An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . s at that time. In this case the method oftreatment was somewhat modified, the patient being placednaked upon a table while the fish was applied to differentparts of the body in succession ; the author adds that thistreatment causes rather severe suffering, but enjoys thereputation of being febrifuge.* The true character of the shocks given by the torpedo wasnot elucidated till 1772, when Dr. John Walsh published theresults of his observations, and proved them to be identicalin character with those obtained from an ordinary electricalm
An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . s at that time. In this case the method oftreatment was somewhat modified, the patient being placednaked upon a table while the fish was applied to differentparts of the body in succession ; the author adds that thistreatment causes rather severe suffering, but enjoys thereputation of being febrifuge.* The true character of the shocks given by the torpedo wasnot elucidated till 1772, when Dr. John Walsh published theresults of his observations, and proved them to be identicalin character with those obtained from an ordinary electricalmachine. In the same year John Hunter dissected the fish,and described the anatomy of its electrical organ, while in1773 Ingenhousz, of Vienna, independently made observationssimilar to those of Walsh, and arrived at the same to these observers, the illustrious Italian scientist,Francesco Redi, had in 1666 obtained specimens of thetorpedo, and experienced their shocks, while he was, more-* See Note A, p 173. HISTORY OF ELECTROTHERAPY. A. Torpeinis dorfum. B. eiusdcm venter. C. Abdomen apertum una cum cavo pectoris, ut in hocCor, in illo Ova & irrtcftina appareant. Torpedo. (Kaempfers Amoenilahim Exoticarwn, 1712 ) 4 AN ESSAY ON THE over, the first to dissect them, and to furnish a brief descriptionof the electrical organ. Reaumur also described the shocks,which he erroneously ascribed to sudden muscular , in 1712, compared the sudden stroke of thetorpedo to lightning, but inaccurately added that by holdingthe breath the observer was prevented from feeling the shock. For purposes of completeness, we may add a brief accountof some of the early observations upon the Gymnotus electricus,or electric eel of South America. So far, however, from itsbeing employed by the natives as a therapeutic agent, it wasregarded by them with terror. The earliest Europeanaccounts of this fish seem to have been those of de laCondamine, who notice
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