In ancient times

 

Before going into the specific shortcomings, it is helpful to briefly reflect on how electro-therapy has historically developed. The earliest recorded uses of electricity for pain relief were recorded by Scribonius Largus in ancient Rome. His narrative explains how Roman doctors fished the Mediterranean for torpedo fish, creatures that have electrical organs that can deliver a nasty 220 volt shock when in danger (eels of the type shown in the picture).


These fish were put into buckets of water, and suffering gout victims placed their feet in the bucket to agitate the torpedo fish, and voila, instant electro-therapy! Apparently this technique was credited with the relief of a lot of pain, although this was far from a non-invasive approach.

 

 

The first reports on the phenomenon of bioelectromagnetism are to be found in early Greek and Roman texts. Plato and Aristotle, among other prominent scientists of that time, described the "shocking" impact that electric Torpedo fish had on human health. The first report describing the use of electric fish as a medical therapeutic modality appeared five hundred years later, during the first century. Prior to the Renaissance period, physicians were routinely employing electric fish in a form of electrotherapy to treat sleeping disorder, migraine, melancholy and epilepsy.