Description

A cased example of Schrattenholz s Abductor.Length of case: 10.5″ or 25cm.  At a quick glance it appears to a Baunscheidt Lebenswecker,a widely used mid-19th century counter-irritant or homeopathic device,* the only apparent difference being the ring that shortens the extension of the needles. That said, Schrattenholz had his own system and theories and in 1859 he published, Das neue Schrattenholz-Heilsystem der Abduction oder Selbstausleitung der Krankheitsstoffe durch Heilnadeln (Abductor) und concentrirte Gase (Heildünster), Habicht. Give the scarcity of surviving examples,in contrast to the abundance of Baunscheidt’s Lebenweckers, it would appear that his Abductor was not widely adopted. 

*”The German inventor, Carl Baunscheidt (1809-1873) introduced his Lebenswecker (“life awakener”) in 1847.” It is worth noting that neither Baunscheidt nor Schrattenholz had any medical training.  

From Wiki:

“Wilhelm Schrattenholz (born June 28, 1815 in Birlinghoven near Bonn ; died December 4, 1898 in Cologne ) was a teacher, poet, writer, composer, and self-proclaimed physician and healer..

He founded a company called W. Schrattenholz & Comp. together with Franz Stollwerd, which he dissolved on September 28, 1867… He also developed a medical device that he called the Abductor and marketed under the brand name Schrattenholz Healing System .