science · 07 July 1858 · 166 years ago
birth
Born 7 Jul 1858; died 6 Dec 1930 at age 72.
Sidney Abram Weltmer was an American author who founded the Weltmer Institute of Suggestive Therapeutics (19 Feb 1897), offering to gullible patients healing based on thought transference and “magnetic healing.” Medical professionals and theologians denounced him for quackery. He offered instruction in his methods by correspondence courses. When the U.S. Postmaster General identified (1900) Welmer's medical self-help by mail as an outright fraudulent scheme, mail delivery to his institute was blocked. Remarkably, the U.S. Supreme Court decided against the Post Office. He was still publically called a charlatan, and the Missouri State Supreme Court ruled against him in a libel case he pursued to silence his vocal critics. Welmer wrote books, published many pamphlets and Weltner's Magazine promoting his pseudoscience, and managed to keep operating his Institute until his death.
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