Ride the Lightening
The year: 1927.
The patient: a Bay foal, descended from “the best stock of France”
The problem: myelitis, a nervous system disorder causing the rear legs to list to one side, making the foal barely able to run
The unconventional treatment: electrotherapy
Sold by his breeder for the “ridiculous” price of 3000 francs or “about one-twentieth of his value,” the subject of this veterinary thesis from our NYAM Collection was considered a lost cause due to his rare and mysterious nervous condition---that is, until his veterinarian tried a controlled application of galvanic currents to stimulate his spinal neurons.
Now, I can find no evidence of similar treatments being tried by reputable veterinarians today, and I’m not qualified to speak to the efficacy of galvanotherapy. However, the author of the thesis gives the following account of his quadrupedal patient’s extraordinary progress two years after treatment:
“In 1929, he became the property of a trainer, who, thanks to his good care, led him to run in Saint-Cloud and Tremblay, several times in Saint-Cloud. He makes in these races a very satisfactory impression.”
The veterinarian acknowledges that myelitis in foals has been documented to heal on its own over time; however, he attributes the cure in this case to electrotherapy, and is not shy about taking the credit. He writes:
“Had this foal not become an equine experiment under my direction, he would surely have been shot on the spot.”
So early 20th-century veterinary medicine gave this racehorse a second chance and a happy ending.
Source: Jean-René Soutou, La galvanothérapie et l’ionothérapie électrique en médecine vétérinaire. École Nationale Vétérinaire d’Alfort, 1930.
