Elisha Perkins was born in Norwich, CT on January sixteenth in the year 1741. His father was a well-known and respected physician having received his training at Yale College and graduating in 1727. Elisha was still in his teens when he began his medical apprenticeship working as an assistant to his father as he administered to the health needs of the citizens of Norwich and the surrounding communities. Elisha was characterized by not only his eagerness to learn but his open minded curiosity about new techniques and approaches for the treatment of the multitude of maladies afflicting the populace.
His apprenticeship completed, Elisha moved to Plainfield, CT where he started his own medical practice. Over the next few years he proved himself to be a tireless servant to the patients he served. Not only was he respected for his medical knowledge but for his physical stamina, sometimes traveling up to sixty miles per day on horseback to complete his medical rounds.
In 1780, Luigi Galvani an Italian physician and biologist began a series of experiments using an external spark of electricity applied to the muscles in the legs of a dead frog. He was able to repeatedly elicit a muscular spasm. He continued to explore this phenomenon with many more experiments over the next decade. In 1791, Galvani published an academic paper describing the results of his experiments as evidence of a “bioelectricity” or the “vital life force” present in all living things. This theory triggered a shockwave in the fields of biology and medicine.
No doubt Galvani’s theory must have also stimulated the mind of Elisha Perkins. In 1795 he began to treat some his patients using two three-inch metal rods created from an amalgam of iron and brass. Perkins claimed that applying the rods to the afflicted area he was able to remove noxious electrical fluid from the patient’s body. The Connecticut Medical Society was not amused and condemned Perkins’ methods as “delusive quackery” in 1797. Undaunted, Perkins applied for and received a 14-year patent on his healing devices. The patent gave him the exclusive right to be the sole manufacturer and vendor for his “metallic tractors” as they were called at the time. The cost for one pair of tractors was twenty-five dollars.
Perkins became a vigorous marketer of his medical devices publishing a pamphlet of testimonials and advocacy from prominent persons extolling his healing methodology entitled “Certificates of Efficacy of Dr. Perkins Patent Metallic Instruments”. His son, Benjamin graduated from Yale in 1789 and became the primary promoter of the Perkins devices in England.
Having captured the public’s imagination, Perkins was experiencing great success during the 1790’s. However, by 1799 both the public and especially the medical community had become disillusioned with Perkin’s medical claims. In 1800 John Haygarth, a prominent English doctor and scientist concluded his research study of Perkins methods by stating that any positive outcomes of employing the Perkins system were based solely on the “placebo effect”.
Undaunted and still a staunch believer in the efficacy of his metallic devices, Elisha Perkins traveled to New York City to administer to the sick during a massive yellow fever outbreak in 1799. His tireless optimism and stamina finally met its match when he succumbed to yellow fever in September of that same year.
Visit the Otis Library’s Flickr page to view images of Elisha Perkins’ work.