The dean of 18th century electrotherapy was undoubtedly Dr. James Graham. Also known as an early pioneer of sexology, he received medical training in Edinburgh but left before completing his degree. After studying electricity in Philadelphia, he left America before the American Revolution to return to England. A determined self-promoter, Graham advertised his electrotherapy services to cure a vast range of diseases and quickly attracted numerous celebrity patients. While conventional physicians dismissed him as a quack, Graham opened a clinic in one of the most exclusive London neighbourhoods which he dubbed the "Temple of Health". Patients to Graham's clinic were often awed by the elaborate electrical equipment on display, not to mention the various "trophies" of former patients. This included the various walking-sticks, crutches, spectacles and ear-trumpets prominently displayed on clinic walls. Graham proudly claimed that grateful patients had left them behind after he cured them of their ailments.
Graham's electrical devices included an enormous Leyden jar (for display only) and a vast prime conductor nearly three meters high. Not only was there a large throne where as many eight patients could sit at a time for their treatment sessions but also a metal shelf for the various medicines that Graham "electrified". He made these potions in his own laboratory and testified to the purity of the ingredients that he used. Once electrified, the medicines were used to "enter patients and work medical miracles". There were other prime conductors throughout the clinic as well as discreet alcoves where Graham and his assistants could meet with patients privately. James Graham also maintained a free clinic where poor patients could be treated (usually in full view of more well-to-do visitors and prospective patients). Graham was definitely a showman.
The most well known feature of Graham's clinic was his "Great Apollo Apartment". A large domed chamber, stunningly decorated, the dominant themes were fertility and bliss. Patients sat on magnetic seats with their bare feet resting on sulfur while music played in the background. Graham himself said of the Apartment that, "words can convey no adequate idea of the astonishment and awful sublimity which seizes the mind of every spectator". The truly multi-sensory experience that patients received guaranteed return visits and Graham declared that, "there is no fever, rheumatism, cramp, spasm, or convulsion” that would not yield to this treatment, often in less than a minute". For infertile couples who could afford his fee, he also offered a "Celestial Bed" which was, basically, a canopied bed where couples could “bask in a genial, invigorating tide of the celestial fire, ” where, he insisted, they could not fail to produce “strong, healthful, and most beautiful offspring".
As you may have gathered, the conventional medical establishment wasn't happy with James Graham and the feeling was mutual. He often condemned conventional medicine and maintained that most treatments advocated by physicians were "fundamentally and in their nature wrong". He accused these doctors as being corrupt as well as incompetent. Considering the often brutal treatment methods that 18th century physicians were capable of inflicting on patients, Graham's criticisms won him even more praise, except for the fact that his own treatments didn't really work (suggestion can only get you so far). By the time of his death in 1797, James Graham was largely discredited and deeply in debt. Even the electrical apparatus at his beloved Temple of Health had long since been sold off.
While traditional physicians may have breathed a sigh of relief at Graham's passing, electrotherapists were still practicing their trade (if not as flamboyantly as Graham). In addition to pain treatment, they offered relief for a variety of "women's problems" including hysteria, depression, menstruation problems and, possibly, even induced abortions (for obvious reasons, this particular service was never advertised). It wasn't all quackery though since the value of electrotherapy in resuscitating some heart attack and drowning victims made it a standard tool for medicine (the actual work of resuscitation was usually left to "medical assistants"-possibly the earliest version of paramedics). Specialized electrical devices were developed for use in cases of "suspended animation" which eventually evolved into our modern heart defibrillators - with considerable trial and error along the way.
Despite the growing legitimacy of electrotherapy, the quacks still practiced their trade (just not as flamboyantly as James Graham). As electrical technology improved, electrical devices became more portable and affordable. While devices such as my Davis & Kidder machine were usually harmless, they were often marketed in ways that were anything but harmless. One famous 19th century vendor of patented electrical devices was "Professor" Isaac Lewis Pulvermacher who sold products under the slogan, "Electricity is Life". Pulvermacher's most memorable invention was the "Electro-Galvanic Chain" - basically adjustable belts which supplied "mild, continuous currents" for eight to twelve hours a day while the patient wore them. When not in use, the belts were immersed in a weak vinegar solution to generate a current. At a cost of twenty dollars U.S. apiece, the belts were hardly cheap but still more affordable than most medicines at the time. Better yet, Pulvermacher's products were sold as "self-applicable for the cure of chronic disease without medicine". Pulvermacher's methods spawned numerous imitators and his ads sternly warned customers to "accept no substitutes".
Which brings us to the dawn of the 20th century...









