Allen's Battery

Allen's Battery
a.k.a.	Professor Allen's Miniature Galvanic Battery
Medical Claims	Healing via galvanic electricity

The Allen's Battery (or Professor Allen's Miniature Galvanic Battery) is an electro-therapeutic medical medallion, advertised as a generator of healing electric current in the wearer, produced by the reaction of the varying metals constituting the battery with the wearer's skin (as a galvanic response). It is identical in design to Boyd's Battery and the Sagendorph Battery, with "Allen" stamped on it in place of "Boyd" or "Sagendorph", and was sold primarily in Australia and New Zealand by Allen (and local agents).

Resources

• Watson, Lindsay S. (October 2013), "Tom Tiddler’s Ground: Irregular Medical Practitioners and Male Sexual Problems in New Zealand, 1858–1908", Medical History 57 (4): 537-558, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3865952/  — includes brief reference to "Professor" Allen being "associated with Smith & Co., Medical Galvanists of Melbourne", his sales tour for his galvanic belt, and his battery.
• "The Miniature Galvanic Battery (advertisement)". Southland Times (Invercargill, New Zealand): p. 2. 1885-11-12. http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=ST18851112.2.14.2.  — sold by Josiah Rogers, "sole agent for Professor Allen in New Zealand"