Otto Overbeck (1860–1937)[1] was a British chemist and prominent advocate of electrotherapy in the early twentieth century.

Overbeck's father was a Dutch-Italian linguist, who had worked as an assistant to Max Müller at the University of Oxford.

[6] Here he collected all manner of natural historical artefacts, and gathered specimens of tropical plants from across the world, opening the gardens to the public.

According to newspaper reporting, in 1928, Overbeck 'was driven in a motor car by a chauffeur with the boys in question to Castleton on the dates of the alleged offences.

[8] The case for the defence focused on the good character and high social standing of Overbeck; the unreliability of lower-class child witnesses; the lack of corroborating evidence; and two expert witnesses (Dr Buchanan of Harley Street and Dr Theodore Hyslop, previously of Bethlehem Royal Hospital), who argued that Overbeck was physically incapable of the alleged crimes.

Restoring the natural balance of the electric body, Overbeck argued, could overcome all illness apart from those caused by germs or deformity.

In a later book, The New Light, published in 1936, Overbeck argued that the universal force of electricity made religion obsolete.

[25] The universe instead operated under a "Deistic electronic law", which governed everything from atomic forces to the motions of the heavenly bodies.