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Alleged Specific Effects of High-Frequency Fields on Biological Substances

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Abstract

VARIOUS claims for the demonstration of specific electric actions of high-frequency fields on biological substrates, that is, non-thermal effects dependent on wave-length, have already been refuted1. Attenuation of some bacterial toxins exposed to 1·9–3·7 m. fields, under conditions which appeared to eliminate the influence of the heat developed, seemed nevertheless to indicate the existence of such an athermal action (Szymanowski and Hicks2). Subsequent negative results with different bacteria, etc., led these authors3 to suspect that their previous results might have been due to an undetected local rise of temperature, although a selective heating of small dispersed particles (bacteria, micellæ, macromolecules) is improbable because of the rapid heat exchange with the medium4.

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References

  1. See, for example, Curtis, W. E., Dickens, F., and Evans, S. F., NATURE, 138, 63 (1936).

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  2. Szymanowski, W. T., and Hicks, R. A., J. Infect. Dis., 50, 1 (1932).

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  3. Hicks, R. A., and Szymanowski, W. T., J. Infect. Dis., 50, 466 (1932).

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  4. Krasny-Ergen, W., Radiologica, 1, 136 (1937).

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  5. Bateman, J. B., and Rosenberg, H., Report of the Intern. Congr. for Short Waves, Vienna, 1937, p. 129. There are some misprints in the numerical values.

  6. Schliephake, E., “Kurzwellentherapie”, p. 52 (2 Ed., Jena, 1934).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Physiology and Bacteriology, London Hospital Medical College, London, E.1

    J. B. BATEMAN, H. LOEWENTHAL & H. ROSENBERG

Authors
  1. J. B. BATEMAN
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  2. H. LOEWENTHAL
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  3. H. ROSENBERG
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BATEMAN, J., LOEWENTHAL, H. & ROSENBERG, H. Alleged Specific Effects of High-Frequency Fields on Biological Substances. Nature 140, 1063–1064 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/1401063a0

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