The Frankenstein Papers

Of Medical Electricity

The first application of electricity to the cure of diseases was made by M. Jallabert, professor of philosophy at Geneva, on a locksmith whose right arm had been paralytic fifteen years … He was brought to M. Jallabert on the 26th of December 1747, and was compleatly cured by the 28th of February 1748. In this interval he was frequently electrified, sparks being taken from the arm, and sometimes the electrical shock sent through it.

Dr. Franklin and others mention some paralytic cases, in which electricity seemed rather to make the patient worse than better.

Mr. Wilson cured a woman of a deafness of seventeen years standing—and Mr. Lovet considers electricity as a specific in all cases of violent pains, obstinate headacnes, the sciatica, and the cramp. The toothache, he says, is generally cured by it in an inftant. He relates a case, from Mr. Sloyer surgeon at Dorchester, of a compleat cure of a gutta ferena; and another of obstinate obstructions in two young women.

Hitherto electricity has been generally applied to the human body either in the method of drawing sparks, as it is called, or of giving shocks. But these operations are both violent, and though the strong concussion may suit some cases, it may be of disservice in others, where a moderate simple electrification might have been of use.

The great objection to this method is the tediousness and expence of the application. But an electrical machine might be contrived to go by wind or water, and a convenient room might be annexed to it, in which a floor might be raised upon electrics, a person might fit down, read, sleep, or even walk about during the electrification.

It were to be willed, that some physician of understanding and spirit would provide himself with such a machine and room. No harm could possibly be apprehended from electricity, applied in this gentle and intensible manner, and good effects are at least possible, if not highly probable.