- Leiden accumulator
The Leiden accumulator, created in
1745 was the first device that produced electric shock for medical purposes.Electricity was known to the
Greeks , but it was after the Charterhouse schoolteacher Stephen Gray electrified a boy, probably one of his pupils, in 1730 that experimentation with electricity became popular all over Europe, eventually producing the accumulator.In
France , several experiments were made on soldiers, and a community of monks, all holding onto a chain, and given an electric shock which made them fall "like a set of dominoes". Electric shock therapy was supposed to cureparalysis , gout,haemorrhoids ,epilepsy .Contemporary uses
The founder of
Methodism ,John Wesley , was a great believer of the treatment, which became so popular, that he eventually opened three clinics dedicated to it. By the second third of the century, orthodox medical profession was using it, theMiddlesex Hospital purchased an accumulator in 1767.Legacy
The method was an early forerunner of
electroconvulsive therapy .See also
*
Leyden jar References
*cite book|last=Picard|first=Liza|authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Dr. Johnson's London: Coffee-Houses and Climbing Boys, Medicine, Toothpaste and Gin, Poverty and Press-Gangs, Freakshows and Female Educatio |publisher=St. Martins Press|date=2002|location=London|pages=p. 170|url=http://books.google.com/books?q=%22Leiden+accumulator%22&as_brr=0&spell=1&oi=spell|doi= |id= |isbn=978-0312276652
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