Richard Lovett (1692–1780) was an English amateur scientist and

lay clerk A lay clerk, also known as a lay vicar, song man or a vicar choral, is a professional adult singer in an Anglican cathedral and often Roman Catholic Cathedrals in the UK, or (occasionally) collegiate choir in Britain and Ireland. The vicars chora ...

Worcester Cathedral Worcester Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in Worcester, in Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified ...

. Lovett was mainly known as a pioneer in the

electric shock therapy Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a psychiatric treatment where a generalized seizure (without muscular convulsions) is electrically induced to manage refractory mental disorders.Rudorfer, MV, Henry, ME, Sackeim, HA (2003)"Electroconvulsive th ...

. His results from experiments around 1755, were recorded in ''The Subtil Medium Prov'd'' (1756), which was the first English textbook on medical electricity, and ''The Electrical Philosopher'' (1774). He claimed to be able to treat not only mental diseases, but also other ails as sore throats by electricity. Lovett's theory of electricity was to a large extent based on the theories of

Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton (25 December 1642 – 20 March 1726/27) was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, theologian, and author (described in his time as a "natural philosopher"), widely recognised as one of the grea ...

.Jesús Pérez, Gianni L. Faedda, Ross J. Baldessarin
Electricity rendered useful for mental illness: tribute to Richard Lovett
The British Journal of Psychiatry Oct 2013, 203 (4) 241

References

External links

The Electrical Philosopher
on Google Books 1692 births 1780 deaths English scientists {{UK-scientist-stub