miquelangeles
Member
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2021
- Messages
- 928
In the 1800s a doctor named Joseph Henry Shorthouse hypothesized that cholera and other epidemics were transmitted or caused by a morbid form of electricity in the atmosphere.
He made the observation that certain epidemics affect the young and active in particular, whose bodies generate a lot more electricity, similar to how the lightning strikes certain trees only, and never a dead tree.
Not a far fetched idea at all, considering that the total structural charge of SARS-Cov-2 is positive + and the highly transmissible Omicron variant had further increase in positive surface charge.
e.g. some studies 1 2 3 etc. In the cold season, when the air is dry, we attract more static electricity and the body collects extra electrons, having a net negative surface charge, which more readily attracts the positively charged viral particles.
As a preventative measure, J. H. Shorthouse advocated the use of grounded shoes using screws and metal foils on the soles, in order to discharge the excess electricity.
Here are some excerpts from his book "The Common Sense of Medicine; or, The Art of Healing in a Nutshell (1876)":
_________________________________________________
Like most other scourges, cholera is much more easily prevented than cured. If I did not believe most sincerely that it could be effectually prevented without calling in the aid or advice of the busy bodies of the Privy Council, I should not have enlarged upon it at the length I have done. I have attempted to show that a certain amount of vitality or activity is necessary before the evil influence — whatever be its precise nature- can exert itself disastrously upon living bodies; and inasmuch as I believe it is a sort of electricity in some morbid or eccentric condition, it requires its victims also to be surcharged with electricity, so that a sort of collision or shock may take place between the slayer and its victim. At this time of the year, * and more especially in dry weather, most robust and active persons are actually surcharged with electricity, and therefore in a fitting condition to become the recipients of the evil influence if it should happen to be floating in the atmosphere. They manufacture electricity faster than it escapes from their bodies to the earth or to the surrounding media. They consequently feel languid, tired, and oppressed. All this is to be counteracted in the easiest and cheapest manner possible. Its cost will not be a penny per head, or I ought rather to have said a penny per foot per annum. Let them eschew gutta-percha soles to their shoes and boots, and also elastic side-springs, and let them have their boots or shoes made in such a way that a flat-headed iron screw shall penetrate from the inside of the sole to the outside. One screw through the sole and another through the heel of each shoe will be sufficient. They must be flat-headed screws, of course, and the heads should be imbedded in the sole so as not to injure the sole of the foot. New shoes are easily made in this manner, and at no increased expense. Let the head of the screw be inside the shoe, and the point of the screw penetrate to the outside, so as to come in contact with the ground. In hot, dry, and sultry weather it is also advisable to wet the soles of the shoes several times a day, not sopping the soles sufficiently to give the wearer a cold, but damping them enough to increase their conducting power, as water is a good conductor, and facilitates the escape of electricity from the body. In this way the wearers of the conducting shoes will escape cholera and other serious epidemic diseases. The point of the screw which penetrates to the out sides of the soles and heels of the shoes comes in contact with the ground, and it naturally wears out in the same proportion as the leather. If it were a nail and not screw, it might be pressed upwards, so as to become inconveniently prominent in side the shoe . But screws do not rise up; they wear away along with the outer sole of the shoe.
When the sole is worn out, and the shoe requires a new one, a difficulty arises, which, however, is easily surmounted. It would not be an easy matter to put a new screw in the place of the old one which penetrates the sole (though that could be done with the heel), and it would be still more difficult and undesirable to attempt to insert a short screw from the outside, so that its point should come in contact with the worn - down extremity of the old screw , and so effect a continuity of metallic surface for the escape of the electricity. The best way to surmount the difficulty is to place a layer of common tinfoil between the new sole and the insole, or the padding which intervenes between the two, and then nail the new sole on from the outside with short iron nails. Although none of the points of these nails may come into direct apposition with the points of the worn-down screws, the tinfoil will afford a conducting medium between the two, and the metallic chain will hardly be broken, and it will be quite effective for the purpose for which it is required. These matters may appear very ludicrous and trivial when discussing so solemn and alarming a pestilence as cholera, but I can assure my readers that they are not so, and that life itself, or, at any fate, personal comfort and enjoyment of life, is made up in great part of trifles; and if those who are disposed to laugh at the simplicity of these preventive measures will only put them in practice for a few hours, they will be fully convinced of their value and importance. If any of my readers suffer from a state of lassitude and fatigue when a thunderstorm is impending, or the weather is very close and sultry, let them wear a pair of shoes made in the manner I have described, and wet the soles frequently with water during the day, and they will speedily be convinced that there is more importance in the ludicrous trifles than they imagine, or would now be disposed to admit. Gutta-percha soles and goloshes insulate the wearers, and prevent the escape of electricity from their bodies. Fortunately, these abominations are never worn in dry weather, or when the roads and pavements are hot and dusty, and but seldom at those periods of the year when thunderstorms are prevalent, or when the atmosphere is unusually sultry, other wise we should have some most serious effects resulting from their use.
I have now fulfilled the promise which I gave when I began to write upon this theme. I have pointed out an easy, inexpensive, and effectual preventive, not only of cholera, but of several other serious pestilences. I have also indicated a mode of curing cholera, which is not only rational, but if put in practice will be found more efficacious than any or all the other systems so much in vogue, so highly lauded, but so disastrously faulty. If my readers choose to make use of the preventive measures, they may laugh at cholera; and if those of my brethren who are called upon to treat sufferers who have neglected such precautions, adopt the rational method of treatment, both alike may triumphantly approach the King of Terror, and ask , “Oh, death, where is thy sting? ” and may, tauntingly address his shadow , “Oh, grave, where is now thy victory!"
He made the observation that certain epidemics affect the young and active in particular, whose bodies generate a lot more electricity, similar to how the lightning strikes certain trees only, and never a dead tree.
Not a far fetched idea at all, considering that the total structural charge of SARS-Cov-2 is positive + and the highly transmissible Omicron variant had further increase in positive surface charge.
e.g. some studies 1 2 3 etc. In the cold season, when the air is dry, we attract more static electricity and the body collects extra electrons, having a net negative surface charge, which more readily attracts the positively charged viral particles.
As a preventative measure, J. H. Shorthouse advocated the use of grounded shoes using screws and metal foils on the soles, in order to discharge the excess electricity.
Here are some excerpts from his book "The Common Sense of Medicine; or, The Art of Healing in a Nutshell (1876)":
_________________________________________________
Like most other scourges, cholera is much more easily prevented than cured. If I did not believe most sincerely that it could be effectually prevented without calling in the aid or advice of the busy bodies of the Privy Council, I should not have enlarged upon it at the length I have done. I have attempted to show that a certain amount of vitality or activity is necessary before the evil influence — whatever be its precise nature- can exert itself disastrously upon living bodies; and inasmuch as I believe it is a sort of electricity in some morbid or eccentric condition, it requires its victims also to be surcharged with electricity, so that a sort of collision or shock may take place between the slayer and its victim. At this time of the year, * and more especially in dry weather, most robust and active persons are actually surcharged with electricity, and therefore in a fitting condition to become the recipients of the evil influence if it should happen to be floating in the atmosphere. They manufacture electricity faster than it escapes from their bodies to the earth or to the surrounding media. They consequently feel languid, tired, and oppressed. All this is to be counteracted in the easiest and cheapest manner possible. Its cost will not be a penny per head, or I ought rather to have said a penny per foot per annum. Let them eschew gutta-percha soles to their shoes and boots, and also elastic side-springs, and let them have their boots or shoes made in such a way that a flat-headed iron screw shall penetrate from the inside of the sole to the outside. One screw through the sole and another through the heel of each shoe will be sufficient. They must be flat-headed screws, of course, and the heads should be imbedded in the sole so as not to injure the sole of the foot. New shoes are easily made in this manner, and at no increased expense. Let the head of the screw be inside the shoe, and the point of the screw penetrate to the outside, so as to come in contact with the ground. In hot, dry, and sultry weather it is also advisable to wet the soles of the shoes several times a day, not sopping the soles sufficiently to give the wearer a cold, but damping them enough to increase their conducting power, as water is a good conductor, and facilitates the escape of electricity from the body. In this way the wearers of the conducting shoes will escape cholera and other serious epidemic diseases. The point of the screw which penetrates to the out sides of the soles and heels of the shoes comes in contact with the ground, and it naturally wears out in the same proportion as the leather. If it were a nail and not screw, it might be pressed upwards, so as to become inconveniently prominent in side the shoe . But screws do not rise up; they wear away along with the outer sole of the shoe.
When the sole is worn out, and the shoe requires a new one, a difficulty arises, which, however, is easily surmounted. It would not be an easy matter to put a new screw in the place of the old one which penetrates the sole (though that could be done with the heel), and it would be still more difficult and undesirable to attempt to insert a short screw from the outside, so that its point should come in contact with the worn - down extremity of the old screw , and so effect a continuity of metallic surface for the escape of the electricity. The best way to surmount the difficulty is to place a layer of common tinfoil between the new sole and the insole, or the padding which intervenes between the two, and then nail the new sole on from the outside with short iron nails. Although none of the points of these nails may come into direct apposition with the points of the worn-down screws, the tinfoil will afford a conducting medium between the two, and the metallic chain will hardly be broken, and it will be quite effective for the purpose for which it is required. These matters may appear very ludicrous and trivial when discussing so solemn and alarming a pestilence as cholera, but I can assure my readers that they are not so, and that life itself, or, at any fate, personal comfort and enjoyment of life, is made up in great part of trifles; and if those who are disposed to laugh at the simplicity of these preventive measures will only put them in practice for a few hours, they will be fully convinced of their value and importance. If any of my readers suffer from a state of lassitude and fatigue when a thunderstorm is impending, or the weather is very close and sultry, let them wear a pair of shoes made in the manner I have described, and wet the soles frequently with water during the day, and they will speedily be convinced that there is more importance in the ludicrous trifles than they imagine, or would now be disposed to admit. Gutta-percha soles and goloshes insulate the wearers, and prevent the escape of electricity from their bodies. Fortunately, these abominations are never worn in dry weather, or when the roads and pavements are hot and dusty, and but seldom at those periods of the year when thunderstorms are prevalent, or when the atmosphere is unusually sultry, other wise we should have some most serious effects resulting from their use.
I have now fulfilled the promise which I gave when I began to write upon this theme. I have pointed out an easy, inexpensive, and effectual preventive, not only of cholera, but of several other serious pestilences. I have also indicated a mode of curing cholera, which is not only rational, but if put in practice will be found more efficacious than any or all the other systems so much in vogue, so highly lauded, but so disastrously faulty. If my readers choose to make use of the preventive measures, they may laugh at cholera; and if those of my brethren who are called upon to treat sufferers who have neglected such precautions, adopt the rational method of treatment, both alike may triumphantly approach the King of Terror, and ask , “Oh, death, where is thy sting? ” and may, tauntingly address his shadow , “Oh, grave, where is now thy victory!"
. Thanks for another good one
