29

The History of Bioelectromagnetism

Paris and wandered through France, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany to search for an environment

more sympathetic to his views and fnally died in Meersburg, Germany, in 1815.

Historically, the most interesting and curious topic is the case of the metallic tractor. Elisa Perkins

(1741–1799), practitioner of Connecticut, USA, who developed a unique form of electrotherapy in

1795. He named it metallic tractor. It consisted of pairs of two three-inch metallic rods made of

metallic alloys (zinc, copper, gold, iron, platinum, and silver). Afer obtaining North American and

England patents for his metallic tractor in 1796 and in 1798, he and his son, Benjamin Douglas Perkins

(1774–1810), sold it in North America and in England. At the end of the eighteenth century, it was

immensely popular for electrotherapy. Medical treatment with metallic tractor was caricaturized by

James Gillray (1757–1815), a British caricaturist and printmaker (Colwell, 1922, p. 49). Elisa Perkins

died of yellow fever during New York’s epidemic in 1799. John Haygarth (1740–1827), Bath physician,

England, investigated the efcacy of medical treatments of the metallic tractor. He made a wooden

tractor. Te shape of it was strongly similar to the shape of the metallic tractor. He treated this

wooden tractor as a dummy for medical treatment. He reported its results by comparing the result of

the medical treatment with the metallic tractor. Te comparison of the results between the metallic

and wooden tractors gave no signifcant diferences, which led to the conclusion that medical treat­

ment with the metallic tractor exerts no medical curing efect. Haygarth and his friend, Dr. William

Falconer (1744–1824), treated fve patients with wooden tractors. Four patients gained relief. Tey

used the metallic tractor on the same fve patients. Four patients reported relief. Tis treatment was

the frst scientifc documentation of the placebo-controlled trial in 1779 (Haygarth, 1800). Haygarth’s

descendants reside in Perth, Australia.

From a more scientifc point of view, in the eighteenth century, Stephen Gray (1666–1736), pensioner

of the Charter House in London, England, theorized that electricity can fow like a fuid. His investiga­

tion led to the discovery of the principle of electric conduction and insulation. Ten, he proved that elec­

tricity can be excited by the friction of feathers, hair, linen, paper, silk, etc. Charles François de Cisternay

du Fay (1698–1739), a physicist, superintendent of gardens of the King in Paris, France, discovered that

there are two kinds of electricity. He termed them resinous (−) electricity and vitreous (+) electricity

in 1733. Te frst was produced on amber, copal, gum-lac, silk, thread, paper, etc. Te second was pro­

duced on glass, rock crystal, precious stone, hair of animals, wool, etc. For this diference, Lichtenberg

(1744–1799), professor of Experimental Philosophy at the University of Göttingen, Germany, proposed

the terms positive electricity and negative electricity. He showed the condition of electrifed surfaces

by dusting them with power which was later called “Lichtenberg Figure” (Mottelay, 1922). Friedrich

Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), natural historian and explorer in Germany,

hired Lichtenberg as a private tutor who taught him about electricity.

Abbè Jean-Antoine Nollet (1700–1770), member of the court of Louis XV and a professor at the French

Royal Children, co-worker of du Fay, made many discoveries and performed many experiments. He

demonstrated electroshocks by using electric machines and Leyden jars. During the month of April

in 1746, in Paris, he shocked 180 of the King’s Guards in an instant in the presence of the French King,

Louis XV (Figure 2.4) (Figuier, 1865, p. 262). At the Carthusian Convent, he formed many person-trains

by a line of monks stretched for more than 1.6 km, and administered a shock to this human train, and

they instantaneously convulsed with the shock.

Afer thinking that the electric discharge of a Leyden jar is analogous to the phenomena produced by

a lightning, Benjamin Franklin opened the theory of one-fuid electricity, and discovered the identity

of electricity and lightning. He introduced the concept of positive and negative electricity. In the past,

du Fay considered two distinct species of electricity, vitreous and resinous. Franklin conceived them to

be two diferent states of the same electricity, called positive and negative. Franklin’s idea is the founda­

tion of the present theory of electricity. He began to investigate the relationship between two electrical

phenomena. During the month of June in 1752, during the approach of a summer thunderstorm, he

and his son few a kite with metal tip, and charged a Leyden jar through this metal tip from the clouds,

which demonstrated that the lightning is an electric discharge. In a letter to Peter Collinson (1694–1768),