Golding Bird: Life and Contributions to Electrotherapeutics
Dr Golding Bird was a medical pioneer who used electricity as a
therapeutic principle. He was one of the earliest clinicians to use
electricity for a selected population of patients advocating that it may
have various other uses as well. Electrotherapeutics is increasingly
being recognised as an important tool for the success of the treatment
of pain in the last two decades.
Golding Bird was born in Norfolk, England on 9 December 1814
[1]
and had an unremarkable upbringing although he suffered from rheumatic
fever and endocarditis as a child, which affected his long-term health.
He was privately educated with a focus on classical education instead of
the sciences, although he grew an interest in both botany and chemistry
and quickly displayed a great ability in these fields, volunteering to
give lectures and tutorials to his classmates outside of official
lessons
[2].
Golding Bird was always interested in medical sciences. He became a
student at Guy’s Hospital in 1832. Guy’s hospital was founded in 1721 by
Thomas Guy and had a tradition of studying physics and chemical
applications to medicine. Thomas Addison, Thomas Hodgkin, Sir Ashley
Cooper, Sir Alexander Fleming, and John Braxton Hicks were among the
Physicians who worked at Guys Hospital. By 1836, Bird was in charge of
the department for the treatment of patients by electricity and
galvanism at the medical school of Guy’s under the supervision of Dr
Thomas Addison. During this period, Guy’s had become notable amongst the
public for his use of electricity for the management of various pain and
medical conditions. Dr Bird was likely chosen to be in charge of the
department because of his prior experience with electrical therapy. In
the 1830s, there were great strides being made in the area of
electrotherapeutics, however it was still very limited in its use. The
treasurer of Guy’s Hospital, who felt that the hospital could treat more
patients with electrotherapeutics, approved the development of an
electrical room with a senior clinician supervising Golding Bird. Bird
received lots of experience in electrotherapeutics as a medical student
and was introduced to the use of many advanced pieces of equipment
including the galvanic cell, the faradic coil, and static electricity
moxa
[2].
The ‘electrifying room’ at Guy’s was then placed under the general
direction of Dr Bird when he became the head of the department, where he
used devices eliciting electrical treatments. The electrolytic effects
produced long-continued currents at low tension interested Golding Bird,
since they appeared to be analogous to the nervous currents in the body.
Golding Bird discovered the ‘electric moxa’, to treat movement disorders
and more notably treated pelvic pain and paralysed bladders through the
application of a strong electric current between the sacrum and the
pubis. Bird used both electrochemical and electrostatic machines
[2]
for electrotherapy. Treatment modalities included peripheral nerve
stimulation and muscle stimulation.
Bird was ahead of this time and his work was perceived controversial and
debated extensively, especially during dissemination knowledge by way of
lectures
[1].
These lectures
[1]
combined with the transformative knowledge basis to conceptualising the
advancement of neuromodulation; Bird’s work was revived in the modern
era to exploit electrotherapy. Additionally, Bird is more known for
being the inventor of the flexible stethoscope
[3].
Golding Bird encouraged electrotherapy to be used only when all the
traditional methods had failed. It has become clear now that patient
selection is vital to the success of neuromodulation. Golding Bird died
from a urinary tract infection on 27 October 1854
[4].
His frail health and overwork have been attributed to his death at an
age of 39.