retroelectro
doctrine originated from the Hippocratic medicine of ancient Greece and was further developed by people like Aristotle. It taught that health relies on maintaining a balance among these four bodily fluids, with each humor associated with specific qualities, like hot, cold, wet, and dry, and affects physical and mental well-being. In this framework, diseases result from imbalances in these humors, leading to treatments designed to restore balance. For instance, if a patient has a fever, it was believed that there was an excess of blood, characterized as being “hot and wet.” Bloodletting was used to reduce the excess and restore balance using tools like leeches. “…electricity is a peculiar and an infallible remedy for fever and inflammation.” While this approach lacked any true scientific basis as we understand it today, it was influential. It formed the foundation for much Western medical practice until the 19th century.
■ Fourth class – green wood ■ Fifth class – dry wood, earth, and the like Dr. Gale believed that electrical effluvia and elementary fire were the same. This also explains how lightning can create fire when it strikes the earth. Prior to the invention of the Leyden Jar, electricity was primarily only found in lightning and static shocks. On one end of the spectrum, you find lightning, a high-powered, low-density manifestation of elementary fire. This is why lightning starts fires. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll find frost. The same frost you’ll find on a window on a winter morning is made up of the exact same stuff as lightning but in a much denser form.
When researching ideas surrounding electricity in this era, some describe effluvia as akin to the ‘Holy Spirit’ of the Christian Trinity. They saw the mysterious power of electricity as an expression of divine force, with electrical sparks or lightning often interpreted as physical manifestations of God’s presence or a sign from the heavens. In many societies of the day, suggesting that electricity could be anything less than divine was considered heresy and punished accordingly.
Medical electricity
“Every consideration that hath induced me to publish this treatise, stands opposed to that idea: I know that medical electricity hath never been understood and the subject is very occult…” Another belief that survived from Aristotle’s time was the theory of the four humors: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile. This medicine. The author or DigiKey does not endorse the ideas or opinions in the books covered in this article. Disclaimer: The following is not intended to be medical advice and should not be used as such. It explores post-Revolutionary War America, the innovations surrounding medical technology, and the very poorly understood concepts of electricity and
The four fundamental elements
Figure 2. Saratoga County 1793
Figure 3. Empedocles
effects of lightning. I call it frost because according to the existing degree of its density, so is the degree of cold.’
Natural philosophers and scientists commonly thought that all matter was composed of a combination of four fundamental elements: Fire, Earth, Air, and Water, which create the balance to the universe. The Greek philosopher Empedocles created this theory of matter in the fifth century BCE. These teachings lasted for over two thousand years and are mostly found in mysticism and the occult today. This teaching was so prolific that it is what Aristotle and Socrates would have learned when they were in school. ‘I call it fire because when it expands, it is capable of giving flame to combustibles as lightning will fire a tree, buildings, and many bodies. The spark from an electrical machine will give flame to spirits, and if the spark were sufficiently copious, it would produce all the
Electrical effluvia During this time, the concept of electricity was very abstract and poorly understood. Benjamin Franklin’s famous kite experiment was just fifty years prior. It was generally thought that electricity was a fluid called ‘effluvia,’ which pervades all substances. If you have ever been around a highly charged device, like a transformer, you might have witnessed the phenomenon known today as ‘corona discharge.’ When the electric field becomes strong enough, it ionizes the surrounding air, causing a visible glow, and you may even feel the hair on your arms stand up. In the late 18th century, this was thought to be caused by the conductor building a charge and interacting with an unseen effluvia field.
Frost, lightning, and elementary fire
Figure 4. Elementary fire chart
Elementary fire has a spectrum of electrical power that depends on the density of the fire element within an item. Highly conductive items contained less dense elementary fire and thus conducted very well, while things with a highly dense elementary fire could not conduct well. The book outlines a list and grade of conductors for the reader: ■ First class – quality, metallic substances ■ Second class – water, blood, or liquids ■ Third class – animal bodies
Figure 5. What is electricity
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