Robert Bartholow

Robert Bartholow
Robert Bartholow
Born	November 28, 1831
Died	1904
Nationality	United States
Institutions	Medical College of Ohio
Alma mater	University of Maryland
Known for	Faradic electrical currents to the exposed dura mater of a patient

Robert Bartholow or Roberts Bartholow (November 28, 1831 – 1904) was an American physician from New Windsor, Maryland. He earned his degree in medicine from the University of Maryland in 1852. From 1855 to 1864 he was a surgeon in the U.S. Army. From 1864 to 1879 he was a professor at the Medical College of Ohio in Cincinnati. Afterwards he was a professor at the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

He is known for his application of Faradic electrical currents to the exposed dura of a patient. In 1874, Bartholow was presented with a 30-year-old patient named Mary Rafferty who had a 2-inch-diameter (51 mm) hole in her skull caused by a cancerous ulcer. Inspired by the localized testing of animals' brains done by neurologist David Ferrier, Bartholow applied a small electrical current to different sections of Ms. Rafferty's exposed brain and noticed that it caused movements in various parts of her body. Also, the low electrical current he applied to the brain did not seem to cause her any pain. However, when Bartholow applied a larger amount of current, Mary Rafferty became distressed, experienced convulsions and went into a coma. She revived from the coma three days later, but unfortunately the following day she had a major seizure and died.

Although Bartholow was criticized for his experimentation by the American Medical Association, he did not suffer professionally; in 1893 he attained the title of Professor Emeritus at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Bibliography

• Hypodermic Medication
• Treatise on Therapeutics and Materia Medica
• Practice of Medicine
• Experimental Investigations into the Functions of the Human Brain
• Observations, pathological and experimental, on cholera

See also

• Human experimentation in the United States

References

• Harris, Lauren Julius; Almerigi Jason B (Jun. 2009). "Probing the human brain with stimulating electrodes: the story of Roberts Bartholow's (1874) experiment on Mary Rafferty". Brain and cognition (United States) 70 (1): 92–115. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2009.01.008. PMID 19286295. 
• Zago, Stefano; Ferrucci Roberta, Fregni Felipe, Priori Alberto (Oct. 2008). "Bartholow, Sciamanna, Alberti: pioneers in the electrical stimulation of the exposed human cerebral cortex". The Neuroscientist : a review journal bringing neurobiology, neurology and psychiatry (United States) 14 (5): 521–8. doi:10.1177/1073858407311101. ISSN 1073-8584. PMID 18219054. 
• Holmes, G L (Feb. 1982). "Roberts Bartholow. In search of anatomic localization". New York state journal of medicine (UNITED STATES) 82 (2): 238–41. ISSN 0028-7628. PMID 7043330. 
• Morgan, J P (Jan. 1982). "The first reported case of electrical stimulation of the human brain". Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences (UNITED STATES) 37 (1): 51–64. ISSN 0022-5045. PMID 7042809. 

Sources

• The Concept of Bioelectromagnetism
• Mind as Mosaic {The Robot in the Machine} pp. 113-114; Bruce H. Hinrichs