The Development of Medical Electricity online exhibition
This online exhibition looks at how electricity in a medical capacity has developed from the Antiquities through to the early twentieth century. Quack treatments are examined alongside studies of anatomy leading up to the discovery of X Rays and the use of electricity in medicine today.
This online exhibition looks at how electricity in a medical capacity has developed from the Antiquities through to the early twentieth century. Themes covered include:
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Antiquities- Electric Torpedo Ray : Animal electricity and how early debate centred on whether there was any relationship between the 'nervous fluids' of animals and atmospheric electricity. - 1745- The Leyden Phial : a shocking effect as a passage of 'electrical fire' through the body which provided stimulus to the notion of the medical application of electricity.
- 1746- Jean Jallabert and the Excitation of muscles : the discovery of the ability to stimulate muscles by electricity.
- 1750-1800- Mesmerism and Quackery : appeared in the mid eighteenth century as a means of treatments which brought the practice of electrotherapy into disrepute.
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1781- Galvani's Animal Electricity : discovered accidentally when the nerve of a frog was touched by a knife. - Volta vs Galvani- the Animal Debate : following from Galvani's chance experiment with a frog Volta vehemently objected to the theory of animal electricity.
- 1800- Galvanism : the term galvanism as a resolution to Galvani and Volta's animal electricity debate
- 1830s- Electromagnetism : entrepreneurial endeavours were soon surpassed by the next wave of scientific discoveries beginning with those of Andre Marie Ampere.
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1867- Duchenne and Localised Faradisation : The French scientist Guillaume Duchenne du Boulogne took medical electricity into the realm of physiology and anatomy in the late 17th century. - Du Bois Reymond's Electrophysiology : the outstanding contribution to electro-physiology was the establishment of the law that excitation of contraction does not depend on the density of the current but on its rate of change.
- 1892- D'Arsonval and High Frequency Currents : The problem of the painful application of faradic current was solved by French physiologist Jacques d'Arsonval's experiments into its physiological effects.
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Early 1900s- Electricity in Surgery : It was not long before high-frequency currents also found application in surgery in the form of light and heat. - 1895- X-rays : in a short space of time, the discovery of X-rays, uranium rays and the electron transformed the discipline.
- Current Medical Electricity Trends : In recent years there has been a resurgence in the use of, and research into, electrotherapy.
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