Well before electro convulsive therapy the Hospital adopted galvanic batteries as part of the therapy treatment for patients. Mostly applied by untrained staff in the mid to late 1800’s, these therapies often were seen as therapeutic but also had a history of being used for punishment in the hope that the patient’s mental state would be changed. One such treatment is recorded here in the hospital records of 1856 to 1872. After the therapeutic administration was completed, the simple threat of ongoing treatment was enough to subdue the patient.
JB’s experience was somewhat different to E.S. and J.B. only had a short stay in the hospital, “had a current” which aroused him somewhat to a violent and threatening state before a much gentler treatment saw him head home in 1872. The practice of galvanic batteries became a common practice for some decades in the hospital and by the 1900’s galvanic batteries could be bought at the pharmacy for personal use to assist with minor ailments like; sore feet (inserted into the shoes) and attached to glasses to relieve the sinus suffer from that dripping noise.
The hospital often used galvanic batteries in baths, with some treatments using the electric discharge with water knee high and some waist high. There are some records of the galvanic battery being used for 1/2 an hour to no effect, so this wasn’t a huge dose of electricity. By the 1930’s we saw the introduction of the modern ECT machine. Unlike today, the ECT was administered without anesthetic. ECT is still considered to be a therapeutic option for some patients today.