Electropoise

Electropoise
Trademark for the Electropoise, c. 1895
Medical Claims	"Thermo-electric induction" will "polarise" the body, attracting oxygen, to cure what ails
Creator(s)	Hercules Sanche
Vendors	ElectroLibration Co.

The Electropoise is a gas-pipe device, originally manufactured and sold by Hercules Sanche from the late nineteenth century into the early twentieth. The device was marketed as an instrument for oxygen therapy, promising to make the wearer "oxygen positive" through a process described as "thermo-electric induction" or diaduction that would "polarise" the body, thereby attracting oxygen and enabling absorption through the pores of the skin. Following the success of the Electropoise, Sanche began selling the Oxydonor "Victory", a essentially identical gas-pipe but somewhat shorter and containing a quantity of carbon.

Resources

• "An Electro-Medical Fraud; ELECTROPOISE, GROSSEST OF THERAPEUTIC HUMBUGS; The Electro-Libration Company and Its Abetters". Electricity: a Popular Electrical Journal 7 (19): p. 220-222. 1894-11-21. https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=nyp.33433108212758&view=1up&seq=256. 

Patents

• US 588483, Sanche, Hercules, "Apparatus for Treatment of Diseases", published 1897-08-17  — "It is unnecessary to state the theory of action of this apparatus[...] The mild and gradual action of the instrument, extending over a period of some hours, will produce effects of marked character and benefit. "
• GB 189716774, Sanche, Hercules, "Thermo-Electric Batteries", published 1898-08-15  — "The inventor has discovered that if a living organism be connected with another body in a different thermal or electrical condition by a moderate electrical conductor, rapid oxygenation or hydrogenation of the capillary blood is produced, and he utilizes this principle for invigorating the organism and for preventing or curing disease in the same."
• CA 62153, Sanche, Hercules, "Apparatus for Utilizing Natural Energy", published 1898-12-27  — "Placing a living organism in the attitude of a galvanic arrangement and in electrical relation to the - of the plates of a galvanic pair together with any source of the lower or higher temperature or with any substance in an electrical state corresponding to the same by being its electro-negative or electro-positive through an electrical connection of the two without circuit by a moderate electrical conductor or inductor for the purpose of invigorating living organism or of preventing or curing disease in the same as described and set forth."

Advertising

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  "AN OXYGEN HOME REMEDY WITHOUT MEDICINE," June 1895

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  "The Electropoise," Nov. 1985

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  "Better than Theory . . . RESULTS FROM THE USE OF THE ELECTROPOISE," Nov. 1895

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  "The OXYGEN Home Remedy Without Medicine," Apr. 1896

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  "Get Well by using The Electropoise, A Self-Applied Oxygen Remedy — No Medicine," Feb. 1897