Light Touch
The Violet Ray: A Handful of Lightning to Cure What Ails You
Promoters of the first Civil War-era medical electrical generators claimed that applying an electric current to the body would fix whatever ailed you. Although most health benefits have been dismissed as quackery, the technology has a legitimate yet minor role in scientific research.
Well before Edison’s light bulb, electricity captured the public’s imagination. It was a marvel that put humanity on par with Zeus and his fistful of lightning bolts. It seemed capable of bestowing life, as Luigi Galvani observed in the late 1700s, when he used it to make dead frog leg muscles twitch. The imagery played an important role later in the Frankenstein movies. Enthusiasm about the“electrical fluid” soared, and soon it was being touted as a medical cure-all.
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