WEBVTT - How Perkins Tractors Taught Us the Placebo Effect 0:00:02.240 --> 0:00:06.559 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.600 --> 0:00:13.640 with iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.840 Today. If you're asked to think of a tractor, most 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.599 of us probably imagine a large farm vehicle. But in 0:00:20.640 --> 0:00:24.320 the late eighteenth century, a physician named Elijah Perkins made 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.040 and sold a different kind of tractor, a device consisting 0:00:28.080 --> 0:00:31.640 of small metal rods that could cure you simply through touch. 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:37.120 The Perkins patent Metallic Instruments, or Perkins tractors, as they 0:00:37.159 --> 0:00:40.680 became popularly known, were sold as a pair for twenty 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.519 five continental dollars in the United States and five guineas 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:47.519 in Britain. For some perspective on those numbers, that's a 0:00:47.520 --> 0:00:51.000 few hundred in today's purchase price, and for several years 0:00:51.560 --> 0:00:56.360 people were mad for them. Welcome to Criminalia, I'm Maria Tremarky. 0:00:56.720 --> 0:01:00.840 And I'm Holly Frye. Elisha Perkins's story begins in Connecticut. 0:01:01.320 --> 0:01:04.319 He was born in January of seventeen forty one to 0:01:04.480 --> 0:01:09.039 Joseph Perkins and Mary Bushnall. Joseph was a well respected 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:13.119 Yale educated physician, and he educated his son in medicine. 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:17.280 Elisha served as his father's assistant while also gaining knowledge 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.520 in the field. The age of twenty, the young doctor 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:24.560 Perkins established his own practice in Plainfield, Connecticut, less than 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:28.400 twenty miles from home. He very quickly gained a respectable 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.560 number of patients and was known to be both a 0:01:30.600 --> 0:01:34.960 hard worker and in general a reliable guide. He's described 0:01:35.000 --> 0:01:37.520 in the New York Medical and Physical Journal as having 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:41.840 been quote possessed by nature uncommon endowments, both bodily and 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:45.160 mental in his person. He was six feet high and 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:50.280 of remarkable symmetry. His ability to perform active professional business 0:01:50.440 --> 0:01:54.640 was extraordinary. He frequently rode sixty miles a day, and 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:59.120 generally on horseback, and this without the aid of artificial stimulants, 0:01:59.560 --> 0:02:01.919 never made making use of ardent spirits. 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:05.320 It was in his practice in Plainfield when Perkins made 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:09.200 an observation that changed his life. He quote discovered that 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.080 by drawing over the parts of the body affected in 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:17.120 particular directions, certain instruments formed from metallic substances into certain 0:02:17.160 --> 0:02:22.200 shapes could remove most kinds of painful topical affections. Now 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:25.360 that language is a little nebulous. Without more details, we know, 0:02:25.560 --> 0:02:26.960 so here's what's what. 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:31.280 Though he would later be shamed by his peers for 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.000 his invention. Perkins came to his tractors through good faith, 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.920 or at least he seems to have. His idea was 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:41.120 based on an observation he had while performing surgery on 0:02:41.200 --> 0:02:44.960 a patient. He noted how a muscle would contract whenever 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:47.800 he touched it with the point of a metallic instrument, 0:02:48.280 --> 0:02:51.600 and he believed that contraction was the result of muscles 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:57.919 excreting toxic electrical fluid. Okay, your body's muscles do contract 0:02:57.919 --> 0:03:00.600 and relax based on electrical charges, but this is not 0:03:00.720 --> 0:03:04.959 the same thing. He also saw a similar pain response 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.800 in patients when he applied metallic instruments to inflamed tumors 0:03:08.840 --> 0:03:11.320 before he cut into them, and all of this gave 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:12.799 him a light bulb moment. 0:03:14.480 --> 0:03:18.760 Perkins believed with this discovery he could cure rheumatism, gout, 0:03:19.360 --> 0:03:24.040 and pain resulting from headaches toothicks, sprains, burns. That's all 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:27.520 just part of a long list. He didn't just up 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.080 and run away with his half baked idea, though. He 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:34.440 took his observations seriously and took an empiricist role in 0:03:34.520 --> 0:03:38.880 analyzing his experiential evidence. Though it didn't help in the end. 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:42.640 His next step was to experiment with different metals to 0:03:42.680 --> 0:03:45.600 see which, if any, worked better than others, and if 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:49.320 any other materials such as wood, had any benefits too. 0:03:49.440 --> 0:03:52.400 It took him several years of experimentation before he settled 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.960 on brass and iron for his device. 0:03:56.360 --> 0:04:00.119 In seventeen ninety six, Perkins began selling to his patient 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.360 and to the public a new therapeutic device that he 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:07.560 called the Perkins Tractors. The product, which he patented in 0:04:07.600 --> 0:04:10.240 February that year, was made up of two rods and 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:13.560 described as quote half rounded on one side while the 0:04:13.560 --> 0:04:17.599 other was flat, usually had the name Perkins Patent Tractors 0:04:17.600 --> 0:04:20.599 stamped upon it. They were rounded at one end and 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.200 drawn out into a sharp point at the other, and 0:04:23.279 --> 0:04:27.200 resembled a horseshoe nail in appearance. So each of these 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:30.279 rods was about three inches long. And we mentioned earlier 0:04:30.320 --> 0:04:32.400 that one rod was made of brass and the other 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.920 was made of iron. While that's true, technically, Perkins decided 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:40.880 one would be made of an alloy of zinc and copper. 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.880 Those two combined make up brass plus gold and the 0:04:44.920 --> 0:04:49.040 other of iron plus silver and platinum. And this whole 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.520 thing worked like this. The tractors were intended to be 0:04:52.600 --> 0:04:57.800 applied to the head, face, feet, breast, side, stomach, and 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.680 back to quote draw off the noxious electrical fluid that 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.480 lay at the root of suffering. When applying it to 0:05:05.520 --> 0:05:09.200 his patients, Perkins drew at points over the affected areas 0:05:09.200 --> 0:05:12.000 of the body in a downward direction, and this whole 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:13.760 process took about twenty minutes. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.719 He promoted the tractors as a simple cure ale and 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:21.240 that you didn't need to see a doctor for treatment. 0:05:21.360 --> 0:05:24.839 Anyone could use them right at home. They became so 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.200 popular and trendy that people began using all sorts of 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:30.640 things to pay for a pair of their own, from 0:05:30.760 --> 0:05:36.080 trading property to offering horses as currency. Perkins had investors too. 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:37.920 We know of at least one man in Virginia who 0:05:38.000 --> 0:05:41.000 sold his plantation and invested everything in the product. 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:46.200 If you're thinking, wait, that's it, Yeah, that's right, Yes, 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:49.400 that is all that it was. By just touching two 0:05:49.440 --> 0:05:53.120 short rods to the afflicted area of your body, poof 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.280 your symptoms would disappear. For what it's worth, he claimed, 0:05:57.320 --> 0:06:01.640 the instruments could also be quote performed even on horses, where, 0:06:01.680 --> 0:06:05.040 of course, such influence could not be presumed to exist. 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.760 The Perkins tractors were a massive hit. Historian James del 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.520 Borgo notes that the device was quote disarmingly simple, and 0:06:15.800 --> 0:06:18.919 according to del Borgo, that simplicity was what made it 0:06:19.080 --> 0:06:22.080 so appealing. Keep in mind that this was a time 0:06:22.080 --> 0:06:27.520 when doctors regularly resorted to such healing measures as bleeding, blistering, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.680 and purging patients, so compared to that, Perkins tractors were 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:32.960 a painless alternative. 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:38.680 Perkins promoted his tractors in marketing pamphlets and newspaper advertisements. 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.480 The first campaign began running in papers in early seventeen 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:46.000 ninety seven. One spot that appeared in March of that 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.040 year was published in the Aurora General Advertiser of Pennsylvania, 0:06:50.080 --> 0:06:52.599 and it read, get ready because this is a little long, 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:56.880 but we're doing it. Quote doctor Perkins, patent metallic tractors. 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.680 Doctor Perkins of this city, who has the tractor for sale, 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:05.200 requests those persons who wish to purchase or receive information 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:08.880 respecting their efficacy to call on him at his office 0:07:09.120 --> 0:07:12.760 number fourteen South fourth Street, between the hours of seven 0:07:12.800 --> 0:07:15.200 and nine in the morning and from two to three 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:18.920 o'clock in the afternoon. As his professional business renders it 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:23.040 inconvenient for him to attend at any other hour. The 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:26.360 public may be assured that the doctor has not said 0:07:26.400 --> 0:07:30.000 more of their efficacy in his advertisements or pamphlets of 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:34.080 certificates than their merit richly deserves. They are worthy the 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:37.480 attention of every gentleman to keep in his family, and 0:07:37.560 --> 0:07:41.080 particularly to see farming men and planters. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.680 With his son Benjamin working with him, Perkins published not 0:07:46.760 --> 0:07:49.640 just one but a series of marketing pamphlets describing the 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:53.680 efficacy of the tractors, and began to include testimonials from 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:59.480 satisfied clients and patients. In his advertorial pamphlet titled Certificates 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:04.840 of the Ethica of Doctor Perkins Patent Metallic Instruments. Testimonials 0:08:04.920 --> 0:08:09.400 included this one from William Allen, doctor of Divinity, who noted, quote, 0:08:10.040 --> 0:08:12.440 having had myself for a great many years a pair 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:15.480 of them, if they have ever relieved pain, I have 0:08:15.520 --> 0:08:18.160 found them all so useful in picking walnuts. 0:08:19.720 --> 0:08:22.840 Prominent names who used Perkins tractors included a list of 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.920 what seems like kind of anyone who's anyone? According to 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:30.200 an article published in the Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine, 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.720 quote the hospitals and infirmaries opened their doors to him, 0:08:34.120 --> 0:08:36.679 and the board of managers of the Almshouse were so 0:08:36.800 --> 0:08:39.920 impressed that they purchased the patent right for the tractors 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.680 for Philadelphia. Even the President of the United States, George Washington, 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.920 purchased a set for use in his own family. The 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:51.880 Chief Justice of the United States, the Honorable Oliver Ellsworth, 0:08:52.160 --> 0:08:55.000 was convinced of their value, and he not only purchased 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:57.640 a set, but he also gave Perkins a letter of 0:08:57.640 --> 0:09:02.800 introduction to John Marshall, who later succeeded him as Chief Justice. 0:09:02.840 --> 0:09:06.480 Marshall also similarly purchased a set of his own, and 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:08.880 that certainly did not hurt business. 0:09:09.800 --> 0:09:12.560 At this time in his life, Perkins had a well 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:17.240 established and successful medical practice. He had become chairman of 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.080 the Wyndham County Medical Association in seventeen ninety five and 0:09:21.240 --> 0:09:24.400 was selected as a delegate to the Connecticut Medical Society. 0:09:24.960 --> 0:09:28.120 He supported higher education, and he opened his home as 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:31.320 a hospital for those with disabilities who needed care and 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.480 for those who were wealthy enough to pay for private care. 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:37.880 He set the stage for the founding of the Perkinean 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:41.280 Institution in London, which gave free tractor therapy to those 0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:44.560 who couldn't afford treatment, but note that it wouldn't open 0:09:44.600 --> 0:09:48.760 its doors though until after his death. His star was rising, 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.120 and by all accounts, he could have had a rewarding 0:09:51.160 --> 0:09:55.480 and prosperous medical career. One of Perkins's biographers put it 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:58.880 quite well, stating, quote, the stage seemed set for a 0:09:58.920 --> 0:10:03.120 successful career, but it was not to be. We're going 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.000 to take a break forward from our sponsors, and when 0:10:05.040 --> 0:10:08.360 we return, we'll talk about the skeptics and how Perkins 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:23.479 just kept keeping on despite them. 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:27.800 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how while the 0:10:27.920 --> 0:10:32.120 public loved perkins tractors, other physicians weren't so sure. 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.040 The thing about this story of quackery is that, as 0:10:36.040 --> 0:10:40.920 it unfolds, it's more about a medical professional who genuinely 0:10:40.960 --> 0:10:46.079 believed his bogus treatment actually had healing benefits, rather than 0:10:46.240 --> 0:10:48.520 a classic case of what we think of as snake 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:52.720 oil products and sales. Perkins, as far as we all 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:56.760 know about him, really did believe his tractors worked, whereas 0:10:56.840 --> 0:11:02.000 it's unlikely a snake oil salesman hawking a mixture of say, water, turpentine, 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:05.880 and morphine believed his elixir would actually cure headaches or 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:10.720 typhoid or anything. Perkins tractors were popular and had the 0:11:10.720 --> 0:11:14.400 public's attention as a beneficial medical device. Some of his 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:17.680 peers endorsed his product and also sought to figure out 0:11:17.720 --> 0:11:19.000 how the heck it worked. 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:23.320 Although the public was very into his product, there were, 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:28.320 of course skeptics. Many physicians were already suspicious of novel 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.160 medical therapies and claims made by contemporaries of Perkins, so 0:11:32.760 --> 0:11:37.600 another cual fad probably felt pretty weary. For instance, this 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:41.920 was the time when animal magnetism, sometimes called Mesmerism, was 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:46.040 a hot topic of conversation and a hot topic experts 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:49.640 were trying to debunk. It was an eighteenth century theory 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:52.760 based on Anton Mesmer's belief that all living things had 0:11:52.800 --> 0:11:55.960 magnetic fields running through them and those fields could be 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:00.520 manipulated for healing. With a buffet of controversial medical theories 0:12:00.559 --> 0:12:04.000 at the time, perkinstractors to many seemed to be just 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:09.480 more quote delusive quackery, and that well, that resulted in 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:13.560 Perkins's expulsion from the Connecticut Medical Society in May of 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.720 seventeen ninety seven. Even if no one could say why 0:12:17.800 --> 0:12:20.720 it didn't work, many thought the whole idea behind his 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:25.319 tractors was just unbelievable, as detailed in a report by 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:29.880 the Medical Repository. Quote, whereas doctor Elisha Perkins, a member 0:12:29.920 --> 0:12:33.199 of this Society, having obtained a patent from under the 0:12:33.240 --> 0:12:36.720 authority of the United States, for the exclusive privilege of 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:41.320 using and vending certain pointed metallic instruments, pretending that they 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.240 were an invention of his own, and also that they 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.559 possess inherent powers of curing many disease, which is contrary 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:53.560 to rules and regulations adopted by this Society. Therefore voted 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.160 that the said Elisha Perkins be expelled from the Medical 0:12:57.200 --> 0:12:59.400 Society of the State of Connecticut. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:04.240 Despite the critics, business was booming in the United States 0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:08.040 and Perkins expanded while Elisha held things down in the 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.640 United States. His son Benjamin opened up shop in London, 0:13:11.760 --> 0:13:15.600 making tractors available to England and the larger European market. 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:20.520 It was reported quote. The tractors were introduced in Copenhagen 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:25.079 in seventeen ninety eight, where twelve physicians and surgeons, chiefly 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:29.080 professors and lecturers in the Royal Frederick's Hospital, commenced a 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:34.000 course of experiments. The experiments fifty in number were deemed 0:13:34.040 --> 0:13:38.840 sufficiently important to demand publication. The professors introduced the term 0:13:38.920 --> 0:13:42.520 Perkinism in honor of the discoverer and asserted that it 0:13:42.640 --> 0:13:44.960 was of great importance to the physician. 0:13:46.679 --> 0:13:51.880 Like Elisha, Benjamin published marketing pamphlets to his European audience. 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:56.240 He circulated a booklet called the Influence of Metallic Tractors 0:13:56.280 --> 0:14:00.000 on the Human Body in removing various painful inflammatory disease 0:14:00.800 --> 0:14:06.360 such as rheumatism, pleurisy, some gouty affections, etc. Lately discovered 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.720 by doctor Perkins of North America and demonstrated in a 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:14.560 series of experiments and observations by professors Meg's, Woodward, Rogers, etc. 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:18.880 By which the importance of the discovery is fully ascertained 0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.880 and a new field of inquiry opened in the modern 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:29.080 sciences of galvanism or animal electricity. Benjamin continually updated these materials, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.840 adding testimonials from people including physicians, lords and ladies, and 0:14:33.920 --> 0:14:37.720 other prominent members of society who had benefited from the product. 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:42.800 The Observer and other London papers all printed advertisements for 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:43.720 his pamphlets. 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.800 While Benjamin was abroad. Elijah turned his focus to a 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:51.080 serious disease that was rampant and deadly in the United 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.480 States in the late seventeen hundreds, and that's yellow fever. 0:14:54.920 --> 0:14:57.160 He didn't give up on his tractors, they were still 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.480 in high demand, but he was convinced that better use 0:15:00.520 --> 0:15:03.960 of antiseptics could stop yellow fever from spreading, and he 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.120 offered to treat anyone suffering from it with a quote 0:15:07.560 --> 0:15:12.840 preparation of common vinegar saturated with muriate of soda, diluted 0:15:12.880 --> 0:15:17.680 with three fourths its quantity of hot water, and administered warm. 0:15:18.240 --> 0:15:21.200 So yes, that's right. His antiseptic was vinegar, which, to 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:24.480 be fair, does have some antimicrobial properties, but nothing that 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:27.680 would help against a virus like yellow fever, plus some 0:15:27.800 --> 0:15:32.080 salt and water. He also recommended this mixture for dysentery 0:15:32.240 --> 0:15:36.520 and sore throats, and he was overwhelmed with demand from 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:39.080 people wanting to try his yellow fever cure. 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:45.160 Unfortunately, though, Perkins himself was stricken with the disease and 0:15:45.320 --> 0:15:48.520 his so called cure did not help him. He died 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.840 in September of seventeen ninety nine, when his tractor business 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:54.680 was actually peaking. We're going to take a break for 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.280 a word from our sponsors, and when we're back. We'll 0:15:57.280 --> 0:16:05.440 talk about the fall of Perkins tractors. 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:16.120 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about the Perkins tractors 0:16:16.320 --> 0:16:19.080 and the placebo effect. 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:24.800 Perkins' critics and his proponents performed experiments to better understand 0:16:24.840 --> 0:16:29.160 the tractors and Perkins' theory behind the device. While they 0:16:29.240 --> 0:16:34.000 debated to disregard or to embrace his work, and despite criticism, 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:38.280 Perkins tractors continued to be commercially successful in the United 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:42.760 States and across the Pond for about another decade. When 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:45.680 Benjamin returned to the United States in eighteen oh seven, 0:16:45.800 --> 0:16:49.400 it's believed he treated or at least supplied tractors to 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:52.600 as many as one and a half million patients and 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:57.200 made ten thousand pounds in the process. Their popularity, though 0:16:57.240 --> 0:16:59.920 waned after Benjamin's death in eighteen ten. 0:17:01.400 --> 0:17:06.240 In the end, the skeptics won, but with an interesting twist. 0:17:07.240 --> 0:17:10.679 Multiple physicians conducted tests to see if they could produce 0:17:10.720 --> 0:17:15.679 the same outcome as Perkins, and surprise, they did. London 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.640 physician John Hagarth was at the forefront of this and 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:23.680 in eighteen hundred tested the quote fictitious tractors and he 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:28.000 found not what he expected. Haygarth performed one of the 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:32.280 first known single blinded experiments, which means one group of 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:37.040 subjects was treated with genuine tractors and another with objects 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:40.399 shaped like tractors but made of something other than metal, 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.840 and Haygarth was the only one who knew who got which. 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:46.720 He found he could produce the same effects with a 0:17:46.720 --> 0:17:49.400 fake pair of tractors as with the real thing, and 0:17:49.480 --> 0:17:54.480 concluded that the quote whole effect undoubtedly depends upon the 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.400 impression which can be made upon the patient's imagination. Right, 0:17:58.520 --> 0:18:01.720 So hold up talk about that, because that's what makes 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.760 the story of Elijah Perkins one that's worth telling. 0:18:06.400 --> 0:18:10.240 Tests conducted in an effort to debunk Perkins found the 0:18:10.280 --> 0:18:14.160 opposite of what physicians predicted. It turned out that any 0:18:14.200 --> 0:18:18.320 and all materials used were unexpectedly equally as effective as 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:22.400 the genuine brass and iron tractors. The takeaway was as 0:18:22.480 --> 0:18:25.399 long as the patient believed they were being treated with 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.320 Perkins tractors, not just told mind you, but believed the 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:33.760 results were positive. This was and is a great example 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.320 of what we call the placebo effect. 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.399 The placebo effect is a surprisingly powerful phenomenon that has 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.600 been studied extensively in clinical trials. It's the idea that 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.600 the human body can respond to a treatment simply because 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:52.520 the person believes that treatment will work. So basically, your 0:18:52.520 --> 0:18:55.720 brain tricks you into thinking you're feeling better, though no 0:18:55.760 --> 0:18:57.840 one has proven it could shrink a tumor. Your brain 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:01.280 can modulate your level of pain or fatigue, for instance, 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.480 and that's what this is about. Placebos have been used 0:19:04.480 --> 0:19:09.760 in medicine since antiquity, but the word placebo wasn't really 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:15.080 introduced until the eighteenth century, specifically in reference to inert 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:20.000 substances like saline injections or sugar pills being used instead 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:24.679 of treatments proven to have real beneficial ingredients. But the 0:19:24.760 --> 0:19:28.520 idea didn't become part of the larger medical vocabulary until 0:19:28.520 --> 0:19:31.679 Haygarth published his findings in a paper titled on the 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:35.199 Imagination as a Cause and as a Cure of Disorders 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:39.480 of the Body. That paper directly helped establish what we 0:19:39.560 --> 0:19:43.600 now call the placebo effect. Today, placebos are common in 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:47.720 medical research and maybe brace yourself for a second. While 0:19:47.760 --> 0:19:51.760 it's not illegal for physicians to give placebos without a 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:56.280 patient's knowledge, many admit they do prescribe them regularly, despite 0:19:56.320 --> 0:19:58.240 the ethical problem that it raises. 0:19:59.280 --> 0:20:02.720 That's right, as stated in a study that was published 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.720 in the British Journal of Medicine in two thousand and eight. Quote. 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:09.280 Six hundred and seventy nine physicians responded to the survey. 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:14.080 About half of the surveyed internists and rheumatologists reported prescribing 0:20:14.160 --> 0:20:20.240 placebo treatments on a regular basis. Most physicians, sixty two percent, 0:20:20.600 --> 0:20:25.520 believe the practice to be ethically permissible. This, of course, 0:20:25.720 --> 0:20:29.359 is an ongoing issue of heated debate in the medical community, 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.280 because while some physicians argue that in prescribing a placebo 0:20:33.400 --> 0:20:37.359 you're depriving a patient of bodily autonomy, others, as that 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:41.400 study showed, think it's perfectly okay to do so if 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:43.119 you just need to take a moment to digest that, 0:20:43.200 --> 0:20:43.960 please feel free. 0:20:45.320 --> 0:20:48.480 While Elisha Perkins wasn't peddling snake oil in the way 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:51.679 we might usually think of it, that doesn't mean he 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.159 wasn't selling crap. In the end, he turns out to 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:58.919 likely have been a physician who pursued a mistaken theory 0:20:59.080 --> 0:21:02.600 and did no more harm with his tractors than empty 0:21:02.680 --> 0:21:06.240 and gullible pockets. And it's too bad he died before 0:21:06.240 --> 0:21:08.399 he had the chance to read those papers about his product, 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.760 and this thing called the placebo effect, because surely he 0:21:11.800 --> 0:21:13.280 would have found them fascinating. 0:21:14.880 --> 0:21:17.960 I mean I think he would have been. I would 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:19.960 like to think that he would have been fascinated and 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:22.000 not defensive, but who knows. I don't know him. 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:24.359 I don't know him either, but I got that vibe 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:26.360 from learning about him that he would have been like, wait, 0:21:26.400 --> 0:21:28.560 what is that? 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:30.840 That's cool? Right? Shall we use that in some way 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:32.120 to help people? Will that? Sure? 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:35.720 Yellow fever? 0:21:42.440 --> 0:21:44.919 I've got a little cures. What ails you? So? 0:21:45.080 --> 0:21:46.919 Does alas that? 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.960 I think you will enjoy it? Okay? So this went 0:21:49.960 --> 0:21:55.840 through seven different names, including Wow, including ardent spirits, free 0:21:55.920 --> 0:22:00.719 tractor therapy, I thought a great In the end, we 0:22:00.800 --> 0:22:03.560 called it the placebo effect. Yeah, And what I wanted 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:10.080 to do with this drink was incorporate something metallic, but 0:22:10.200 --> 0:22:14.320 also make a drink that kind of hides the things 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:18.760 that are actually creating the sensation while you're drinking it, 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:22.280 so that it's hard to pick out the ingredients, but 0:22:22.440 --> 0:22:25.639 gives you a sense of coziness and you're not sure why. 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.760 This isn't very far off from a whiskey sour, so 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:32.760 I think you will like it. But it has a 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:36.040 combination of things that may sound odd, but together they 0:22:36.080 --> 0:22:40.560 do something really nice. Into a shaker with ice, you're 0:22:40.600 --> 0:22:43.399 gonna put three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.680 a half ounce or so of simple syrup, a half 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:50.800 ounce of mandarin orange liqueur if you can get it. 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:53.720 If you can't get mandarin, you can do an orange liquur. 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:55.760 But the mandarin does have a different flavor that I 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.439 quite like. M this is a little predictable, but I 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:01.400 promise there's a reason other than just the gold flakes. 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:05.480 But a half ounce of gold schlager, and then an 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:07.880 ounce and a half if you can get it of 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.959 bacon bourbon. Oh wow. This is like a bourbon that 0:23:11.000 --> 0:23:13.200 my local liquor stores carry. I don't have a hard 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:15.920 time getting it. But if you cannot get it, you 0:23:15.960 --> 0:23:19.360 can just get regular bourbon and throw like a drop 0:23:19.520 --> 0:23:21.399 of liquid smoke in it, and it's gonna be the 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:25.240 same thing if you can get it. Also a little 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.320 bit of luster dust, like the edible glitter lustra, to 0:23:28.680 --> 0:23:30.040 just put a little in. You don't have to put 0:23:30.040 --> 0:23:32.280 a ton in, and you are gonna shake this and 0:23:32.359 --> 0:23:35.080 pour it into like a rocks glass over fresh ice 0:23:35.440 --> 0:23:38.240 and then top it with soda. Listen, if you want 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:41.679 to get fancy on your presentation, you could get like 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:45.400 a sprig of a pretty neutral garnish like parsley and 0:23:45.480 --> 0:23:49.840 spray it. They make like a silver edible food safe 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:52.560 spray that you can use like on cakes and cookies 0:23:52.600 --> 0:23:54.840 and stuff, and you can do your your garnish with that, 0:23:54.920 --> 0:23:57.120 and then you have like a little silver thing. That's 0:23:57.160 --> 0:23:58.760 just if you want to do it for presentation. But 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.720 here's what happens when you The cinnamon is the last 0:24:02.920 --> 0:24:05.879 flavor to make itself known, but it does so in 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:08.240 a way that it's hard to know that it's cinnamon, 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.560 like it mostly tastes a little bit citrusy and pretty 0:24:12.640 --> 0:24:15.680 light and refreshing considering how many things are in it 0:24:16.000 --> 0:24:19.959 that have very heavy flavors. Like something happens with the lemon, 0:24:20.800 --> 0:24:24.399 the orange and the cinnamon and the bacony bourbon that 0:24:24.480 --> 0:24:27.120 it's all smooths each other out and you're just kind 0:24:27.119 --> 0:24:29.639 of like, this is refreshing. It doesn't even taste that alcoholic. 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:31.760 But then at the end, oh, there's just a cozy 0:24:31.800 --> 0:24:32.520 sense to it. 0:24:32.640 --> 0:24:35.200 And you don't know why you don't know. 0:24:35.080 --> 0:24:38.840 Why, so much like Perkins and stuff, you don't know 0:24:38.880 --> 0:24:41.800 why it works or makes you feel cozy, but it does. 0:24:42.520 --> 0:24:46.040 It's not going to actually cure anything. Listen, Citrus is 0:24:46.040 --> 0:24:48.640 good for you in varieties of ways, but that's not 0:24:48.680 --> 0:24:51.879 really This is not a health drink. To make the mocktail, 0:24:52.280 --> 0:24:54.800 it's pretty simple. You are going to sub out that 0:24:54.960 --> 0:24:59.080 mandarin liqueur for syrup for mandarin syrup. If you want 0:24:59.080 --> 0:25:00.760 to make a mandarin syrup, it's just like we do 0:25:00.840 --> 0:25:03.720 all the time. A cup of sugar, a cup of water, 0:25:04.000 --> 0:25:06.920 some chopped up mandarin oranges, let that simmer and then strain. 0:25:07.000 --> 0:25:10.199 The whole thing quite delicious. You can also just do 0:25:10.280 --> 0:25:13.520 orange syrup if that's what you can find. A half 0:25:13.600 --> 0:25:17.080