Alphonso David Rockwell

Background

Alphonso David Rockwell was born in New Canaan, Connecticut, United States. He was the son of David S. and Betty (Comstock) Rockwell.

Education

He was educated at the New Canaan Seminary conducted by his father and at Kenyon College at Gambier, Ohio, United States. His father had purchased a farm near Milan, Ohio, and here he returned after graduation to teach a rural school and begin the study of medicine with a local practitioner.

In the spring of 1862 he served a three-months' enlistment in the 85th Ohio Infantry, guarding Confederate prisoners at Camp Chase at Columbus. He spent a year in the medical department of the University of Michigan and a second at the Bellevue Hospital Medical School in New York where he received his medical degree in 1864. He immediately took the examination for the army medical service

Career

was appointed an assistant surgeon, and was assigned to the 6th Ohio Cavalry in Gregg's division of Sheridan's cavalry corps. Joining his regiment at Warrenton, Va. , he participated in the campaign which began at the Wilderness and ended with the investment of Richmond, and was with Sheridan's cavalry when it blocked the Confederate retreat at Appomattox. In the meantime he had been promoted to the office of surgeon with the grade of major. Discharged with his regiment in August 1865, he settled in New York City for practice. In 1866 Rockwell became associated with George M. Beard in the investigation of the therapeutic applications of electricity, an association which later developed into a business partnership. At this time electricity was not used to any extent by physicians in the United States, and very little elsewhere. They issued a series of articles in the Medical Record (1866-67, 1867 - 68), published in book form in 1867 under the title, The Medical Use of Electricity, which created wide interest. In these articles emphasis was placed upon general electrization with its constitutional tonic effects. In 1871 he published with Beard their larger work: A Practical Treatise on the Medical and Surgical Uses of Electricity, which went through eleven editions and was introduced into Germany by a translation by Professor Voter of the University of Prague. In this exhaustive work they described and illustrated in detail the modus operandi of general electrization which they had been the first to give systematic investigation, and directed attention to the growing importance of "central galvanization, " especially galvanization of the sympathetic system. Numerous carefully prepared case reports gave added value to the book. Individually or in collaboration with Beard, Rockwell produced a flow of articles for the literature of neurology and electro-therapeutics. Their association was terminated in 1876 by an estrangement, which was later healed. In 1884 Rockwell edited a volume on Sexual Neurasthenia from the posthumous manuscript of Beard and in 1888 he brought out a second edition of Beard's Practical Treatise on Nervous Exhaustion. He edited an American edition of Sir William Atkin's Complete Handbook of Treatment (1887) and wrote the chapter on electro-therapeutics for H. A. Hare's System of Practical Therapeutics (1891). In 1920 he published Rambling Recollections: An Autobiography. He was appointed professor of electro-therapeutics at the New York Postgraduate Medical School in 1886, holding the position for four years. Owing to his admitted limitations as a public speaker, he was extremely modest concerning his success as an instructor. He was neurologist and electrotherapeutist to the Flushing Hospital and served on the medical staffs of the Woman's Hospital and Demilt Dispensary in New York. He was a member and one-time president of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association. When the New York state law was enacted changing the method of legal execution from hanging to the electric chair, Rockwell was chosen by the commissioner of prisons as one of a committee of three to advise the state as to the best method of carrying out the provisions of the law. Not only did he advise upon the apparatus and its application, but he gave testimony for the state in defense of the new law and was a witness of some of the earliest electro-executions in the state. He retired from active professional work some years before his death.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Lectures On Electricity in Its Relations to Medicine and Surgery

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • A Practical Treatise On the Medical and Surgical Uses of Electricity: Including Localized and General Faradization, Localized and Central ... Electrolysis and Galvano-Cautery

    ( This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)

  • Lectures on electricity dynamic and franklinic

    (Lectures on electricity (dynamic and franklinic) in its r...)

  • A Practical Treatise On the Medical and Surgical Uses of Electricity: Including Localized and General Faradization, Localized and Central ... Electrolysis and Galvano-Cautery

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

Membership

member and one-time president of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association

Personality

Owing to his admitted limitations as a public speaker, he was extremely modest concerning his success as an instructor.

Connections

He was married on October 7, 1868, in New York, to Susannah Landon of that city.

Wife:

Susannah

He was married on October 7, 1868, in New York, to Susannah Landon of that city.

colleague:

George

In 1866 Rockwell became associated with George M. Beard in the investigation of the therapeutic applications of electricity, an association which later developed into a business partnership.