[250 years ago: the origin of electrotherapy exemplified by Halle]

Experiments started in 1743 by a working group at the university of Halle marked the beginning of efforts to incorporate electricity into clinical therapy. Very soon this resulted in knowledge that was also taken up elsewhere, leading to a period of intensive research. The creative suggestions that originated in Halle were authored, among others, by Johann Gottlob Krüger, Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein and Johann Joachim Lange. Their experimental and clinical findings were accompanied by deliberations on the mechanism of action of electrotherapy on which they reported in detail. Due to adverse circumstances this initially leading position occupied by Halle faded out already shortly after the middle of the century.