Today there is a re-awakening to the use of Magnetics in the field of therapeutics. Through innovative design and revolutionary applications, bio-magnetics is finding an ever-increasing niche in the health care fields of many countries throughout the world. To fully understand this phenomenon and the potential it has in our world today, it is helpful to look at some historical applications and facts about magnetism.
For thousands of years, mankind has utilized the beneficial powers of magnetism, knowing little about the specific reasons, it worked or the effects it created, but realizing only that curative results could be achieved.
The oldest known usages of magnetic powers is traced to Africa, where an African bloodstone (magnetite) mined more than 100,000 years ago has been found. The magnetite was ground up and used in potions, food, and topical applications.
In ancient Greece, Aristotle was the first person in recorded history to speak of the therapeutic properties of the natural magnets of his time. Most, of the ancient civilizations including the Hebrews, Arabs, Indians, Egyptians and Chinese, used magnets for healing.
It is recorded that around 200 B.C., the Greek physician Galen found that pain from many different types of illness could be relieved by applying natural magnets. In the first century, the Chinese began documenting effects on health and disease related to variations in the Earth's magnetic field, using very sensitive compasses to monitor those variations.
Around 111 A.D. a Persian physician documented the use of magnets to relieve disorders such as gout and muscle spasms. In the 1600's an English physician named Gilbert wrote of magnetism, and in the 1700's another physician named Mesmer wrote a dissertation on magnetism that has proven to be a foundation for magnetic healing in the Western culture. Dr. Mesmer's became synonymous with magnetism, but in a negative fashion. He was ridiculed for his advanced discoveries and his abilities to use magnetism for good. It was called "mesmerism," and was scoffed at as unscientific and unreliable. It was deemed an unworthy practice.
Despite the increasing ridicule, other studies were performed, including the first in-depth study of the history of magnetic treatment of diseases undertaken in 1777 by France's Royal Society of Medicine. Other studies included reports by Eydam in 1843, Charot and Renard in 1878, Mueller in 1879, Benedict and Drozdovin in 1879, Benedict in 1885 and Quinan in 1886.
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