Frank Park to Woodrow Wilson
Title
Frank Park to Woodrow Wilson
Creator
Park, Frank, 1864-1925
Identifier
WWP16300
Date
1920 September 24
Description
Congressman Frank Park writes President Woodrow Wilson to recommend a treatment for nervous conditions.
Source
Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library, Staunton, Virginia
Language
English
Text
FRANK PARK
2d Dist. Georgia
Dear Mr. President
The stenographer who transcribes these notes is well known to me. He is like Charlie Adamson said he was,- a mud bank, gives out no sound, retains what goes in his ear, and for that reason, I trust this letter to his transcription and knowledge.
I was not actuated by any feeling of curiosity as to your physical condition, but purely and simply by a desire to render you what I consider a great service. Within my observation and experience during the past ten years, has come some of the most remarkable cures from nervous affection and from rheumatism, and from painful portions of the body. One of these was that of a very dear friend of mine, a farmer, who, by reason of his health, become addicted to morphine, and became absolutely useless to himself. Another, the wife of a friend of mine, was bed-ridden with stomach trouble and female trouble, was given up by the doctors to die. Another case, the present Sheriff of this county, was troubled with polyuria, sugar, the worst in existence, and rheumatism,- and so on I could name them among those who I know personally. This leads up to what I wish to say.
Faraday, inventor, discovered that by placing in sulphuric acid, zinc and copper, a minute electric current was produced. Taking advantage of the Faradaic discovery, a scientist in Chicago invented some years ago, an instrument that is contained in a beautiful nickel plated cylinder, about six or eight inches long and perhaps an inch in diameter, that has zinc and copper within, making a positive and negative posle, to which are attached long, bright green silk covered copper wires, that have the appearance of slender strings, to the end of which are small bright metal plates.
This small nickel plated battery is placed in a bowl and covered with fragments of ice. The plate at the end of the string is fitted by rubber band very lightly around the wrist of the patient over the pulse of one arm. The other plate at the end of the wire on the other pole is fitted around the left ankle very lightly, with a rubber band, and this gives what is known as the constitutional treatment with the Faradaic electricity.
The effect of this current is imperceptible at first, but it is a series of minute thrills, or sub thrills, that stimulate slightly and in constant accumulated force, the afferent and efferent nerves, and produces a balanced circulation conducive to sleep and perfect quiteet of the nerves.
In addition to the constitutional treatment, there is a third cloth covered wire which gives local treatment at the same time, or separate from the constitutional treatment.
If one has a nervous headache, a few minutes application to the affected part, soothes and absolutely relieves. If one has rheumatism, the application to the affected part relieves in two or three nights, the very worst cases. If one has inflamation of the throat, or bladder, or prostate gland, or of the ear drum, or of the optic nerve, the local application relieves. This is done by these small subsconscious vibrations which cause the blood to determinate locally to the affected part, feeding where depletion has taken place, and building up and restoring to a normal condition.
As you know, the blood is the life, and where it congests, there is, first, swelling, then heat, then sepaupuration, then finally, the termination, by restoration to health, or death.
A friend of mine who met you, was at Johns Hopkins last year. Dr. Thomas, the most noted nerve specialist in the United States, told him in my presence, that the nerves which supply the soft palate, the vocal chord and surrounding tissues, were dead, and that he could never speak again, and that he could never swallow again, but that he could live in comparative comfort otherwise, by having liquid nourishment poured into his stomach through a rubber tube. This he has done for two years. About a month ago, the idea occured to me to make the application of the delicate current to the affected parts. of my friend. He has slept since using it, and says that his general health is better and that he is beginning to be able to move voluntarily his swallowing muscles, and I say he is going to fully recover in the course of a few months.
The theory upon which I base my diagnosis and prognosis in this case is that a man’s body is a composition of nerve cells, and nerves supplying all the tissues, even giving vascular motion to the arteries and veins. And knowing by my own observation that you can cut off a lizard’s tail and it will grow back, and that you can pull off a crab’s claw and it will reproduce, that a man may be bald headed as an onion, and if the roots of the hair remain, they may be stimulated to a new growth. And furthermore, that if in the operation for mastoiditis, that if an incision is made into the external bone, and the inside tissues, including the spungy portion of the bone, are entirely removed to get rid of the affected part, and that by closing the external wound, or incision, that arterial blood fills the cavity so made, and that within three weeks time the normal condition exists that existed before the operation. In other words, that the same conformation of spuongy bone tissue is reformed and perform it’s function, just as they performed before the disease caused the operation. And so on, I could multiply these instances.
Now to conclude this probably tiresome epistle, my object in seeing you was to talk with you about this little battery, and to persuade you, if possible, to have faith enough in my judgment and in my observation and experience, to give it a trial. It has worked wonders where physicians have completely failed, because it works on a natural plan, and physicians fight it.
If you should try it, I would not want anyone but your wife to know that you had undertaken it, and let her alone apply it. There is a book of instructions that are so simple and plain, “that a wayfaringman, though a fool, may run as he reads”.
Now finally, there has not been a day since, by your tremendous efforts and self sacrificeding intelligent plan in the execution of the League of Nations, which resulted in your almost complete collapse, that I have not thought about you and wished there was some way to restore “Richard to himself again”.
To use Charlie Adamson’s expression, I am a mud bank, and if I saw you and should note anything different from what you have been, it would remain silent within my bosom with sealed lips, until death claimed me. It is only for your interest that I have though and hoped and wished that I might possibly be a humble instrument in causing “Sampson’s hair to grow again”. And if I may add the wicked thought, that he would not be blind and would stand from out the great columns when his great muscles cracked the twin pillars, but that he could do it and drive to Hades the rotten, foul-mouthed, slanderous Republican scoundrels, who besmirch the name of him whom they could not possibly emulate.
In the long winded preacher’s way, lastly, I want to say, that I am having the stick worked on every day, and I still want to bring it to you, along with that instrument I speak of, and let you pass your judgment on both.
With best wishes and kindest feeling, I am
Your friend to command,
Frank Park
2d Dist. Georgia
Dear Mr. President
The stenographer who transcribes these notes is well known to me. He is like Charlie Adamson said he was,- a mud bank, gives out no sound, retains what goes in his ear, and for that reason, I trust this letter to his transcription and knowledge.
I was not actuated by any feeling of curiosity as to your physical condition, but purely and simply by a desire to render you what I consider a great service. Within my observation and experience during the past ten years, has come some of the most remarkable cures from nervous affection and from rheumatism, and from painful portions of the body. One of these was that of a very dear friend of mine, a farmer, who, by reason of his health, become addicted to morphine, and became absolutely useless to himself. Another, the wife of a friend of mine, was bed-ridden with stomach trouble and female trouble, was given up by the doctors to die. Another case, the present Sheriff of this county, was troubled with polyuria, sugar, the worst in existence, and rheumatism,- and so on I could name them among those who I know personally. This leads up to what I wish to say.
Faraday, inventor, discovered that by placing in sulphuric acid, zinc and copper, a minute electric current was produced. Taking advantage of the Faradaic discovery, a scientist in Chicago invented some years ago, an instrument that is contained in a beautiful nickel plated cylinder, about six or eight inches long and perhaps an inch in diameter, that has zinc and copper within, making a positive and negative posle, to which are attached long, bright green silk covered copper wires, that have the appearance of slender strings, to the end of which are small bright metal plates.
This small nickel plated battery is placed in a bowl and covered with fragments of ice. The plate at the end of the string is fitted by rubber band very lightly around the wrist of the patient over the pulse of one arm. The other plate at the end of the wire on the other pole is fitted around the left ankle very lightly, with a rubber band, and this gives what is known as the constitutional treatment with the Faradaic electricity.
The effect of this current is imperceptible at first, but it is a series of minute thrills, or sub thrills, that stimulate slightly and in constant accumulated force, the afferent and efferent nerves, and produces a balanced circulation conducive to sleep and perfect quiteet of the nerves.
In addition to the constitutional treatment, there is a third cloth covered wire which gives local treatment at the same time, or separate from the constitutional treatment.
If one has a nervous headache, a few minutes application to the affected part, soothes and absolutely relieves. If one has rheumatism, the application to the affected part relieves in two or three nights, the very worst cases. If one has inflamation of the throat, or bladder, or prostate gland, or of the ear drum, or of the optic nerve, the local application relieves. This is done by these small subsconscious vibrations which cause the blood to determinate locally to the affected part, feeding where depletion has taken place, and building up and restoring to a normal condition.
As you know, the blood is the life, and where it congests, there is, first, swelling, then heat, then sepaupuration, then finally, the termination, by restoration to health, or death.
A friend of mine who met you, was at Johns Hopkins last year. Dr. Thomas, the most noted nerve specialist in the United States, told him in my presence, that the nerves which supply the soft palate, the vocal chord and surrounding tissues, were dead, and that he could never speak again, and that he could never swallow again, but that he could live in comparative comfort otherwise, by having liquid nourishment poured into his stomach through a rubber tube. This he has done for two years. About a month ago, the idea occured to me to make the application of the delicate current to the affected parts. of my friend. He has slept since using it, and says that his general health is better and that he is beginning to be able to move voluntarily his swallowing muscles, and I say he is going to fully recover in the course of a few months.
The theory upon which I base my diagnosis and prognosis in this case is that a man’s body is a composition of nerve cells, and nerves supplying all the tissues, even giving vascular motion to the arteries and veins. And knowing by my own observation that you can cut off a lizard’s tail and it will grow back, and that you can pull off a crab’s claw and it will reproduce, that a man may be bald headed as an onion, and if the roots of the hair remain, they may be stimulated to a new growth. And furthermore, that if in the operation for mastoiditis, that if an incision is made into the external bone, and the inside tissues, including the spungy portion of the bone, are entirely removed to get rid of the affected part, and that by closing the external wound, or incision, that arterial blood fills the cavity so made, and that within three weeks time the normal condition exists that existed before the operation. In other words, that the same conformation of spuongy bone tissue is reformed and perform it’s function, just as they performed before the disease caused the operation. And so on, I could multiply these instances.
Now to conclude this probably tiresome epistle, my object in seeing you was to talk with you about this little battery, and to persuade you, if possible, to have faith enough in my judgment and in my observation and experience, to give it a trial. It has worked wonders where physicians have completely failed, because it works on a natural plan, and physicians fight it.
If you should try it, I would not want anyone but your wife to know that you had undertaken it, and let her alone apply it. There is a book of instructions that are so simple and plain, “that a wayfaringman, though a fool, may run as he reads”.
Now finally, there has not been a day since, by your tremendous efforts and self sacrificeding intelligent plan in the execution of the League of Nations, which resulted in your almost complete collapse, that I have not thought about you and wished there was some way to restore “Richard to himself again”.
To use Charlie Adamson’s expression, I am a mud bank, and if I saw you and should note anything different from what you have been, it would remain silent within my bosom with sealed lips, until death claimed me. It is only for your interest that I have though and hoped and wished that I might possibly be a humble instrument in causing “Sampson’s hair to grow again”. And if I may add the wicked thought, that he would not be blind and would stand from out the great columns when his great muscles cracked the twin pillars, but that he could do it and drive to Hades the rotten, foul-mouthed, slanderous Republican scoundrels, who besmirch the name of him whom they could not possibly emulate.
In the long winded preacher’s way, lastly, I want to say, that I am having the stick worked on every day, and I still want to bring it to you, along with that instrument I speak of, and let you pass your judgment on both.
With best wishes and kindest feeling, I am
Your friend to command,
Frank Park
Original Format
Letter
To
Wilson, Woodrow, 1856-1924
Files
Collection
Citation
Park, Frank, 1864-1925, “Frank Park to Woodrow Wilson,” 1920 September 24, WWP16300, Cary T. Grayson Papers, Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library & Museum, Staunton, Virginia.