The Meanings of an Artifact

• Identify it: Has your research confirmed your original identification of the object?
• Evaluate it: Rank its aesthetic and functional qualities, considering the material, texture, skill of craftsmanship, effectiveness of overall design, the expressiveness of its form, style and ornamentation. Compare it with other, similar objects within the same time period.
• Do the materials, construction or cost of the object suggest who might have purchased it? Who would have used these objects? Where?
• What does the location of its use reveal about the role of the doctor and the role of the patient in health and medicine?
• What does the object's function reveal about the philosophy of medicine and health at the time? About the philosophy of human bodies and electricity?
• What are the different kinds of electrical current? How and why are they used?
• What does the object's function reveal about societal fears of urbanization, technology and modernization?
• What does the object reveal about what is considered to be "natural" and "unnatural" in health and medicine?
• How does the object reveal attitudes about gender differences and roles at the time? Towards male and female sexuality?
• How and why does the legitimacy of the object, or the perception of its utility, change over time?
• What is the history of the patent information? Who was the creator of the object? What does this history indicate about the legitimacy of the object in the practice of medicine?
• What is the history of the companies that manufactured these objects? Does this history indicate the legitimacy of the object in the practice of medicine? Does this history indicate the type of individual who would have purchased or used this object?
• To whom are the advertisements aimed? What results might the average purchaser expect when using these devices at home? What do the ads suggest is "legitimate" and detrimental medicine? What does this say about the public's perception of medicine at the time?
• How are electrotherapy, phototherapy and oxygen therapy considered in contemporary medicine? How are they used? By whom?

Media

	Image Gallery (including instructions on lid)
	Vernoy ad, Toronto Star, 23 June 1905, 46
	Vernoy's obituary
	Aids to Electro-therapeutics, pp. 1-6

	Image Gallery
	Electro/UV/Ozone machine ad, G&M, 14 October 1918, 5
	Electrotherapy and the Elements of Light Therapy, pp. 90-98, 310-17
	Ozone Therapy booklet
	Betzco catalogue for physicians
	Fishbein, Fads and Quackery in Healing, pp. 290-301 [coming soon]

	Object Image
	AMA, "Electropoise-Oxydonor-Oxygenor-Oxypathor-Oxytonor-Oxybon,” Nostrums and Quackery. Pp. 295-309. 2nd Ed. Chicago: American Medical Association Press, 1912.
	Oxypathor ad in G&M, 2 September 1911, 5
	Oxypathor ad in G&M, January 1912, 4