SHOCK TREATMENT
sir,-O,. E. Burton’s letter on electrie shocks as a treatment for mental patients brings to mind a biography I read rea
cently on the famous Dr. Erasmus ‘Dare win, the founder of the Lunar Society and grandfather of that revolutionary evolutionist, Charles Darwin. Apparently Dr, Darwin was almost as revolutionary as his grandson, for as long ago as the 1770’s he prattised the electric shock treatment, although it was on a patient suffering from convulsions, and not any permanent form of insanity, Here is the excerpt from the book:"When one of Wedgwood’s (of Wedgwood china fame) babies suffered convulsions, produced by teething, she lost use of her limbs and sight. The usual nostrum for this disease were burnt blood, a baked raven, with a long etcetera. But Darwin laughed them to scorn, and instructed Wedgwood to chafe the child’s limbs, lance her gums, hold her in the bath and electrify her. Though the child recovered the use of her limbs and sight, one is not surprised to learn that she died in infancy; and one cannot help wondering whether, on the whole, she would not have preferred the burnt blood, the baked taven, and possibly even the etcetera. . . .’" Whether it was the electric shock that hastened the end of the infant, or whether she would have died anyway is still a matter of conjecture, but perhaps the Mental Authorities of to-day can answer the question. Like O. E. Bure ton,’ I think that more information on the subject would be welcome.
M.
R.
(Hamilton),
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 320, 10 August 1945, Page 5
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256SHOCK TREATMENT New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 320, 10 August 1945, Page 5
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