page_title: Electric bath (electrotherapy)
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Electric bath (electrotherapy) / Description
caption_attribution_description: Electrodes used in electrotherapy. Believed to date post World War I.
context_page_description: An electric bath is a 19th-century medical treatment in which high-voltage electrical apparatus was used for electrifying patients by causing an electric charge to build up on their bodies. In the US this process was known as Franklinization after Benjamin Franklin. The process became widely known after Franklin described it in the mid-18th century, but after that it was mostly practiced by quacks. Golding Bird brought it into the mainstream at Guy's Hospital in the mid-19th century and it fell into disuse in the early 20th century.
context_section_description: The source of electricity for an electric bath was usually a frictional electrical machine.  The patient was seated on a wooden stool, and both the patient and the stool insulated from ground by a platform on glass legs or some other insulator.  In some arrangements, the patient was lying down rather than seated.  The patient was then charged with static electricity either by direct connection to one electrode of the generator (usually the positive), or else through electrostatic induction by holding a large electrode close to the patient's body.  The electric tension applied was around 30–50 kV.  Treatment could take several hours.  Following charging the patient was "bathed" in electricity, hence the name of the procedure.  This can be observed in a darkened room as a luminous discharge around the patient, especially at the hair and extremeties.
  The electric bath treatment was painless, but it caused the patient to warm and sweat, and the heart rate to increase.  It also caused the hair to stand on end.  The electric bath could form a treatment in itself.  It could also be the first stage in further treatment.  A common procedure was to draw sparks from the patient after charging, especially from the spine.
caption: Assorted electrotherapy electrodes c. 1918–1920s
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