FRINGE MEDICINE SIR,—As President of the British Society of Dowsers,
since its foundation twenty-seven years ago, I have come in contact with many people, some medically qualified and others not, who practise radiesthetic methods of diagnosis and treatment, not only by means of one of the several types of 'Black Box,' but by the more direct methods.
Incidentally, the word Radiesthesie, proposed by the famous French dowser, the Abbe Bouly, about forty years ago, is applied to the use of the in- voluntary muscular reflexes for all those objects which form the dowser's preoccupation, but, for some reason or other, in this country the anglicised form of the word is usually confined to medical and veterinary practice only.
Of the 500 to 600 members of this Society (of whom about two-fifths are resident abroad, mostly in the US), many have joined through their interest
in the medical aspect, although all do not make use of their faculty in a practical way.
It is, perhaps, natural that suspicion should be attached to the practice of medicine by others than those who have achieved their professional status through long and expensive training; but a fact often overlooked is that most patients consult a radiesthetist only after treatment by a qualified doctor has proved unavailing, and that the treat- ment resulting from radiesthetic diagnosis is often strikingly successful.
This being so, the uncompromising objections to the use of radicsthesia—and other 'fringe' methods —by medical institutions and individuals can only be regarded as an endeavour to safeguard a pro- fessional monopoly, rather than a sincere desire for the restoration of health to the sick and suffering. —Yours faithfully, A H. BELL President, The British Society of Dowsers York House, 6 Portugal Street, WC2
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