Looking back, in this case to Antiquity, on too many occasions we can say that Nihil novum sub sole (Nothing new under the sun), because today we have one more example:brushes to remove lint (or anything else) from clothes.
The Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus , who lived around 600 BC, observed that rubbing amber, a yellowish resinous substance, with a cloth or animal skin, acquired the strange property of attracting light objects. In fact, the ancient Greek word for amber is elektron , from which the term electricity derives, first used by Francis Bacon to describe materials that, like amber, were charged with static energy. And what use was given to amber once this "magical" property was known? Well, to remove fluff from clothes (blades of grass version, dry leaves...).
But Tales not only played with electricity, he also made them with magnets. Just over twenty kilometers from Miletus was the city of Magnesia, where magnetite was first found. or lodestone. Thales studied that stone and observed that, in addition to attracting other metals, if magnetite was rubbed with iron, it acquired the magnetic properties of the mineral. Magnetism was born.
From being an entertainment, as is the case with almost everything magical, it passed into the world of medicine, being applied to treat some ailments or as a beauty treatment to keep the skin young (they say that Cleopatra slept with one of these stones). The Roman philosopher of the 1st century BC. C. Tito Lucrecio Caro tells us about these stones...
It also sometimes happens that the nature of iron withdraws from that stone, and alternately rejects and follows it. I have seen rings of iron rise up, and also shavings of iron quiver inside bronze bowls when a magnet is placed underneath, so impatient to escape from the stone
In the same way, although they still could not explain that strange phenomenon, they noticed, and knew how to use, the electrical discharges generated by certain fluvial animals (the Nile electric catfish) and marine animals (the ray fish) to "stun" their victims and hunt them comfortably. Pliny wrote that... «electric fish are used for medicinal purposes to relieve headaches and gout «.
Scribonius Longus, a 1st-century physician who served at the court of Emperor Claudius, compiled De Compositione Medicamentorum an extensive pharmacopoeia with 271 prescriptions. One of his recipes…
To immediately eliminate and cure a long-lasting, excruciating headache [migraine], a live black torpedo [stripe] is placed on the site of pain until the pain subsides and the area becomes numb.
And continuing with the remedies of Scribonius Longus, these electric fish were also used to cure gout:put bare feet in shallow water between black torpedoes until the foot went numb. In other writings, it is also advised to use these animal electric shocks to cure arthritis or epilepsy. And finally, remember that it is not good to self-medicate…