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the outside of the sheath was positive, it was to be supposed that the communication of positive electricity to the outside would be favorable to the irritability of the nerve or muscles, and so, indeed, it proved to be by many experiments, and not only so, but also that the opposite charge of negative electricity is less favorable. It was shown in fact that irritability may be long preserved, and renewed more than once by the positive charge, in a way which could not be done by the negative charge. The experiments are too many to be introduced here, but the conclusion from them is applicable not to statical electricity only, but also to voltaic electricity, for Dr. Radcliffe shows good reason to believe that voltaic electricity acts upon irritability not by its current so much as by the charge associated with this current, which charge may be made positive or negative by putting an earth wire to one or other of the poles. At all events, when a part of the body is included in the voltaic circuit it may be all charged with positive electricity if an earth wire be put to the negative pole, or with negative if an earth wire be put to the positive pole; and the conditions are favorable to irritability in the former case, unfavorable in the latter. This is the fact insisted upon. It is of no moment whether this charge with which the animal Leyden jars are to be charged is from a friction machine, or whether it be from a

voltaic battery by running off the opposite electricity by an earth wire. What is wanted is to charge the outsides of the sheaths positively as they are charged naturally. What is aimed at is to put the fibres by this means in the condition most favorable to the preservation or recovery of their irritability-not to provoke this irritability into existence by shocking it; and certainly there is much in theory and much in practice to recommend this view as one which opens out quite a new field in electro-therapeutics. Before long, I trust, there will be something definite as regards practice to be said respecting it.

The question of the differential use of the voltaic current, as well interrupted as constant, and that of faradism, has been largely discussed of late years, and for some time divided electro-therapeutists into two great schools, the Faradists, led by Duchenne, in France, and the Voltaists by the late Professor Remak, in Germany. The advocates of the voltaic current claim for it an action sui generis upon the nervous centres, an action which faradism can in no way replace. Benedikt, in his " Electrotherapie,”* contends that the voltaic current will directly affect the brain and cord. He advises, in cerebral disease, that it should be applied to the long or short axis of the cranium, sittings not to exceed thirty

* Electro-Therapie, von Dr. M. Benedikt. Vienna: 1868.

seconds, and to be stopped instantly on the occurrence of the slightest giddiness. The electrodes must be maintained immovable, and may be applied to each mastoid process, to each temple, or to the frontal and occipital protuberances. He advocates still more strongly, for symptoms of intracranial origin, the so-called "galvanization of the sympathetic"-its cervical ganglia. One electrode may be deeply pressed into the auriculo-maxillary fossa, and the other, with a good-sized sponge, applied over the sixth or seventh cervical vertebra, or to the manubrium sterni, close to the border of the sternomastoid. The duration of the application should be from one to three or four minutes and with from ten to twenty cells. Whether voltaization can be localized in the sympathetic or not, very powerful effects are produced by the electrodes placed in the above positions, and when so applied the greatest caution must be exercised by the operator, as also in cerebral galvanization. Giddiness, syncope, and convulsions are recorded as the sequel of a too powerful or too prolonged application. Benedikt also advocates galvanization of the cord, by keeping one sponge, usually the positive, stationary, and moving the other up and down by the sides of the vertebræ, about forty times at each sitting; or by one pole on the spine and the other on a nerve or muscle. After galvanization of the nervous centre has restored voluntary power he advises that the nutrition of

the muscles should be aided by localized faradization. This question of the therapeutic value of direct voltaization of the great nervous centres is still sub judice. The reader will, in any such operation, do well to remember the cardinal rule never to apply electricity to a patient until he has first tested it upon himself.

Electricity has been fully proved to be sometimes unapproached in its power of relieving pain. None of its therapeutic results is more firmly established, and were it in no other respect of use, its services here would entitle it to the foremost rank as a remedy. I refer especially to its application in neuralgia. The constant voltaic current is the form in which it must almost invariably be applied, both electrodes being held firmly pressed and immovable upon the skin. Faradization is seldom of any use except with the wire brush as a counter-irritant. Franklinization, if voltaization fails, should always be tried, the patient being insulated and simply charged with static electricity by being connected with the prime conductor, while the machine is kept in rotation for about fifteen minutes. If this fails, sparks may be drawn in the track of the affected nerve or nerves; but the voltaic current in nineteen cases out of twenty, where electricity is advisable, must be our resource. The electrodes should be so applied as to include in their circuit the part or nerve affected. The number of

cells should be the highest number that the patient can bear without pain or discomfort. The length of application should be from five minutes to ten minutes, and the frequency once or twice a day.. Dr. Althaus considers that the positive pole should always be applied to the seat of the disease. In my experience I have not found the direction of the current of importance, but only that it should be constant. The seat of the disease in true neuralgia is always in the posterior nerve-root, and one of the electrodes should be placed as nearly over this as possible. I generally place the negative pole with a large sponge, on the spine over the point of origin of the nerves affected, and apply the positive pole to the painful spot, and if there be more spots than one, to the different spots in succession. The result of this is almost uniformly good, and it is seldom that considerable relief is not afforded, even if a cure do not result, and this in most varieties of neuralgia, whether centric, reflex, or constitutional. The number of cells must be regulated according to the region affected. In the face it is best to commence with about five, as the sensitiveness of the retina varies so greatly. On the occurrence of the least giddiness the application should be discontinued and fewer cells used. The battery being in good order, about fifteen or twenty cells will be the maximum applicable to the face, which may be increased in other parts of the body; but

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