Dr. Henry J. Seeman - Specialist in Electrotherapeutics

 

Dr. Henry Seeman was the only physician in his small South Dakota town of Rockham for almost all of his years there, which made him popular enough.  But this advertisement, placed in 1908, also set him apart by specializing in the field of electrotherapeutics.  

Electrotherapeutics was at its height of popularity between 1870 and 1920 when "medical batteries" were sold to physicians, their use requiring a fair amount of training.  These techniques were used to treat a great number of maladies, from localized situations like pain in a knee, to generalized conditions involving the whole body. 

A medical office model, pictured at right, was priced at $200 to $260 at that time, said to be the
equivalent of $5,000-$7,000 in today's money.  The physician would need to carefully consider the illness or injury being treated, the patient, and the kind and intensity of electricity to be used.  The patient would often lie down in a reclining wicker chair, or some other chair without any metal pieces, and hooked up in various ways to the machine, and the treatment was commenced.

Eventually, manufacturers, wishing to capitalize on the popularity of the treatments, produced a "home unit" that actually was identical to those used by their physicians.  An advertisement placed by E. C. Harkness, General Manager of Detroit, claims that this machine would cure "rheumatism, neuralgia, constipation, nervousness, headache, stomach trouble or any other disease."  These home machines and outrageous claims, some experts felt, caused the field of electrotherapeutics to be looked at with a fair amount of skepticism.  Unfortunately, no training in the use of these machines was provided to home users.

About 1905, the "Medical battery" was replaced with newer electrotherapeutic technology.  It was around World War I when the technique began to fall from favor.  Dr. Seeman, however, practiced medicine for some time after that, presumably without electrotherapeutics.

Sources: 

Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Vol. 72, issues 2, April 2017

Electro-therapeutics for Practitioners, Francis Howard Humphris, Jan. 1921