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Race, women and health · Claim record

The Biola article was built on the work of Dr Albert Abrams, whose Electronic Reactions had been examined for about ten months by Scientific American with the American Medical Association and pronounced worthless in September 1924, seven months before the article appeared.

Claim ID claim-attitudes-biola-after-verdictConcerns 22 April 1925Context
Context · 22 April 1925 Supported

The Biola article was built on the work of Dr Albert Abrams, whose Electronic Reactions had been examined for about ten months by Scientific American with the American Medical Association and pronounced worthless in September 1924, seven months before the article appeared. Scientific American, September 1924Quackwatch, 1 February 2002The Golden Age, 22 April 1925

Show the evidence (3 sources)
Reputable reporting Supported

Scientific American, “Our Abrams Verdict”

September 1924 · p.158 · Austin C. Lescarboura · Munn & Co.

“The Electronic Reactions of Abrams and Electronic Medicine in General Found Utterly Worthless”

The concluding article of Scientific American's investigation of the Electronic Reactions of Abrams, published in volume 131, number 3 (September 1924). The words quoted are the article's own subtitle, quoted in full; the body of the article was not read.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. The article's landing page on scientificamerican.com was opened on 19 September 2026 and confirms the title, the author, the issue (vol. 131 no. 3, September 1924), the page (158) and the subtitle quoted here in full. The full text is behind the publisher's archive paywall and was not read, so the verdict is recorded from the subtitle and from the Quackwatch account rather than from the body of the article. An earlier version of this record quoted only the words 'Found Utterly Worthless', which is a fragment of the middle of that subtitle.

Corroborated by. src-hlth-quackwatch-2002-radionics

Notes. The verdict was published in September 1924, seven months before The Golden Age printed its endorsement of the Biola in April 1925.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-hlth-sciam-1924-abrams-verdict

Peer-reviewed / scholarly Verified

Quackwatch, “Radionics and Albert Abrams, M.D.”

1 February 2002 · William T. Jarvis, PhD · National Council Against Health Fraud / Quackwatch

“Analyzed in the cold light of scientific knowledge, the entire Abrams matter is the height of absurdity.”

Jarvis's account of the joint Scientific American and American Medical Association investigation of 1923-24, which he says ran about ten months and cost some $30,000. The words quoted are the first sentence of the investigating panel's verdict as he reproduces it; the verdict continues: 'The so-called Electronic Reactions of Abrams do not exist—at least objectively … At best it is all an illusion. At worst, it is a colossal fraud.' He also describes Abrams's 'Oscilloclast' as the prototype of 'black box quackery'.

Official source

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Page opened on 19 September 2026 and the quoted sentence and the surrounding account read. Jarvis is quoting the 1924 panel; the underlying Scientific American text was not opened, so the sentence is recorded as reported by Quackwatch.

Corroborated by. src-hlth-sciam-1924-abrams-verdict

Notes. Used only for independent context on what the Abrams system was and how it was assessed at the time. Abrams died in January 1924.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-hlth-quackwatch-2002-radionics

Primary JW publication Verified

The Golden Age, “Automatic Electronic Diagnosis”

22 April 1925 · pp.451-455 · Dr. R. A. Gamble, Dean of the Norfolk Electronic Institute · Woodworth, Hudgings & Martin (The Golden Age), Brooklyn, New York

“[The Golden Age has fullest confidence in any representations that may be made by Doctor Gamble. He is well known to many of our readers and we are sure they will read this important article with great interest.—Editor.]”

The editor's bracketed note at the head of the issue's lead article, printed above a by-line reading 'By Dr. R. A. Gamble, Dean of the Norfolk Electronic Institute.' The article promotes the 'Electronic Radio Biola', a device the author says he invented: 'The Biola automatically diagnoses and treats diseases by the use of the electronic vibrations. The diagnosis is 100 percent correct'. The author praises the “famous Abrams' Electronic system” on which the device is built, and calls it a discovery 'which I am exclusively announcing in The Golden Age prior to its general publication elsewhere'.

Scan of original

Provenance and verification note

Confidence note. Read in the OCR text layer of the archive.org scan on 19 September 2026 on the leaves mapped to printed pages 451-455; the masthead is on the same leaf as the article's opening. Scanner hyphenation closed up; no words changed.

Scan provenance. Internet Archive item 'magazines-the-golden-age-1925'; page numbers from the _djvu.xml leaf mapping joined to _page_numbers.json, cross-checked against the issue masthead 'Volume VI ... Wednesday, April 22, 1925 ... Number 146'.

Corroborated by. src-hlth-ga-1925-1202-mission-golden-age

Notes. The article's own text says of the Biola that 'its price brings it within the reach of every family, even those in the poorest circumstances'. The article is a signed contribution; the bracketed endorsement printed above it is the magazine's own.

Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID. src-hlth-ga-1925-0422-electronic-diagnosis

Claim page Correct or update

A direct link to this claim is https://jwtruth.org/evidence/claim-attitudes-biola-after-verdict/. Every source above opens the original document or the best available copy. If you believe the wording, date or context is wrong, report an error.