The Macabre Origins of Electrotherapy

On a frigid January day in 1803, the executed corpse of George Forster—a man hanged for murdering his wife and child—became the star of a grotesque scientific spectacle. After his hanging at London’s Newgate Prison, Forster’s body was handed to Giovanni Aldini, an Italian physician with a flair for theatrical demonstrations. Before a horrified audience, Aldini connected electrodes to the corpse and unleashed surges of electricity. Witnesses described the dead man’s jaw quivering, his eyes snapping open, and his limbs convulsing as if resurrected. The spectacle fueled both fascination and terror, cementing electricity’s reputation as a force straddling science and the supernatural.

This macabre experiment was no isolated incident. It emerged from an 18th-century obsession with harnessing electricity’s mysterious power—a quest that began with static-charged amber and Benjamin Franklin’s kite but soon veered into medical experimentation. Luigi Galvani (Aldini’s uncle) had already electrified frog legs, proving muscles contracted under current. Forster’s posthumous “dance” marked humanity’s first attempt to manipulate human tissue with electricity, blurring the line between revival and revulsion.

The Rise of Electrical Quackery

By the 19th century, electricity had become a panacea in the public imagination. Entrepreneurs and doctors alike peddled shocking cures for ailments ranging from baldness to paralysis. Among the most notorious was Dr. Scott’s Electric Hair Brush, a magnetized comb falsely advertised to treat constipation, lameness, and even “nervous exhaustion.” Scott’s marketing genius lay in his warning: the brush would lose potency if shared—a tactic ensuring every household member bought their own.

Meanwhile, women were targeted with “electrified corsets,” steel-reinforced garments claiming to redistribute “vital forces” to combat obesity. Men, however, got the Pulvermacher’s Electric Belt—a zinc-and-copper contraption soaked in vinegar to generate mild current. Marketed as a cure for impotence and indigestion, it preyed on Victorian fears of sperm depletion, promising to “reinvigorate exhausted organs.” Even Gustave Flaubert immortalized these belts in Madame Bovary, describing a character adorned with “golden spirals more intricate than a Scythian’s armor.”

Bathing in Currents: The Era of Electrotherapy Spas

For those unsatisfied with belts and brushes, the late 1800s offered “electric baths.” Pioneered by Dr. Jennie Kidd Trout (Canada’s first licensed female physician), these tubs filled with metal-lined water delivered low-voltage currents to “open pores” and purge toxins. Though Trout genuinely believed in their therapeutic value, the treatment’s legacy was mixed—until 1989, when Vanity Fair exposed Margaret Thatcher’s secret indulgence in electrified baths. For £600 per session, an anonymous Indian therapist allegedly submerged the Iron Lady in current-infused water to maintain her famed vitality. Tabloids screeched about “Thatcher’s Shock Therapy,” though skeptics argued her energy came more from dismantling unions than electrolytes.

Legacy: From Quackery to Quantum Leaps

While most electrotherapy gadgets faded into obscurity, their principles survived in legitimate medicine. The defibrillator, pacemaker, and TENS units for pain relief all owe debts to Aldini’s ghastly demonstrations. Even modern transcranial stimulation echoes 18th-century attempts to jolt the brain into health.

Yet the era’s charm lies in its audacious failures. Consider James Graham’s “Temple of Health” (1780), where childless couples paid 50 pounds to conceive on a magnetized “Celestial Bed” amid piped perfumes and fake lightning. Though Graham’s temple collapsed in scandal, his blend of showmanship and pseudoscience foreshadowed today’s wellness industry—proving that the allure of quick fixes, whether by corset or current, never truly dies.

In the end, electricity’s medical journey mirrors humanity’s own: a mix of brilliance, gullibility, and the eternal hope that the next spark might hold the secret to life itself.