Source:
commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Advert_for_Harness%27_%22...

Electricity transformed the lives of Victorians. Inspired by its spectacular properties, they found some ingenious and bizarre uses for it.

At the end of the 19th century Cornelius B Harness was managing director of the Pall Mall Medical Association and the Medical Battery Company, and the driving force behind the Electropathic Belt. Harness’ devices used what he called “electropathy or the cure of disease by electricity”. The theory was that if, for any reason, the natural supply of electricity to an organ or function of the body, such as the kidney, was disrupted, then an artificial source of electricity could be used to “restore the function or maintain its healthy condition”.
The Electropathic Belt consisted of a series of copper and zinc discs linked by copper wire and fastened into a tight-fitting belt. When placed next to the skin, the patient’s sweat was “sufficient to excite a mild continuous current that was a specific treatment in some diseases”, a relief in many, and “improved the general health in all and could never do any harm”. Harness’ device was not the first electric belt made for medical purposes – Isaac Pulvermacher brought out an electric chain in the late 1850s, and there were many other rivals – but the Electropathic Belt became a brand leader and made Harness a fortune.

Credit:
wellcomecollection.wordpress.com/page/4/

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