Electric bath (electrotherapy)

[2] This can be observed in a darkened room as a luminous discharge around the patient, especially at the hair and extremeties.

[3] The electric bath treatment was painless, but it caused the patient to warm and sweat, and the heart rate to increase.

[6] It was brought into the mainstream by Golding Bird at Guy's Hospital who ran the "electrifying room" there from 1836.

This was not the first time electricity had been used as a treatment in a hospital, but Bird was the first to study its efficacy with scientific rigour.

He attempted to treat a number of paralytics, first with electric shocks, and then with static charging, but without much success.

[12] Franklinization could also be applied locally to a wound or specific patch of skin with a hand-held array of needle electrodes.

The intention was often to generate a "static breeze", a wind of ionized air over the skin.

Alternatively, the intention could be to breathe in the ionized air as a form of ozone therapy.