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consider the more general methods of application, beginning with Franklinization.

FRANKLINIZATION.

To administer Franklinism, insulate the patient by letting him stand upon a glass-legged stool, sit upon a chair placed on a platform with glass supports, or recline upon a couch the four legs of which are insulated by being inserted into large glass jars. Then connect him by a brass chain held in his hand with the conductor of a friction machine in action, and thus make him as it were a part of it. The accumulated electricity passes to him, and he becomes in common with the conductor charged. If the air were perfectly dry he would continue in this charged condition, but owing to its contained moisture the electricity rapidly leaves him, and to maintain the charge it is necessary that the plate should be kept in constant rotation. Indeed the escape of electricity is so rapid that to get good action you must have a fire in the room, and before use well rub the plate, the insulating supports, the legs of the stool, and all the glass parts of the apparatus with a warm and dry piece of flannel. This is of importance, and however dry the day, should as a rule never be neglected. The patient charged from the prime conductor, is said to be taking an electro-positive bath; but if he be connected by the chain with the cushions of the machine, instead of with its conductor, he would

be charged not with positive but with negative electricity and-be taking an electro-negative bath. The whole surface of the body becomes charged with electricity, which escapes from all points of the skin. If it is desired to localize somewhat this escape along the course of certain nerve branches, or otherwise, but to avoid shock, a brush may be slowly passed by the operator almost, but not quite, in contact with the skin. A series of rapid and successive reunions of the electricity with each bristle of the brush takes place, generating a current of cold air perceptible to the patient. I habitually use for this application an ordinary clothes-brush. If, while in connection with the prime conductor any object (the knuckles will do), is brought sufficiently near to him for his contained electricity to overcome the resistance of the intervening stratum of air, he is "discharged" with a spark. This is Franklinization by sparks, and is accompanied by a certain slight amount of "shock." If it be desired to render this shock painful, electricity of a degree of tension only to be obtained from a sufficiently charged Leyden jar or jars must be made use of, and this may be rendered so powerful that the whole limb, or even the whole body is as it were struck by lightning. This is Frankinlization by the Leyden jar. To apply this form of Franklinization, well warm the inside and outside of the jar, and place it with its knob, communicating by the rod with its inner coating, sufficiently near to the conductor of

Also

the machine in action to draw sparks from it. connect by a hook and brass chain, or preferably a length of insulated wire, the same knob with one of the excitors, such as K (fig. 1, p. 21) insulated by a glass handle, and the outer coating of the jar by a second wire, looped round it, with a second insulated excitor, J; then have the machine rotated until the number of sparks required have passed into the jar, which is discharged by applying the extremities of the two excitors to the two points of the body through which it is desired that the electricity should pass. In fig. 1 the charge is being directed through the muscles of the ball of the thumb. This is the least complex way, but if it be desired to measure the charge carefully, and avoid too powerful a shock, Lane's electrometer (see fig. 1), should be employed, putting one of its horizontal branches in communication with the interior coating, and the other with the exterior, and separating the balls at their other ends more or less widely, according to the shock desired. Arranged in this manner, if through inadvertence the jar is overcharged, the two electricities will re-unite between the two knobs as soon as they acquire sufficient tension to overcome the resistance of the intervening air-a resistance that is in direct proportion to the distance between the knobs.

If necessary, two or more jars may be combined by connecting their outer and inner coatings, but it is very rarely required to use more than one, pro

vided it be of adequate size, say of about forty

ounces.

VOLTAIZATION.

Voltaization is administered under two forms, the "constant" and the "interrupted" voltaic current. In the "constant" current the conductors are maintained immovable upon the skin; or the feet or hands, as the case may be, are immersed in tepid salt water, with which the conducting wires of the battery are in contact, and the current is allowed to pass during the time required. The tension of voltaic electricity is so low that salt is required to render the water a good conductor. In the "interrupted voltaic current" the current is INTERRUPTED by gliding over the skin one or both of the rheophores; or the feet or hands may be placed in salt water with one pole, and the other pole may alone be movable. There is an application of positive voltaic electricity, originated by Dr. Radcliffe, the therapeutics of which will be discussed hereafter, in which the patient and the battery must both be insulated, in which the passage of the current must be quite constant, and in which a wire, which Dr. Radcliffe terms a "ground wire," must be carried from the negative pole of the battery, or from the negative rheophore, to the earth. This wire may conveniently be attached to a chandelier or gas

pipe, which always gives a direct metallic conduction to the ground. With careful insulation, the negative electricity passes away by this wire, and while the current circulates the patient continues. "charged" with positive electricity-a condition analogous to the electro-positive bath described under Franklinization. A sheet of gutta percha about four feet square by half an inch thick, will answer admirably to insulate the patient and the accessories.

LOCALIZED VOLTAIZATION AND LOCALIZED FARADIZATION.

Localized voltaization and localized faradization require the same operative procedures, and in describing them I shall make use of the term electrization.

Direct Muscular Electrization.

In direct muscular electrization the muscular tissue is directly excited by placing well moistened rheophores on points of the skin corresponding to the muscle it is desired to act upon. For the muscles of the trunk which have a large surface, it is most convenient to use well moistened sponges contained in cylinders, or metallic disks covered with wet leather and having conveniently-shaped handles. Fig. 28 is one of Duchenne's sponge-holders. All others that I have seen are much too long in the

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