metallic tractor

French translation: tracteurs en métal

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
English term or phrase:metallic tractor
French translation:tracteurs en métal
Entered by: Jean-Luc Crucifix

23:05 Feb 13, 2005
English to French translations [PRO]
Medical - Medical: Instruments
English term or phrase: metallic tractor
Voici la description de l'instrument:

A very rare set of c. 1790s antique Perkins tractors with original case. Each galvanic metallic tractor is marked: PERKINS / PATENT / TRACTORS. Elisha Perkins (1741-1799), of Plainfield, Connecticut, received the first medical patent issued under the Constitution of the United States, in 1796, for this device. The Perkins' tractors were medical quackery, of course, but Perkinism promised electrotherapeutic cures for pains in the head, face, teeth, breast, side, stomach, back, rheumatism and some gouts. The son of Elisha Perkins, Benjamin Douglas Perkins (1774-1810), was the great promoter of the tractors, most notably in England. He also opened the market to the veterinary trade by authoring a pamphlet, The Family Remedy; or, Perkins's Patent Metallic Tractors, For the Relief of Topical Disease of the Human Body: And of Horses, 1800. For a decade the use of tractors was a rage...even George Washington is said to have bought a set. James Gillray, the English social critic and cartoonist, famously spoofed the use of the Perkins' invention, in 1801, which he labeled the Rod of Aesculapios [sic] (the Greek and Roman god of medicine, Aeskulapios or Aesculapius).
Jean-Luc Crucifix
France
tracteurs en métal
Explanation:
En Angleterre sévissait la mode des tracteurs d’Elisha Perkins, médecin américain de Plainfield (mort en 1779, lors d’une épidémie de fièvre jaune contre laquelle sa méthode thérapeutique ne put rien...). Ils s’agissait de baguettes en métal : l’une en cuivre, l’autre en fer, reliées à l’une de leurs extrémités et qui étaient réputées antalgiques lorsqu’elles étaient appliquées sur la zone douloureuse.

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Note added at 51 mins (2005-02-13 23:57:30 GMT)
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http://www.pseudo-sciences.org/placebo 252.pdf
Selected response from:

JCEC
Canada
Local time: 13:41
Grading comment
Merci pour la référence.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4tracteurs en métal
JCEC


  

Answers


23 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
metallic tractors
tracteurs en métal


Explanation:
En Angleterre sévissait la mode des tracteurs d’Elisha Perkins, médecin américain de Plainfield (mort en 1779, lors d’une épidémie de fièvre jaune contre laquelle sa méthode thérapeutique ne put rien...). Ils s’agissait de baguettes en métal : l’une en cuivre, l’autre en fer, reliées à l’une de leurs extrémités et qui étaient réputées antalgiques lorsqu’elles étaient appliquées sur la zone douloureuse.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 51 mins (2005-02-13 23:57:30 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

http://www.pseudo-sciences.org/placebo 252.pdf

JCEC
Canada
Local time: 13:41
Native speaker of: French
PRO pts in category: 56
Grading comment
Merci pour la référence.
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