The Father of the Electrical Stimulation of the Ear

Otol Neurotol. 2019 Mar;40(3):404-406. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000002153.

Abstract

: The Italian physicist Count Alessandro Volta, inventor of the electric battery, is considered the first scientist to have stimulated the ear with electricity, and the results of his experiments were presented in June 1800, at a meeting held by the Royal Society of London. Just recently, Mudry reported an electrical stimulation of the ear performed in 1748 by Benjamin Wilson (1721-1788), a British painter and scientist. After a thorough review of the literature available from the 18th century, we found that the first electrical stimulation of the ear was done in 1747, by a scientist in Bologna, Giuseppe Veratti.

Publication types

  • Biography
  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • Electric Stimulation Therapy / history*
  • Hearing Loss / therapy
  • History, 18th Century
  • History, 19th Century
  • Humans
  • Italy

Personal name as subject

  • Guiseppe Veratti