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Shocking Bodies: Life, Death and Electricity in Victorian England
From electric corsets to questioning the existence of God, the story of the profound effects electricity had upon the lives and the worldview of the Victorians
Although electricity was known about by the ancient Egyptians, it was not until the Victorian era that its potential really began to be realized. Luigi Galvani's discovery of bioelectricity opened up a whole new world of possibilities, in which it could cure sickness, restore sexual potency, and even raise the dead. This book explores how the Victorians thought about electricity, and how they tried to use it to answer the fundamental questions about life and death. It discusses the beliefs they came into being about electricity—some believed that it was life, which brought into question the existence of the soul, and of God, and provided arguments in favor of political Radicalism. Doctors prescribed electrical therapy and the masses were offered electric belts or corsets, at a price, that were claimed to have amazing restorative properties. This is the story of how electricity emerged during the 19th century as a powerful new tool for making sense of the world.
Although electricity was known about by the ancient Egyptians, it was not until the Victorian era that its potential really began to be realized. Luigi Galvani's discovery of bioelectricity opened up a whole new world of possibilities, in which it could cure sickness, restore sexual potency, and even raise the dead. This book explores how the Victorians thought about electricity, and how they tried to use it to answer the fundamental questions about life and death. It discusses the beliefs they came into being about electricity—some believed that it was life, which brought into question the existence of the soul, and of God, and provided arguments in favor of political Radicalism. Doctors prescribed electrical therapy and the masses were offered electric belts or corsets, at a price, that were claimed to have amazing restorative properties. This is the story of how electricity emerged during the 19th century as a powerful new tool for making sense of the world.
240 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 2011
About the author
Iwan Rhys Morus
22 books4 followersIwan Rhys Morus is professor of history and Welsh history at Prifysgol Aberystwyth University. He graduated in Natural Science from Cambridge University in 1985 before completing his PhD in History and Philosophy of Science there also.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 31, 2012
I had the privilege of studying a module lead by Morus at University in Aberystwyth, this book is as witty and accessible as he is in person. If you have any interest in the nineteenth century I would recommend this but if you're interested in the history of science it's essential.
December 30, 2014
(also posted at fredscience.tumblr.com)
I bought this thinking it was a science book, but when I started reading it I found I'd been tricked--this book would've been at home in any one of my liberal arts classes. I ain't even mad. There's a certain nostalgia, even. I miss books like this. I am mildly confused that no one expects me to turn in a paper on it, though.
Shocking Bodies chronicles the development of electrical science, especially physiological electricity, or galvanism, through the Victorian era. Its thesis is that the people of the nineteenth century experienced electricity as an embodied phenomenon. It follows the bodily experience of electricity through four individuals, including famous early programmer Ada Lovelace. Each body is used to introduce a few chapters about the state of electricity during the person's lifetime. Then the book jumps ahead a few decades to the next person, thus covering the whole of the Victorian era.
Our present-day idea of electricity is, by and large, divorced from the body and thought of as belonging purely to the realm of physics and mathematics. Never mind that it still has connections to our bodies in neuroscience, medicine, even criminal justice--it took a lot of work on the part of James Clerk Maxwell and others to elevate electricity to this lofty state. At the dawn of the Victorian era, galvanism was frightening--subversive--revolutionary, even. If galvanists could animate a corpse and cause it to move about using nothing but a battery, where was the need for unknown spiritual forces to animate the body? Where was the soul? This was materialism of the worst kind, as bad as Darwinism. Even as electricity became acceptable to the scientific and political institutions of the 19th century, it was still a deeply embodied experience, with respected physicians and quacks alike purveying it as a miraculous tonic to treat what ails you.
A fair amount of time is devoted to the specifically female experience of electricity. Two of our four guides, Ada Lovelace and Constance Phipps, are women. The few pages on the invention of the vibrator are totally worth the cover price. Victorians considered masturbation a bad thing in part because the newly formulated law of conservation of energy supposedly meant that the body had a fixed amount--if you used it up, you would fall prey to illness, including hysteria. (Victorians, I guess, weren't aware of food.) Various electrical devices were meant to restore the body's energy. The vibrator was supposed to stimulate the nerves and restore their function; however, certain patients very quickly picked up on its more interesting and enjoyable application. Victorian doctors weren't happy. Their patients, presumably, were.
One criticism I will make is that when the author introduces a 19th century idea of electricity, he doesn't bother to contextualize it in terms of the modern state of the art. This is what I mean when I say it isn't a science book. I'd be reading along going okay...well, you're not wrong...wait. WAIT. Considering it was electrostatics that torpedoed my college physics grade, I wouldn't mind some refreshers on the science. That said, I found the book well-researched and its hypothesis of embodied electricity fascinating. I would teach it in my class of...well...something.
I bought this thinking it was a science book, but when I started reading it I found I'd been tricked--this book would've been at home in any one of my liberal arts classes. I ain't even mad. There's a certain nostalgia, even. I miss books like this. I am mildly confused that no one expects me to turn in a paper on it, though.
Shocking Bodies chronicles the development of electrical science, especially physiological electricity, or galvanism, through the Victorian era. Its thesis is that the people of the nineteenth century experienced electricity as an embodied phenomenon. It follows the bodily experience of electricity through four individuals, including famous early programmer Ada Lovelace. Each body is used to introduce a few chapters about the state of electricity during the person's lifetime. Then the book jumps ahead a few decades to the next person, thus covering the whole of the Victorian era.
Our present-day idea of electricity is, by and large, divorced from the body and thought of as belonging purely to the realm of physics and mathematics. Never mind that it still has connections to our bodies in neuroscience, medicine, even criminal justice--it took a lot of work on the part of James Clerk Maxwell and others to elevate electricity to this lofty state. At the dawn of the Victorian era, galvanism was frightening--subversive--revolutionary, even. If galvanists could animate a corpse and cause it to move about using nothing but a battery, where was the need for unknown spiritual forces to animate the body? Where was the soul? This was materialism of the worst kind, as bad as Darwinism. Even as electricity became acceptable to the scientific and political institutions of the 19th century, it was still a deeply embodied experience, with respected physicians and quacks alike purveying it as a miraculous tonic to treat what ails you.
A fair amount of time is devoted to the specifically female experience of electricity. Two of our four guides, Ada Lovelace and Constance Phipps, are women. The few pages on the invention of the vibrator are totally worth the cover price. Victorians considered masturbation a bad thing in part because the newly formulated law of conservation of energy supposedly meant that the body had a fixed amount--if you used it up, you would fall prey to illness, including hysteria. (Victorians, I guess, weren't aware of food.) Various electrical devices were meant to restore the body's energy. The vibrator was supposed to stimulate the nerves and restore their function; however, certain patients very quickly picked up on its more interesting and enjoyable application. Victorian doctors weren't happy. Their patients, presumably, were.
One criticism I will make is that when the author introduces a 19th century idea of electricity, he doesn't bother to contextualize it in terms of the modern state of the art. This is what I mean when I say it isn't a science book. I'd be reading along going okay...well, you're not wrong...wait. WAIT. Considering it was electrostatics that torpedoed my college physics grade, I wouldn't mind some refreshers on the science. That said, I found the book well-researched and its hypothesis of embodied electricity fascinating. I would teach it in my class of...well...something.
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