A Concise History of the ECG: Difference between revisions

A Concise History of the ECG (view source)

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 '''1788''' Charles Kite wins the Silver Medal of the Humane Society (awarded at the first Prize Medal ceremony of the Society co-judged with the Medical Society of London) with an essay on the use of electricity in the diagnosis and resuscitation of persons apparently dead. This essay is often cited as the first record of cardiac defibrillation but the use of electricity suggested by Mr Kite is much different. For example, on describing a case of drowning from 1785 where resuscitation had been attempted with artificial respiration, warmth, tobacco, "volatiles thrown into the stomach, frictions, and various lesser stimuli" for nearly an hour, he then recalls the use of electricity. "Electricity was then applied, and shocks sent through in every possible direction; the muscles through which the fluid [electricity] passed were thrown into strong contractions." He concluded that electricity was a valuable tool that could determine whether or not a person, apparently dead, could be successfully resuscitated. Annual Report 1788: Humane Society, London. pp 225-244. Kite C. An Essay on the Recovery of the Apparently Dead. 1788: C. Dilly, London.
-[[Image:Alessandro_Volta.jpg|thumb|Alessandro Volta]][[Image:Voltaic_Pile.jpg|thumb|Voltaic pile]]'''1792''' Alessandro Volta, Italian Scientist and inventor, attempts to disprove Galvani's theory of "animal electricity'" by showing that the electrical current is generated by the combination of two dissimilar metals. His assertion was that the electrical current came from the metals and not the animal tissues. (We now know that both Galvani and Volta were right.) To prove his theory he develops the voltaic pile in 1800 (a column of alternating metal discs - zinc with copper or silver - separated by paperboard soaked in saline) which can deliver a substantial and steady current of electricity. Enthusiasm in the use of electricity leads to further attempts at reanimation of the dead with experiments on recently hanged criminals. Giovani Aldini (the nephew of Galvani) conducts an experiment at the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1803. The executed criminal had lain in a temperature of 30 F for one hour and was transported to the College. "On applying the conductors to the ear and to the rectum, such violent muscular contractions were executed, as almost to give the appearance of the reanimation". Aldini, J. Essai: Théorique et expérimental sur le Galvanisme, Paris (1804), Giovani Aldini. General Views on the Application of Galvanism to Medical Purposes Principally in cases of suspended Animation (London: J. Callow, Princes Street and Burgess and Hill, Great Windmill Street, 1819). Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was published in 1818. Louis Figuier, Les merveilles de la Science (Paris, 1867), p.653
+[[Image:Alessandro_Volta.jpg|200px|frame|Alessandro Volta]][[Image:Voltaic_Pile.jpg|thumb|Voltaic pile]]'''1792''' Alessandro Volta, Italian Scientist and inventor, attempts to disprove Galvani's theory of "animal electricity'" by showing that the electrical current is generated by the combination of two dissimilar metals. His assertion was that the electrical current came from the metals and not the animal tissues. (We now know that both Galvani and Volta were right.) To prove his theory he develops the voltaic pile in 1800 (a column of alternating metal discs - zinc with copper or silver - separated by paperboard soaked in saline) which can deliver a substantial and steady current of electricity. Enthusiasm in the use of electricity leads to further attempts at reanimation of the dead with experiments on recently hanged criminals. Giovani Aldini (the nephew of Galvani) conducts an experiment at the Royal College of Surgeons in London in 1803. The executed criminal had lain in a temperature of 30 F for one hour and was transported to the College. "On applying the conductors to the ear and to the rectum, such violent muscular contractions were executed, as almost to give the appearance of the reanimation". Aldini, J. Essai: Théorique et expérimental sur le Galvanisme, Paris (1804), Giovani Aldini. General Views on the Application of Galvanism to Medical Purposes Principally in cases of suspended Animation (London: J. Callow, Princes Street and Burgess and Hill, Great Windmill Street, 1819). Mary Shelly's Frankenstein was published in 1818. Louis Figuier, Les merveilles de la Science (Paris, 1867), p.653
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