Francis Cutler Ellis (1890-1957), an engineer in Chicago, devised the Ellis Micro-Dynameter in the early 1930s. This device, it was said, would “make the human body function as a simple electrical cell and measure the current it generates.” And it could diagnose virtually every human ailment. It was marketed by Ellis Research Laboratories, in Chicago, and endorsed by prominent chiropractors. It was widely accepted by chiropractors for diagnosing “subluxations” and became their main bioelectrical instrument. The FDA seized this example, a Model S, and transferred it to the Smithsonian in 1967.
Ref: Francis Cutler Ellis, “Improvement in or Relating to Methods of and Apparatus for Determining the Electrolytic Condition of an Animal Body,” British Patent GB429595A (1933).
Francis Cutler Ellis, Micro-Dynamics: New Science in Diagnosis and Treatment (1933).
