A NEW METHOD OF RELIEVING PAIN IN THE HUMAN BODY
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Lewis Prichard, of Dowlais, in the County of
Glamorgan, Chemist, for the Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF RELIEVING
PAIN IN THE HUMAN BODY."
Sealed the 24th April 1860, and dated the 26th October 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Lewis Prichard at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th October 1859.
I, JOHN LEWIS PRICHARD, of Dowlais, in the County of Glamorgan, Chemist,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW METHOD OF
RELIEVING PAIN IN THE HUMAN BODY," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in the use of alleviative drugs in combination with a
battery to act upon the various parts of the human body wherein pain may be
seated, such as rheumatism, paralysis, nervousness, indigestion, chronic
deseases, first stages of consumption, deficient circulation of the blood, coldness
of the extremities, and other local pains, said drugs being well known to the
faculty. These drugs, such as opium, chlorate of potash, and other alleviative
drugs, to suit the nature of the complaint, are to be applied or thrown into the
blood, or applied to the parts affected, by means of a battery or batteries, and
insulated wire, placed in such a form as to aid the uniformity of the current,
by which means the fluid is applied in one continuous current.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Lewis Prichard in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th April 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
LEWIS PRICHARD, of Dowlais, in the County of Glamorgan, Chemist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Lewis Prichard, Her special licence that I, the said John
Lewis Prichard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as J,
the said John Lewis Prichard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A
NEW METHOD OF RELIEVING PAIN IN THE HUMAN BODY," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Lewis Prichard, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my or their or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Lewis Prichard, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in the use of alleviative drugs in combination with
a battery to act upon the various parts of the human body wherein pain may
bo seated.
In order to explain this Invention as completely as possible, I will now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, as follows:-
.11
In cases of rheumatism, paralysis, nervousness; indigestion, chronic deseases,
first stages of consumption, deficient circulation of the blood, coldness of the
extremities, and other local pains, I use such alleviative drugs as are well
known in the profession, such as opium, chlorate of potash, or other drug

page_text: suitable to the treatment of the complaint, said drugs being thrown into the
blond, or applied to the parts affected by means of a battery or batteries, and
insulated wire placed in such a form as to aid the uniformity of the current,
by which means the fluid is applied in one continuous current. The several
methods of application and quantities being determined by the practitioner,
according to the nature of the complaint, and the part where such complaint
is seated.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention of
"A New Method of Relieving Pain in the Human Body," together with the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I would remark, in conclusion,
that I do not confine or restrict myself to any particular drug, as many
alleviative drugs may be used with the same success, according to the nature
of the complaint; but what I claim as my Invention, intended to be secured
to me by the herein in part recited Letters Patent is the application or
throwing into the blood alleviative drugs by the means and in the manner
herein described, and for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Lewis Prichard, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
0
Witness,
THOMAS MORGAN,
Shoe Warehouse,
High St., Dowlais.
JOHN LEWIS PRICHARD. (L.S.)