51

The History of Bioelectromagnetism

work on thermochemistry. Ten, Nagelschmidt produced his diathermy apparatus with a 50 Hz, 120 V

supply. Te voltage was transformed to 2,000 V. As long wave diathermy, spark-discharges from Tesla

and Oudin coil machines were used. Its frequencies were limited to 0.5–3.0 MHz. Short wave diathermy

with frequencies up to 100 MHz was introduced in 1920, and with frequencies of 100–3,000 MHz in 1930.

Paul Marie Oudin (1851–1923), a French physical therapist, applied current directly to the body surfaces

with electrodes.

In 1906, de Forest (1873–1961), an American inventor, invented the triode tube. From 1920, the triode

tube was used as a component of the diathermy apparatus. Te invention of the triode tube allowed fre­

quencies to be increased to 10–300 MHz. As a result, therapy called short wave therapy. Tis led to elec­

tromagnetic energy with inductive coils to be applied directly to the body. From the 1940s, microwave

was being used for therapy. In 1921, George L. Rohdenburg, Columbia University, and Frederick Prime

were the frst to analyze the combined efects of heat and radiation in mouse Crocker sarcoma and some

spontaneous breast tumors using temperatures between 42°C and 46°C. Tey revealed a defnite syn­

ergistic efect above 42°C for combined treatment (Rohdenburg and Prime, 1921: Seegenschmiedt and

Vernon, 1995). In 1924, Antonin Gosset (1872–1944), a French surgeon, tried for the frst time the efects

of short wave (with wavelength of 2 m) on tumors, on living plant cells and observed that the plant

tumors were destroyed without harmful efects. In 1921, Albert Wallace Hull (1880–1966), an American

physicist and electrical engineer, invented the Magnetron oscillator, which produces ultrashort waves.

It produces local heating in tissue and was soon used as a piece of medical apparatuses in ultra-short

wave therapy. Afer the 1920s, with the introduction and expansion of the medical use of diathermy, the

debate over thermal and non-thermal efects began.

In the 1920s, Erwin Friedrich Karl Victor George Henrich Schliephake (1894–1995), a German physi­

cian, professor at the University of Jena, became the frst patient to be treated with a short wave of 3 m

in wavelength. In 1925, he recovered by himself from the sufering of a painful nasal furuncle afer

turning the feld on. Tis short wave feld killed small animals such as fies, rats, and mice. In the 1930s,

Schliephake investigated the biological efects of short wave treatment on various tissues and introduced

it in clinical applications. In 1932, Schliephake published the monograph Kurzwellen-Terapie: Die med­

izinische Anwendung kurzer elektrischen Wellen which was the frst commercially available work of non-

thermal technology. Tis German book was translated into English. Te short wave technology spread

rapidly over the world. Diathermy, a treatment using electromagnetic waves, became a part of hyper­

thermia as cancer therapy afer World War II.

Nils Westermark (1892–1980), worked at Radiumhemmet in Solna, Sweden, showed that two malig­

nant rat tumors (Flexner-Jobling carcinoma and Jensen sarcoma) regressed completely afer high-fre­

quency electric current heating (Westermark, 1927). Both tumors were caused to disappear if exposed

to a temperature of 48°C. Total tumor regression occurred to an equal extent afer 180 minutes at 44°C

and afer 90 minutes at 45°C. On the other hand, skin and normal tissues were unafected under the

thermal conditions which were lethal to the malignant tumor tissue. However, the author pointed out

that the diferential heat sensitivity between tumor and normal cells diminished at a thermal level above

42°C (Seegenschmiedt and Vernon, 1995). Te relationship between the times required at diferent tem­

peratures for these tumors to cure was well in accord with the well-known Arrhenius relationship. He

concluded that these tumors can be healed by heat treatment without destruction being caused to sur­

rounding tissues and that the tumors may be more sensitive to heat than healthy tissues. Tis result was

more pronounced at low temperatures (44°C–45°C) than at high ones (47°C–48°C).

In 1928, Joseph Williams Schereschewsky (1873–1940), an American physician, Harvard Medical

School, observed the efects of short waves on tissue cells and on sarcoma in mice (Schereschewsky,

1928, Schereschewsky and Andervont, 1928). He and his co-workers investigated the efects of electrical

current of high frequency (8.3–135 MHz) in transplanted mouse sarcoma tumors. As a result, tumor

growth delay or inhibition and then complete disappearance of some tumors were observed. Its greatest

efects were at a frequency range of 66–68 MHz. From these observations, the therapeutic application

of short wave diathermy began. Historically, in the 1920s and 1930s, therapeutic application of short