JF Ptak Science Books Post 2717
Sometimes all one can do is say “wow!”Or "wow?"
And sometimes all that is possible is a trailing, eyebrow-arched, widening "wow..." that is somewhere between excitement/fear/curiosity/repulsion, which is the sort of response I had from reading bits of Pulvermacher's Electric Belts &c/ Electricity Natures Chief Restorer, Self-Applicable for the Cure of Nervous and Chronic Disease without Medicine. Printed around 1880 or so, the slim pamphlet features a cure-all medical device fashioned from electric "belt" connected to a codpiece "suspensory" for a man's vitals. It is one of many, perhaps hundreds, of electrical geegaws that climbed aboard the principles of Michael Faraday's monumental invention of the induction coil (1831)--one can hardly imagine what Mr Faraday would've thought of this application of his great addition to the history of technology. This electrical stimulus was supposed to cure all manner of unspeakably lingering medical tragedies, including spermatorrhea, exhausted vital energy, female complaint, inflammation of the prostate gland, seminal weakness, kidney disease, cramp, lost manhood, paralysis, indigestion, dyspepsia, spinal complaints, nervous debility, and of course the "debilities of sexual self-pollution" ("the sexual sin (which) is the most destructive of all human vices...the greatest outrage against Nature's sexual ordinances that man can possibly perpetrate".
Isaac Pulvermacher's (which is German for "gunpowder maker") electrical medico-contraption was popular for several decades in the mid/late 19th century until it faded and trailed away at the turn of the century, though it was not for the lack of trying. Pulvermacher had all manner of glowing letters of support for his product, though one wonders if they weren't mostly cooked up on the back burner of a no-burner stove top, much in the way he invented this bizarre electrical device and pathologized aspects of male sexuality.
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