An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . ate of exhaustion. Some idea of the force of the shocksmay be gathered from the fact that in less than five minutestwo horses were drowned, while all exhibited signs of terrorand agony. Communications in which the electrical nature of the dis-charge was established were made in 1775, by Dr. Garden, ofCharlestown, while dissections were again undertaken by JohnHunter. As another form of primitive electrotherapy may be men-tioned the use of the lodestone in the treatment of is, however, an obvious difference between the emp
An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . ate of exhaustion. Some idea of the force of the shocksmay be gathered from the fact that in less than five minutestwo horses were drowned, while all exhibited signs of terrorand agony. Communications in which the electrical nature of the dis-charge was established were made in 1775, by Dr. Garden, ofCharlestown, while dissections were again undertaken by JohnHunter. As another form of primitive electrotherapy may be men-tioned the use of the lodestone in the treatment of is, however, an obvious difference between the employ-ment of such a source of natural electricity as the torpedo,which, whatever the merits or demerits of the proceeding may HISTORY OF ELECTROTHERAPY 5 have been, did at any rate administer a genuine electric shock,and the therapeutic use of the natural magnet or lodestone. Inthe latter case there was obviously no shock, and apart fromits properties as a compound of iron, any influence it may havehad must have been exerted through the imagination of the. John Hunter,patient. Indeed, the employment of the lodestone in medicinereally comes under the heading of what is known to anthro-pologists as sympathetic magic. The obvious characteristicpossessed by the mineral in question, of attracting iron, washeld to indicate the possession of powers of attracting or re-pelling the causes of disease ; superstitions concerning them 6 AN ESSAY ON THE were, as may be imagined, extremely common, while accurateobservations were reduced to a minimum.* Pliny records thatiron could be magnetised by the lodestone, and adds thatwounds inflicted by a weapon so treated were particularlysevere. Lodestones triturated and calcined were employed inophthalmic preparations, and as an application for burns. Theancients cherished an absurd superstition, again recorded byPliny, to the effect that natural magnets were of differentsexes : The leading distinction is the sex, male and female,and the next great d
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