Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Electrical medicine
(871 words)

As electricity became a “fashionable science” from the 1740s, it also began to be applied to the (afflicted) human body. Media of the day thenceforth report frequently on the successful treatment of paralyses in particular, but also epileptic conditions, blindness, gout, and many other complaints, by the application of electricity, usually in the form of discharges. Claims and expectations of therapeutic success played an important part in the legitimization of scientists' working more widely and…

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Hochadel, Oliver, “Electrical medicine”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_SIM_018687>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20170626



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