1 Electrical Healing and the Violet Ray an unpublished book by Gary J. Lockhart (1942–2001) © copyright 2000 by Gary J. Lockhart edited and PDF placed online by Ann J. Lockhart and Arthur Lee Jacobson 2009–12 2 3 INTRODUCTION (short version) “It has long been my belief, that the electric influence is the great principle by which the Almighty puts together and separates; and that it might be called, metaphorically speaking, the right arm of God.” Andrew Cross c. 1835 “What are electricity, galvanism and magnetism? In these lies the great secret of nature.” Napoleon Bonaparte c. 1815 About 5,000 years ago, a peasant farmer brought wild kittens home. When he petted them on dry days, there were small sparks. Maybe he wondered if there was a connection between the tiny sparks and the great lightning bolts that split the skies on stormy days. Electricity got its name in +1600 from the Greek word for am- ber. Once it had a name, people began to think of ways of generating it. As soon as we were able to generate and store electricity, doctors began to try using it to cure disease. The “electric era” began with static generators, then direct current. Batteries began around +1800. Michael Faraday’s experiments opened the door to alternating current. AC current was only a curiosity at first, and then it was adopted for the power transmission grid. High- frequency alternating currents arrived in 1892 with the suggestion that they would be valuable in medicine. In +1836, Guy’s Hospital of London set up an “electrifying room.” Patients generally sat on an insulated stool and received an “electric bath” from a “static machine.” Doctors drew sparks from the electrified patients or shocked them with Leyden jars. In 1872, Dr. Alphonse Rockwell asked to read a paper before the New York Medical Society, but was turned down because “electric- ity was the domain of crooks.” By 1890, five medical schools in New York were teaching courses in electricity. There was a great wave of interest in using electricity for medical treatment, which lasted until about 1910. 4 5 Nikola Tesla was the genius who developed the modern system Cayce Association and asking about the violet ray. They knew very of alternating current. He believed that electricity would revolution- little about it, except for knowledge of the numerous readings. ize the world. He wanted to broadcast electrical power and use it to I intended to write a short chapter on the violet ray in a book, drive cars and airplanes with electric motors. He believed that high but as I began to do research, the story gradually emerged. I wanted frequency electricity would revitalize the body. to tell the entire store of the evolution of medical electricity. I was In 1892, Tesla traveled through Europe, lecturing. He met with surprised to learn that electricity was used to reduce weight, grow hair Paul Oudin in Paris where they discussed ways of building electro- and remove hemorrhoids. In certain instances, it restored the sight of therapeutic devices. Paul Oudin built the first “violet ray” and wrote nearly blind persons, healed desperate cases of rheumatoid arthritis an article on using it to cure skin disorders the next year. and removed skin cancer. The name “violet ray” occurs for the first time in 1913 in a dental The best collection of electrical healing devices can be found in journal. By 1916, inexpensive units were being sold in drugstores the Bakken Museum of Minneapolis. The man who invented the first under this name. Medical literature uses the terms “high-frequency transistorized pacemaker for hearts founded this library and mu- treatment,” “D’Arsonvalization” or “effluvation.” There is a great seum. The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices in Minneapolis deal of confusion on the devices and treatments. The electric medical has some of the same devices, but its staff take the position that the journals of this time period are rare, but kind librarians at the Bakken devices were nothing more than superstition. The Indiana Medical Library, University of Michigan, Philadelphia College of Physicians History Museum has a wide variety of electrical gadgetry used to cure and the National Library of Medicine dug them out of the basement disease. for me. The Electropathological Museum at the University of Vienna The great era of electrical healing lasted from 1890 to 1910. By contains paintings and objects that show the mystery traces left by the time inexpensive violet rays were being mass marketed, medical lightning or power lines. One exhibit is a tattoo made by a golden journals were doing longer covering studies on this. At least twelve chain around the neck of a woman struck by lightning. The founder companies made the devices in France, Germany, England, Canada of the museum, Professor Stefan Jellinek, was one of the first to show and the United States. The depression of 1929 put the companies out that the apparently dead from electrical shock could be restored to life of business, and the violet ray was gradually forgotten. I have only by artificial respiration. found two studies on the device in the last 70 years under the name Electricity is a two-edged sword that can restore health and life or of “D’Arsonvalization.” injure and kill. The benefits of simple electrical treatments far out- The violet ray in healing would have been almost totally forgot- weigh the risks involved. Hundreds of thousands of violet rays were ten, except for one man. Around 1900, Edgar Cayce lost his voice for sold and used, with few reported problems. There is no endorsement months and doctors were unable to help him. After he learned how to of any treatment in this book, and readers are advised to consult with do self-hypnosis and diagnosed his own medical condition, he quickly a medical professional. In using any electrical device, all proper pre- regained his voice. Then he went into hypnosis and began to help a cautions should be employed. few friends with their health problems. Floods of desperate people flocked through his door seeking help for difficult medical conditions. In his lifetime as a “psychic diagnos- tician,” he gave 14,000 readings in which he mentioned using the violet ray in more than 900 readings. I began this study by calling the 6 7 INTRODUCTION The first battery appeared in 1800, opening the door to low volt- age direct current. Michael Faraday opened the door to alternating (long version) current in 1831 with pulsed “faradic” current. Electricity could now be generated through motion, and batteries could be charged. “It has long been my belief, that the electric influence is the great principle by In 1836, Guy’s Hospital of London set up an “electrifying room.” which the Almighty puts together and separates; and that it might be called, Patients sat on an insulated chair and received an “electric bath” from metaphorically speaking, the right arm of God.” a static machine. Most patients were women. The treatment consisted Andrew Cross c. 1835 of drawing sparks up and down the spine or passing shocks through the pelvis with the Leyden jars. A brass ball grounded to the earth was Many stories of King Arthur’s court in England are about the used to draw the sparks. Holy Grail. The grail was the cup used by Jesus at the Last Supper. Nikola Tesla was the great genius who made alternating current The continental European legends speak of the grail as a stone with spirit. The Parzifal calls it the “lapis electris.” Angels, who were neu- the standard for transmission and use. He observed that high-fre- quency electricity had important effects on health. In 1892 he met tral in the strife between God and Satan, guarded the electric stone. with Paul Oudin in Paris where hey discussed ways of building thera- The legend of the Holy Grail is a picture of the future of electric- peutic high-frequency oscillators. Months later Oudin produced the ity. The divine power can be either a healer or destroyer. Movies show first device that became known as the “violet ray.” the Frankenstein monster seething with electric currents. The saints Paul Oudin began to experiment with skin disorders and found and saviors are pictured with a golden electric halo. that acne, eczema and psoriasis were easily treated with the new de- William Gilbert (1544–1603) became the chief physician to vice. After a few treatments the skin patches would begin to break up Queen Elizabeth. She had such a good opinion of him, that he was and disappear completely in two to three months. When the devices later given a pension to continue his scientific studies. He used the were used to spark warts or skin cancer, the anomalies often were money to buy many rare books and experimental equipment. One removed within weeks. was a magnetic lodestone ground into a sphere, which used magnetic The violet ray often took away pain, and many times it was al- needles to show how it mirrored the earth’s field. He showed that fric- most considered a miracle. I experienced this after months of endur- tion on glass, sulfur and other substances would generate an attrac- ing a shooting pain in the foot. I used the violet ray around the area tive power, which he called “electricity.” He named it from the Greek for a minute each night, and the pain did not return. A friend had word for amber. such pain in his shoulder that he was considering quitting work. The In 1897, physicist Joseph Thomson completed the physical side of violet ray relieved much of the pain. His girlfriend had severe pain Gilbert’s work. He made a vacuum tube with two charged plates and in her knees, which resulted from gymnastics when she was younger. a fluorescent screen. Magnetic and electric fields deflected the cur- The device relieved most of her knee pain. rent, and he found a stream of charged particles. He announced the The device was valuable in dealing with arthritis and was often discovery of the electron. considered a miracle in rheumatoid arthritis. I lent my violet ray to The history of medical electricity begins with the first practical a friend to help with his arthritis. In a few weeks his enlarged joints static generator in 1742 and the Leyden jar for storing electricity in shrank to normal size. 1745. Doctors electrified patients with static electricity or gave them The long hours of typing chapters had began to take their toll strong shocks. This produced some promising results, but the tech- while I was working on this book. My left hand became painful and nology was incomplete. 8 9 numb from carpal tunnel syndrome, resulting in my making many cians and the National Library of Medicine. I am especially grateful mistakes. After violet ray treatments for ten days, most of my pain to the Bakken Library and Museum in Minneapolis, which contains and numbness was gone. a collection of old violet rays and other electrical healing devices. The The early electrical healing devices were called by several names, library has many rare books relating to all aspects of electrical healing. but were generally known as “high-frequency oscillators.” The Den- In geopolitics there is a saying: “the winners write the history tal Brief first used the term “violet ray” in 1913. In 1916, the first books.” The winners wrote the history books and textbooks of medi- inexpensive hand-held devices appeared in drug stores. The public cine. They made certain that everyone knew about the glories of accepted the violet ray and hundreds of thousands of units were sold. surgery and wonder drugs. They made sure that electric medicine was Twelve companies made the devices in the United States, Canada, placed in the category dominated by cranks and frauds. Germany, France, Spain and England. Drugstores had front window Robert Becker was the leading scientist engaged in regeneration displays of violet rays. work with electricity. He discovered the ideal currents for regener- When they became popular with the public, doctors and the FDA ating broken bones. As his research became more interesting and started to despise them. At first the Journal of the American Medical promising, he found that the National Institutes of Health denied Association published promising therapeutic results in articles. Then him monetary grants to continue. He was so discouraged that he it printed an article about a man who deliberately short-circuited his wrote: “The pigeons of Zeus cover new ideas with their droppings and violet ray and electrocuted himself. This implied that the device was conduct rigged experiments to disprove them.” dangerous and should be outlawed. The Depression put the com- The violet ray is a grandfathered device, meaning that it was panies that made violet rays out of business and the devices became produced before 1976 and is generally presumed to be safe and not unavailable. subject to federal regulation. In spite of this, the FDA threatened There is another reason why the device was forgotten. A stream leagal action against the companies that produce them and the people of violet rays of light passes through a glass tube into the skin. Tiny who use them. The climate of official intimidation has been so strong sparks shoot out, and when the device is withdrawn, there are sparks that only one journal (Chinese Medical Journal) has published studies causing the muscles to jerk. Using the device is very unsettling at in the last 70 years. first and slightly uncomfortable. After the initial sensation passes, the The violet ray is not a medical miracle, but it often produced violet ray is easy to use. remarkable healing in a short period of time. Those who use it should Edgar Cayce was the “sleeping prophet” who gave 14,000 read- take the same precautions as with any electrical device. In any healing ings between 1920 and his death in 1945. Desperate people seeking treatment, qualified medical advice should be sought. This book does help for medical problems consulted him, when doctors couldn’t help not make medical recommendations, but it does tell the history and them. In his self-hypnotic trances, he recommended the violet ray results of those who used electricity for healing. treatments over 900 times. He kept interest in this nearly forgotten There is more to be told of the story of medical electricity, but device alive. this is a beginning. I am reminded of the words of Winston Churchill I wanted to tell the entire story of the healers who used electric- in 1942. “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the ity, and emphasize the violet ray era. It was a difficult job to locate end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” If this book results and research books and journals with information about it. I visited in a new beginning for forgotten technologies, then I have accom- medical libraries at Stanford, University of Washington, University of plished my purpose. Minnesota, University of Michigan, Philadelphia College of Physi- 10 11 1. THE CURE Contents FROM THE SKIES Introduction 3 MEN OF THE VIOLET RAY ELECTRICITY OF NATURE 30 Wm. Morton Approaches the Future 171 “From a thousand experiments, it appears that there is a fluid far more subtle than 1 The Cure From the Skies 11 31 Edison Fumbles the Future 176 air, which is everywhere diffused through all space, which surrounds the earth and 2 Biological Electricity 16 32 Nikola Tesla Leads the Way 181 pervades every part of it. Such is the extreme fineness, velocity and expansiveness of 3 Electric Plants 21 33 Arsene d’Arsonval Shows the Way 188 this active principle that all other matter seems to be only the body and this is the 4 The Electric Atmosphere 27 34 Edgar Cayce Saves the Violet Ray 193 soul of the universe. This we might term electric fire, but it is hard for us to separate 5 The Electric Earth 33 ENTRANCE OF THE VIOLET RAY the ideas of fire and burning. From this pure fire, which is properly so called, the 6 Electric People 38 35 The Violet Ray 200 vulgar culinary fire is kindled. For in truth there is but one kind of fire in nature, 7 Magnetic People 44 36 The Violet Ray in Healing 206 which exists in all places and in all bodies. This is subtle and active enough not STATIC ELECTRICITY 37 The Violet Ray in Skin Disorders 211 only to be under the Great Cause, the second cause of motion, but to produce and 8 Static Electricity 49 38 Electrical Hair Growing 217 sustain life throughout all nature as well in animals as in vegetables . . .” 9 The First Electrical Doctors 55 39 Electrical Eye Treatment 222 10 Benjamin Franklin Clears the Air 61 40 Electrical Ear Treatment 230 Desideratum John Wesley. DIRECT CURRENT 41 Electricity for the Hands and Feet 236 11 Galvani’s Electricity 66 42 The Violet Ray in Hemorrhoids 242 In 1973, Chinese archeologists digging in the Hunan Province 12 Volta’s Electricity 70 43 The Violet Ray in Neuralgia 247 unearthed a book titled: Prescriptions Against 52 Ailments. It was bur- 13 Direct Current Therapy 75 44 Electricity in Digestion 253 ied about 200 years before the time of Christ. Twenty-seven prescrip- 14 Electropuncture 80 45 Electricity in Circulation 260 tions were spells chanted to cure the disorders. For one of the mystery 15 Electricity in Gynecology 85 46 Electricity in Breathing 265 ailments the writer remarks: “Wait for lightning in heaven and then 16 Electricity and Mental Conditions 91 47 The Violet Ray in Tuberculosis 271 rub both hands together. Face the lightning and chant to it: Sovereign 17 Electrical Muscles 98 48 The Violet Ray in Gynecology 277 18 Electrical Bone Healing 104 49 The Violet Ray in Dentistry 283 of the Eastern Quarter, Sovereign of the Western Quarter, preside 19 Electrical Weight Reduction 109 50 The Violet Ray in Arthritis 288 over the darkness and darken this person’s stars.” 20 Electrical Narcosis or Sleep 115 51 The Violet Ray on Glands 294 Lightning is a mystery that was once believed to be the power of 21 Electrical Resuscitation 121 52 Fulguration 300 the gods. The laurel protected against it, so Roman emperors wore the 22 Electrical First Aid 127 VIOLET RAY EVOLUTION laurel wreath. The oak drew the stroke, and Roman soldiers received ELECTROLYSIS TREATMENT 53 Diathermy 305 their decorations of oak leaves as a reminder of heavenly power. 23 Electrolytic Care in Metal Poisoning 132 54 The Electric Knife 311 24 Electric Medication 136 55 Lakhovsky’s Healing Waves 316 Prometheus brought lightning from the heavens, giving him the 25 Electrified Zinc 142 56 Rife’s Directed Waves 322 power of the gods. The prophet Zoroaster was killed by a lightning 26 Beneficial Ions 148 57 Kirlian Photography 327 stroke in response to his own prayer. The “heavenly fire” furnished ALTERNATING CURRENT ELECTRIC TOOLS poets and writers with a sense of divine magic. 27 Faraday Takes the Next Step 155 58 Electrical Diagnosis 331 Moses saw the burning bush that was not consumed. Flames ap- 28 Faradism 160 59 X-Ray Therapy 337 peared upon the heads of the twelve apostles on the day of Pentecost. 29 Shock Treatment 166 60 Electric Light Therapy 341 Renaissance artists attempted to depict the mystery fire by painting nimbuses circling the heads of the divine figures. 12 13 The town of Kulu in the Indian Himalayas has a temple on a hill In the summer of 1806, Samuel Leffers suffered a stroke. The left dedicated to the god Shiva. A 60-foot iron rod attracts the “blessings side of his face was numb, and he had great difficulty speaking. He of heaven.” Lightning flashes through the mast and shatters the statue was unable to close one eye and could hardly walk. Several months of Shiva at the base. The shattered pieces of Shiva are reunited and later while he was in his house, lightning struck and he lay sense- used for the next blessing. less for about 20 minutes. When he recovered he began to feel much A few people seem to have a fatal attraction for lightning. Charles better. The next day he sat down to write a letter to a friend, and he Brown of Kenton, Ohio, was known as the human lightning rod. On found that he didn’t need glasses. Although he lost part of his hear- May 20, 1946, he was stunned for the tenth time when a bolt struck ing, he looked 30 years younger, and his face acquired a remarkable the public library as he was checking out a book. smoothness and beauty. Major R. Sumerford of Vancouver, British Columbia, was on Susana Watts was traveling home when a severe storm struck. The army patrol during World War I. A bolt of lightning killed his horse carriage broke down, so she had to walk the rest of the way. The cold and left him paralyzed from the waist down. He eventually recovered weather was too much and her health failed. She was unable to use enough to walk with the help of two canes. In 1924, he went fish- her arms and was confined to bed. Three years later, a bolt of light- ing in the mountains. His friends left for supplies while he sat under ning struck the house and left a black large circle on the ceiling. She a tree. Lightning struck it and paralyzed his right side. In 1930, he was unconscious, so the servants loosened her clothes and began to was walking in a Vancouver park. As a storm came up, he hurried massage her. As she awoke, she was angry with them for touching her. towards the shelter area. He was struck by lightning and confined to a Then she got up and began to walk. She stumbled and reached out wheelchair. He died two years later. On a July night in 1934, a violent for the handrail. The lightning had restored the use of her arm and electrical storm struck Vancouver. A bolt of lightning struck a single cured her arthritis. tombstone in a cemetery and shattered it. It was the grave of Major In 1822, Martin Rockwell was standing looking out of a win- Sumerford. dow when lightning struck the building about ten feet away. He was The famous meteorologist Heinz von Ficker was caught in a thun- briefly paralyzed and it took an hour for normal movement to return derstorm on the Matterhorn Mountain in the Alps. He was struck to his left leg and right arm. There was a burning sensation in his three times in the back by bolts of lightning, and his clothes were chest that continued for days. Rockwell suffered from asthma since he ripped to shreds. He remained fully conscious, but the fourth light- was a boy and was often unable to sleep. Since the lightning strike he ning bolt knocked him out for a short time. was entirely free of asthma. He would feel it slightly when he had a Literature contains a number of cases in which lightning provided cold or was fatigued. a healing impetus. In 1776, Mrs. Wynne went to Dublin to consult In 1828, a ship was crossing the Atlantic with a passenger who with several surgeons because she had a large tumor in the left breast. had been paralyzed for three years. Lighting struck his quarters, and The surgeons didn’t want to operate, so she returned home. She was suddenly he jumped out of bed. He remained perfectly normal the looking out of the window of her home when lightning struck it and rest of his life. set fire to the roof. The stroke passed through her left shoulder and Another strange stroke of lightning aroused medical curiosity in down her back. She tumbled to the floor and was found later that 1846. Lightning struck a group of women, one of whom had been evening. Dr. Georgius Hicks visited her two days later and found that childless for years. In a few months, she was expecting. Another her breast tumor was smaller and softer. In a few weeks, it was com- woman was 70 years old and had gone through menopause 20 years pletely gone. Thereafter, he decided to try electric shock to treat breast before. She began to menstruate, and continued for three years. cancer. With electrical shocks, he was able to reduce the cancerous tumors and pain in two women. 14 15 Around 1850, an English farmer developed cancer of the lower enna. The museum contains more than 100 watercolor paintings and lip and chin. He agreed to have surgery, but before the scheduled objects showing the mysterious traces left by lightning or man-made date, he was out plowing his fields when he was struck by lightning. currents. One exhibit is a tattoo made by the links of a golden chain Both of his horses were killed, and his plow was shattered. A few on the neck of a woman who was struck by lightning. The professor weeks later, the cancer was distinctly less, and in months it disap- wrote several books on the effects of electrical currents and lightning. peared. He enjoyed good health for the next ten years. The cancer Jellinek wrote Dying, Apparent Death and Resuscitation. He then reappeared, and the man died. showed that in most cases of electrical injury, it was possible to restore Thomas Young was a farmer near Dukedom, Tennessee. Cancer consciousness with artificial respiration. Before this, most doctors began on his face, so the surgeon removed part of his lower jaw. The believed that nothing could be done. cancer continued to spread, and by June of 1932, he was nearly dead. Few of us are willing to stand on a hill in a thunderstorm hoping He chose to spend his last days lying in bed or on a hammock under that a bolt of lightning might cure our problems. Lightning is more the trees. One day a sudden storm came and struck one of the trees likely to be the final solution to all of our ills! But controlled man- to which his hammock was attached to. The bolt stunned him and made lightning might just be the ticket to good health. ripped the soles from his shoes. In a few days, he began to feel better. Bibliography The cancerous sores started to heal, and soon he was back to normal. Journals in this bibliography are in alphabetic order. Most large medical libraries In 1971, Edwin Robinson jackknifed his truck in order to avoid shelve them in this manner. All foreign titles of articles have been translated for the hitting a car. As a result of the accident, he became blind and quite benefit of my English readers. The authors of books are listed after the journals. deaf. In June of 1980, he walked out into the backyard as a storm was American Journal of Science 3:100, 1821 “Case of a Paralytic Affection, Cured by a Stroke of brewing to call his pet chicken indoors. The next moment he felt as Lightning” D. Olmsted if “somebody cracked a whip over his head.” He lay unconscious for American Journal of Science 6:329, 1823 “Cure of Asthma by a Stroke of Lightning” R. Emerson about 20 minutes before he was able to go inside. After a good nap he Lancet 1:77, 1880 “Therapeutic Effects of Lightning Upon Cancer” A. Allison Medical and Philosophical Comment 4:82, 1776 “An Account of the Effect of Lightning in went into the kitchen for a sandwich. Suddenly he realized he could Discussion of a Tumor of the Breast” A. Eason see a little. His wife asked: “What time is it?” He was able to tell her Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery 13:162, 1846 “Effects of Lightning” J. Leconte that it was 5 p.m. Two days later he was able to walk about without Unschuld, Paul Medicine in China: A History of Ideas Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985 his cane. His hearing returned and he no longer needed the hearing aid. He kept remarking about the strange feeling on the top of his head. A new crop of hair was growing over the bald area. Two brothers in London were struck by lightning. The next day, the deaf brother recovered his hearing. A coal miner in Northern England had lost his sight after an explosion of gunpowder. After he was struck by lightning, the sight of his left eye returned. A woman with multiple sclerosis was struck by lightning. She had been slowly degenerating, but within months, she recovered most of her normal function. Professor Stefan Jellinek was the pioneer of electropathology and founded the Electropathological Museum at the University of Vi- 16 17 2. BIOLOGICAL configured so that all cells discharge in short bursts. The slowness of nerve conduction would normally be expected to produce a smaller, ELECTRICITY more spread-out pulse frequency. The Gymnarchus fish responds to the presence of metals in water. When a copper wire rectangle was placed in a shallow tank, the fish “The sea torpedo is said by some to cure headache and prolapsus ani when applied. appeared to be trapped within it. Every time it approached the wire, I tried both of these things and found neither to be true. I thought that the torpedo could be applied alive to the person who has the headaches. It could be that this it halted, and then swam away. If a piece of wire is left in the tank for remedy is anodyne and could free the patient from pain as do other remedies which long enough, the fish will show no response. These fish do not bump numb the senses, and this I found to be so.” into the walls of the aquarium when kept captive. Claudius Galen c. +180. The first electric fish may have used electric pulses to locate food and navigate in muddy rivers. Gymnarchus discharges 300 pulses per “The live black torpedo when applied to the painful area relieves and permanently second, but if another electric fish is nearby, shifts the frequency of cures some chronic and intolerably protracted headaches, providing that the pain is the pulses, to be able to distinguish its own pulses from others. The localized and lacks feeling. However, there are many varieties of torpedo and it may fish hunt at night. When a microphone is put into the water, you can be necessary to try two or three varieties before numbness is felt, as numbness is the hear ticking, rattling, and whistling sounds. If the fish sense some- sign of the cure.” thing around them, they raise the frequency of the impulses. Compositiones Medicamentorum Scribonius Largus c. +46. The ancient Egyptians were the first to picture the Nile catfish Malapterurus electricus. They probably ignored the shock and used it Humans and other vertebrates have weak electric fields surround- for food. There was a belief that the fish used its power to shock the ing them. It may be that everything living has an electrical field. Cer- fisherman and allowed other fish to escape. tain fish have developed powerful fields and use electricity to locate Hippocrates recommended this fish for food, because it was soft food and stun it before they eat it. and easily digested. He doesn’t mention its shocking effects, but this The Torpedo, Astroscopus, Malapterurus and Electrophorus fish have might have been why he recommended it. The fish was prescribed for highly developed electric organs. The organ consists of large numbers tuberculosis patients and for women suffering from menorrhagia. of disk-like cells called electroplaxes or electroplates arranged in or- Plato was familiar with the works of Hippocrates and talked derly columns with the innervated sides all facing the same direction. about them in his famous dialogues. Socrates would really “electrify” The Torpedo has horizontal electrical plates forming thick cells. The his audiences, and Plato compares him to the torpedo fish. “The flat cells discharge in parallel and generate currents of several amperes at torpedo fish who torpifies those who come near him with the touch, about 50 volts. The electric fishes live in both salt and fresh water. as you now torpified me, I think. For my soul and my tongue are re- There are five species of the Torpedo in the Mediterranean. The ally torpid and I do not know how to answer you.” most common is the “electric ray” Torpedo torpedo, which has an Theophrastus took over the school of Aristotle and wrote books electric organ consisting of 800 to 1,000 cells connected with bundles on animals, fish and plants. He remarks that the torpedo could send of nerves. The top surface of the fish is positive and the bottom is shocks through clubs and spearing irons—numbing the hands of negative. fishermen. The electric eel of South America has 70 columns of electroplates, Plutarch compared the lives of famous Romans and Greeks in his each containing 6,000 cells in series. A large eel can produce 3 mil- well-known books. In Moralia, Plutarch remarks: “Swimming circu- lisecond pulses of up to 600 volts. The nervous system is specially 18 19 larly about his prey, he shoots forth the effluviums of his nature like von Humboldt found that the eels were difficult to catch, because so many darts and then infects the water. The fish around are neither they buried themselves in the mud. The Indians drove horses into the able to defend themselves or escape, being held in chains and frozen.” muddy pools and the horses discharged the eels. Then the Indians At the time of Christ, Tiberius Caesar ruled Rome, where slavery speared the eels with harpoons fastened to dry wood handles. was common among the wealthy Romans. Tiberius freed one of his A Jesuit missionary wrote: “In these rivers and lakes, the electric slaves, Anthero, who later walked along the shore and stepped onto eel is found, which if any man holds in his hand, and it stir not, it a flat fish, which gave him a numbing shock. The shock relieved his doth produce no effect. If it move itself ever so little, it so tormenteth “gutta,” which might have been arthritis. him which holds it, so his arteries, joints, sinews and all his members Pliny wrote his Natural History around +70. He mentions several feel exceeding pain with a certain numbness. As soon as it is let go torpedo remedies, either eating the fish or applying parts of the dead from the hand, all the pain and numbness are gone. The superstitious fish. He mentions the “exhaltations” of the torpedo, but getting live Abassines believed that it is good to expel devils out of the human fish was not easy for those who needed an electric cure. body, as it did torment spirits no less than men.” The electric fish began to attract the attention of scientists around The governor of Surinam, Storm Van s’Gravesander, wrote in +1700. Francesco Rida and Stephano Loranzini dissected the torpedo 1754: “It has been observed that various people who had gouty pain and found that the electric organ was essentially a modified muscle. and touched the torpedo were completely cured two or three minutes The invention of the Leyden jar in 1745 played a decisive role in after contact. The experiment has been repeated at various times, but establishing the electric nature of the fish. A weak static current could always with the same result.” now be turned into a real shock. The scientists were puzzled over the The Dutch surgeon Frans Van der Lotte wrote in 1761: “An In- nature of the fish. It didn’t attract light bodies or electrify a Leyden dian had paralysis of the abdomen. After having used several external jar, and there was no spark or crackling noise. and internal medicines in vain, I tried an electric eel, in the presence The eccentric scientist Henry Cavendish researched the electric of my friends, which had just been caught in the river and hence was fish. He never invited visitors to his laboratory, but on one occasion in full strength, against the knees of the patient. The shock was so he invited a group of friends to witness his research. He constructed tremendous that two persons who were holding the patient under the a model of the torpedo with electrical equipment and put it under arms on each side were knocked to the floor. After I had repeated this wet sand. The visitors walked over it with bare feet and got the same three times, the patient, who had to be carried from his plantation, sensation as the real torpedo. Cavendish estimated that one torpedo walked back to the plantation without cane or crutches, completely equaled 49 charged Leyden jars. recovered and was without need of assistance.” John Walsh continued the investigation of electric fish. He Abraham Van Doorn had a slave boy with crooked arms and legs. showed that an electrical eel would produce a visible spark in a dark He had the boy thrown into a tub containing large black electric room. He put two wires into the water of an aquarium in which his eels. After being shocked, the boy crawled out, but if he was unable eel was swimming. When his friends would put their hands over the to crawl, he was helped out. The boy completely recovered from his wires, the eel would sense this and give them a shock. His experi- nerve disease, but his bones remained deformed. ments stimulated interest in electric healing. A newspaper soon had Van Doorn also threw another slave with malaria into a tub with an ad for getting healing shocks for two shillings and sixpence! an electric eel. The slave’s fever disappeared in a few minutes and When the Europeans began to explore Brazil, they found the didn’t return. Van Doorn also tried this on an Indian boy with ma- powerful electrical eel swimming in the rivers and ponds. Alexander laria. Once again, the electric eel cure worked.