing uses to which electricity may be put, has given the scientific world surprises from time to time, has a new proposal, and one which will arouse wide-spread interest and comment. He now proposes to destroy the bacilli of all diseases by applying millions of volts of electricity to persons afflicted. The tremendous force is to be applied in such a manner that the vital organs will be free from harmful effects and so that the bacilli will be drawn from the system. The tremendous current which Tesla proposes to apply will not be sent through the body, as in the cases of persons executed by electricity.

The new plan for destroying disease germs, including even those of consumption, was outlined recently in an exhaustive paper which the electrician read before the Electro-Therapeutic society, and created deep interest. It had been supposed that Tesla’s feat in generating a current of fifty thousand volts, announced some time ago, was the limit, but he said Saturday evening that the cure proposed to be the use of millions of volts, applied in such a manner as not only to harm the patient but to remove from his system all the bacilli lodged there and renew his store of energy.

Mr. Tesla said Saturday that the first accounts of his discovery were incorrect in some particulars. It was said, for instance, that he proposed to place the patient in a glass case and to apply the tremendous current from without, the glass, not being an absolute non-conductor, serving to permit the application of the current without causing too great a shock and to distribute it so that the repeated charges of static electricity would destroy the various forms of bacilli without injury to the patient. Mr. Tesla said of this description of his process:

“That is wrong, technically. There will be no glass case such as is spoken of. I have no time to go into the manner in detail now, beyond telling you that it is my plan to apply several millions of volts of electricity to the surface of the body and draw out the germs.

“No, death would not follow the use of a current so tremendous. The patient would not be injured, but would receive a new store of energy. I think the reports from Washington are a result of my recent presentation of new features in the use of electricity for the cure of disease.”

Just how Mr. Tesla proposes to generate a force so mighty he did not say. That is his secret. While a current of 1,500 or 1,800 volts suffices to kill a man instantly when applied in a certain way, a vastly great amount of electricity applied in a manner altogether different, it is explained, may be of beneficial effect, and the patient may become practically a new man as far as his store of vital energy is concerned.

Dr. F. S. Kolle, who is in charge of the electro-therapeutic department of the Electrical Engineer institute, and who has written extensively of the Roentgen discovery and kindred matters, was much interested when told of the discovery of Tesla. An afternoon paper quoted him as saying: “I do not know how the million volt current is to be produced in the first place. I know of no apparatus which will produce more than a 50,000 volt current. Tesla has produced that — an oscillatory current of high frequency. I see no reason why a glass case should be used. Any man can take a million volts direct with his body — if it can be produced — and not be injured by it, but benefited instead. The reason that 50,000 volts did not kill Tesla when he took that strength of current is that the cells in his body did not have time to contract in response to it. Much less would have killed him instantly. Much more is all the safer. It is just such a case as that of a bullet going through a window pane. At high speed it will cut a clean hole and will not crack the glass. The particles have not time to spread during the period of impact.

“As to the benefit of so great a current, we say it was a proverb that electricity is life and the scientific meaning of that saying is that it oxidizes the tissue. I have long held the theory, though I have never made it public before, that the renewal of energy and vitality which follows eating long before the three or four hours necessary for digestion have passed is directly due to the production of electric force generated by the action of the stomach acids on the chemicals in the food.

“The exterior application of an oscillatory current of high frequency would have a similar effect, greater as the current went higher, but whether proportionately greater I cannot say. So, therefore, the use of such a current would restore vitality and be an ally and aid to the food taken into the stomach. It could never take the place of food, of course, for, while it could supply oxygen, it could not give the carbo-hydrates necessary to existence. Therefore, its use would not diminish the amount of needed. The person using it, however, would have a greater ability to work and a more brilliant intellectuality.

“Would the million volt current, if it could be produced, kill the bacilli of disease in the body? I do not know. I do not know whether a 50,000 volt current can do it. I am not aware that any of that kind have been made. But oxidization does kill bacilli of all kinds and as these currents produce it there is a good reason to believe that part of the claim for this discovery. What has not been heretofore known is how much oxidization of tissue will kill bacilli therein. Perhaps that has now been found out. It all seems feasible, except the talk about a glass cage.” — New York Herald.