The famous physician who was one of the founders of the famous Cleveland Clinic, worked for nine years formulating the all but forgotten bipolar theory of living processes. The works he did on the body’s bioelectrical energies were truly monumental as was his work on the cause of surgical shock. He established the technique and value of the blood transfusion. During his long search for the underlying causes of fatigue, exhaustion and death at work in the University College of London, war hospitals in France, and the Western Reserve University Medical School, his data made it apparent that in order to understand the cause of surgical shock and death, it was necessary to understand the body as an electric potential.