St. Anthony's fire [poisoning by eating the ergot fungus which grew
on rye (Madden, Cheap, 212)]
Blindness
Blood extravasated ["forced out of the properly containing vessels"*]
Bronchocele ["a tumour of that part of the aspera arteria, called the bronchos"]
Burns or scalds
Coldness in the feet
Contraction of the limbs
Convulsions
Cramp
Deafness
Falling sickness
Feet violently disordered
Felons [tumours "formed between the bone and its investing membrane"*]
Fistula Lachrymalis ["a disorder of the canals leading from the eye to
the nose, which obstructs the natural progress of the tears, and
makes them trickle down the cheeks"*]
Fits
Flooding [incontinence?]
Ganglions [tumours "in the tendinous and nervous parts"*]
.JPG) |
| "Gout" portrayed as a demon attacking a swollen foot, 1799 Photo taken at Wellcome Museum, London 14 October 2012 |
Head-ach[e]
Impostuhumes ["collections of purulent {pus-filled} matter in a bag or cyst"*]
Inflammations
Involuntary motion of the eye-lids
King's Evil [scorfula, form of tuberculosis]
Knots in the flesh
Lameness
Wasting
Weakness of the legs
Restores bulk and fullness to wasted limbs
Locked jaws and joints
Leprosy
Menstrual obstructions
Ophthalmia ["a disease of the eyes, being an inflammation in the
coats, proceeding from areterious blood gotten out of the
vessels"*]
Pain in the stomach
Palsy ["there is a three-fold division of a palsy; a privation {lack of}
motion, sensation remaining; a privation of sensation, motion
remaining; and a privation of both together"*]
Palpitation of the heart
Rheumatism
[George II, King of England, had ordered an electrical machine for
his rheumatism in 1753 (Maloney, np).]
Ring-worms
Sciatica
Shingles
Sinews shrunk
Spasms
Stiff joints
Sprain, however old
Surfeit ["sickness or satiety cased by overfulness"*]
Swellings of all sorts
Sore throat
Tooth-ach[e]
Ulcers
Wens ["a fleshy or callous ... protruberance"*].
(Wesley, Physic, 124.)
(*Johnson, Samuel. A Dictionary of the English Language: in which the Words are deduced from their Originals, Explained in their Different Meanings, and Authorised by the Names of the Writers in whose Works they are found. Abstracted from the folio edition, by the Author, tenth edition (London: 1792). http://books.google.com/books?id=j-UIAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed 30 November 2012.
It is interesting that John did not mention any emotional disorders on his list. He wrote, "[I]n particular, that it [electricity] is the most efficacious medicine in nervous disorders of every kind, which has yet been discovered." (Wesley, Journal, 4 January 1768, vol 5, 247 quoted in Schwab, 198.) We might think he is referring to anxiety or depression, but according to Samuel Johnson's dictionary (1792), "nervous" meant "1. well-strung, strong, vigourous. 2. relating to the nerves. 3. having weak or diseased nerves" and he cites George Cheyne as a source for this definition. "Nerve" is described as "1. The nerves are the organs of sensation passing from the brain to all parts of the body. 2. It is used by the poets for sinew or tendon." (Johnson.) Nerves were not just a concept. They had been dissected and were physically displayed on a piece of wood as part of the Evelyn Tables, owned by the Royal Society. You can still view them at the Hunterian Museum (no photos allowed) today.
My tentative theory is that the word "nervous" changed over the centuries, got the connotation of "neurotic", and thus we interpret John's use of electricity for nervous conditions as an early form of electroconvulsive therapy ("shock treatment") or transcranial magnetic stimulation, both used for the treatment of depression. John does not, to my knowledge, ever mention using electricity to improve mood. I need to do some more research on my theory, as John also wrote about nervous disorders as "often no natural disorder of the body, but the hand of God upon the soul, being a dull consciousness of the want of God ... But undoubtedly there are nervous disorders which are purely natural" and then he goes on to list misuse of alcohol and/or tea (Wesley, John. "Thoughts on Nervous Disorders," The Arminian Magazine (1786), quoted in Maddox, Health, 16).
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