nerve fiber. Bottom: a simplified version of the Bernstein hypothesis. The only moving charges are
ions moving into or out of the nerve fiber at a site of membrane "depolarization." This site of
membrane change moves along the nerve fiber.
In fact, just as Galvani's animal electricity came at just the right time, Bernstein's hypothesis
came at the time when the scientific establishment was most anxious to rid biology of electricity, the
last vestige of vitalism.
Darwin had published the Origin of Species only nine years before and the cellular basis of all
life had recently been verified by Virchow's linking of all disease to basic cellular pathology. Pasteur
had already shown that infectious diseases were the result of infestation with bacteria, not "miasmas" of
unspecified type, and Claude Bernard had established the biochemical basis of digestion and energy
utilization in the body. Science had clearly profited from the spirit of inquiry that had characterized
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and stood on the threshold of being the sole interpreter of nature,
both living and non-living. There was no place for "vital forces" or for electricity in living things, and
Bernstein's hypothesis was eagerly accepted. Now all of life from its creation, through its evolution, to
its present state was explicable in terms of chemistry and physics. As von Helmholtz put it-"no other
forces than the common physical-chemical ones are active within the organism." Life began as a
chance aggregation of molecules in some long ago, warm sea and evolved into complex physical-
chemical machines, nothing more.
A profound turning point had been reached in science. Since living things were machines, they
could be broken down into their component parts just like machines, and these component parts could
be studied in isolation with the confidence that their functions would reflect those when in the intact
organism. This has proven to be a powerful tool indeed, and much has been learned by this approach,
but something has not been learned-we still do not know how these functions and systems integrate
together to produce the organism. Nevertheless, at that time it appeared that this approach was to be the
one destined to reveal all of life's secrets and the power and prestige of the Berlin school increased until
it became, along with Heidelberg, the world center for the new scientific medicine (Wissenschaftliches
Medicine). Its disciples spread the word widely. Freud for example, in his formative years was
profoundly influenced by his work in the laboratory of Ernst Brucke, a friend and staunch supporter of
von Helmholtz.
While the biological and medical scientists were busily establishing science as the basis for
biology and medicine and expelling vitalism, including electricity, from any function in living things,
the situation was quite different in the real world of the practicing physicians. Electrotherapeutics,
which had its start with the experiments of the Abbe Nollet in the mid-eighteenth century, had become
popular for the treatment of numerous and varied clinical conditions; from the obviously functional
psychogenic disturbances, to such concrete pathology as fractures that had failed to heal. By 1884
Bigelow estimated that "10,000 physicians within the borders of the United states use electricity as a
therapeutic agent daily in their practice." All of this persisted without the blessing of the scientific
establishment until after the turn of the century when the most obvious of the charlatans entered the
scene. They, in concert with the almost total lack of standards in medical education and practice at that
time, produced a really deplorable situation.
This situation was recognized by the Carnegie Foundation, which established a commission to
investigate it. The commission was headed by Abraham Flexner and the now famous "Flexner Report"
published in 1910 produced an almost instantaneous revision of medical education with the closing of
most of the marginal schools and the establishment of science as the sole basis for medicine and
medical education. This was firmly reinforced a few years later when Flexner compared the American
ELECTROMAGNETISM & LIFE - 17