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In the mid 1940s, Stanley Cox, of Stanley Cox Ltd. (a medical engineering firm in London), submitted a patent application for
"Improvements in or relating to electrical nerve stimulating apparatus and the like". He was granted this patent, as number GB605994,
in 1948 [1]. The patent described improvements which could be made upon the 'Bristow Coil', a device for pain-free electrical
nerve stimulation described by Walter Rowley Bristow in his 1917 book "The Treatment of Joint and Muscle Injuries" (via [2]).
Cox's company had already been operating for a number of years - they had been granted a patent related to X-ray equipment in
1941 and another related to photographic development in 1942 [3,4]. By 1947 they were listed exhibitors at the presitigious
British Industries Fair in Birmingham, and their equipment included a range of diagnostic apparatus, electrical nerve stimulators
and heat lamps [5].
Meanwhile in 1952, the British Association of Physical Medicine began publishing their journal, "Annals of Physical Medicine",
a publication know known as Rheumatology [6]. By the time the editions of its second volume were printed in 1954, Stanley Cox's
company had not only expanded to include branches in Bath, Manchester and Edinburgh, but they were also ready to start advertising
their 'Universette' medical treatment unit.
The Universette was a portable electrical signal generator which could produce both Faradic (intermittent) and Galvanic (steady)
currents for use in medical diagnostics and treatment [7] (see also attached image below). The reason that the device was designed for
both types of electrical output was that both were required for a diagnostic technique outlined in W. Erb's 1883 book "Handbook of
Electro-therapeutics" (via [8]). At the time, this 'faradic-galvanic' nerve test was widely used as an accepted method of diagnosing
nerve and muscle damage. By passing an electrical current through an area of damaged tissue, and observing how strongly it had to be
stimulated to see a response, medical practitioners would assess the extent to which problems were caused by underlying nerve damage.
The faradic-galvanic method would later fall out of favour following a series of papers calling for a more refined technique (culminating
in a BMJ report, [8]), but at the time this was a widely accepted practice.
Also common (and still in use today) was the use of faradic stimulation for treatment. As well as the kind of TENS machines that
are available over the counter today, it has seen application in various muscle-related medical procedures, including - amongst other
things - treatment for loss of sphincter control (!). From 1954 onwards, the Stanley Cox company frequently advertised their
stimulator products in the Annals of Physical Medicine journal, upgrading the Universette to the Universette Mk II in 1955, and
with the Orthotron Mk II (another low-current stimulator) appearing in 1959. Over the next few years the company continued to expand
and began advertising its electrical devices as a product of its "Physiotherapy Department" and "Physiotherapy Division".
At this point we may pause to note that none of this relates in any way to passing currents through the brain, and in line with Cox's
patent application, the device was being advertised to those interested in physical medicine and not psychiatry.
In the November of 1961, an advert appeared for the new flagship unit, which was designed to run entirely from batteries so that it
could be easily operated on the ward without requiring a special treatment area. This battery powered device could produce the voltages
necessary for muscle stimulation, but with such a low current that the device could run for 15 hours continuously, with both outputs
switched on, on a single set of batteries [9] (see also attached image below). This device was known as the Transindolor - a name we might
reasonably assume is derived from a portmanteau of 'transcutaneous' (through the skin, as in TENS) and 'indolor', the name Stanley Cox gave
to their faradic stimulation technique, meaning "without pain".
All of which leads us to our conclusion: this Transindolor is the device we see in the Cane Hill pictures.
Perhaps not as shock-chic as an ECT machine, and maybe even disappointingly tame, this unit is in fact nothing more than a neuromuscular
stimulator that ran off a set of batteries.
Epilogue:
Mind you, all of this only goes to show that the Transindolor wasn't so scary by itself. I'm not suggesting that ECT wasn't part of
Cane Hill's creepy history - that's a whole different matter...
[1] GB Patent 605994, "Improvements in or relating to electrical nerve stimulating apparatus and the like", http://www.wikipatents.com/gb/605994.html
All web references available as of 2009/03/23 - many may require journal subscription or need to be accessed from a library or academic site, so I've included images of the Universette
and Transindolor adverts for completeness.
JD
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