page_title: Alfred Charles Garratt
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Charles Garratt / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Physiological battery
context_page_description: Alfred Charles Garratt was an American medical doctor who frequently used electricity as a medical tool. He was the first full-time medical doctor in electrotherapy in the United States and wrote the first book on the subject.
context_section_description: Garratt was born in Brookhaven, New York, on October 3, 1813. His father was Richard Garratt. He was a graduate of Lenox Academy, and in 1836 a graduate of Medical School, College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. He was also a graduate of the Berkshire Medical College.
  Garratt was surgeon to the United States Dragoons at Fort Des Moines, Iowa, and United States Vice Consul at Port-Au-Prince for two years. After the government position as Vice Consul he practiced medicine and kept an apothecary's shop in Abington, Massachusetts. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1849.
  Garratt came to Hanover, Massachusetts, in 1851 and resided in the house left vacant by Dr. Fobes which was originally built by the Rev. Joab G. Cooper, rector of Saint Andrew's Parish. The house was built with wood from the old Episcopal Church building at Church Hill when it was torn down to make way for the present church in Hanover.
caption: Flexible 'button' battery assembly patent
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