Zander Institute, Electropathic Belts, 1890

Chromolithograph magazine insert (a single sheet advertisement printed separately then bound in with the magazine at the publisher's) issued in about 1890 by the Electropathic and Zander Institute (which offered electricity based therapies, founded by Cornelius Bennett Harness in 1885), based above the Medical Battery CompanyE??s showrooms at 52, Oxford Street, London, both of which are illustrated towards the foot of the advertisement. It advertises their Electropathic Belts. Electricity was something new and strange to the general public and was seized upon in many ways for commercial and therapeutic purposes. The belts were supposed to generate new life and vigor for weak men, for delicate women as well as cure nervousness, debility, sleeplessness, rheumatism, sciatica, lumbago, torpid liver, organic weakness and kindred ailments but actually produced no sensation whatsoever, despite testimonies from Dr. Herbert Tibbits and Dr. Arthur Harries on the reverse. They were supposed to be charged by being plugged into a device incorporating a magnet. A combination of disreputable retail practices and the fact that their electropathic belts did not work, increasingly embroiled the Company in litigation until a compulsory winding up order was handed to them in 1894

Picture No

12695802

Media ID

47666264

Size

2956px x 4650px (8.3MB)

Credit

Wellcome Images/Science Source/Mary Evans