James Graham's Grand State Celestial Bed, hired by the night at his Temple of Hymen at Schomberg House on Pall Mall from June 1781, used insulated electrical apparatus, mechanical music, perfumed vapours, and a tableau of Hymen to support conception, restore generative vigour, and prolong life in the couples who hired it.
The claim attaches to the promotional rhetoric that surrounded the Celestial Bed’s introduction at Schomberg House on Pall Mall in June 1781. Richard C Sha’s 2010 Medical History review of Lydia Syson’s biography reports the Bed at fifty pounds the night with conception guaranteed and quotes its advertised character as “medico, magnetico, musico, electrical.” Amelia Soth’s 30 May 2019 JSTOR Daily article quotes the corresponding hire-price language from Graham’s own advertising. No controlled outcome trial was published; the conception, regenerative, and longevity claims rest on Graham’s lectures, his pamphlets, and visitor testimony.
Appears in
Sources
- Doctor of love: James Graham and his celestial bed [book review] — Sha, Richard C. Review of *Doctor of love: James Graham and his celestial bed*, by Lydia Syson. *Medical History* 54(1): 138-139, January 2010. PMCID: PMC2793165.
- Doctor of Love: James Graham and His Celestial Bed — Syson, Lydia. *Doctor of Love: James Graham and His Celestial Bed*. Richmond, Surrey: Alma Books, 2008. 331 pp. ISBN 978-1-84688-054-4.
- The Prince of Quacks (and How He Captivated London) — Soth, Amelia. 'The Prince of Quacks (and How He Captivated London).' *JSTOR Daily*, 30 May 2019.