Galvanic and Faradic power in Anaesthesia
by
Zimmer M.
Hist Sci Med. 2002 Jan-Mar;36(1):31-53

ABSTRACT

Electrical anaesthetic methods have been applied for the first time in Paris (May-June 1847) by the physiologist and anatomist scientist Fortune Christophe Ducros. Ducros's scientific research works were not published so they were forgotten. In fact the electrical anaesthetic methods were dropped on account of the difficult conceiving of the electrical devices and the easiness of methods using either and chloroform. In 1858 J.B. Francis, a dentist of Philadelphia, pulled out 164 teeth in presence of official dentists by means of this method. Apolloni Pierre Preterre, a Parisian dental surgeon, introduced again the method in June 1858 and Victor Auguste Francois Morel-Lavallee, Jean-Baptiste Fonssagrives and Leon Athanase Gosselin tested it in some French hospitals without further delay. In December 1859, Jean-Baptiste Georges invented a device to use galvanism and induction particularly for cauterisation in the mouth or for local anaesthesia. Eventually the electrical method failed and was neglected.

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