On the therapeutic application of electro-magnetism in the treatment of rheumatic and paralytic affections / By Robert Froriep ; tr. from the German by Richard Moore Lawrance.

  • Froriep, Robert, 1804-1861.
Date:
1850
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the therapeutic application of electro-magnetism in the treatment of rheumatic and paralytic affections / By Robert Froriep ; tr. from the German by Richard Moore Lawrance. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    laxation of the vessels, and stimulants are required in order to excite them to contract. As dilatation of the vessels is caused by relaxa- tion and removed by stimulation, so also in rheum- atic effusion. The proximate cause is some influence which weakens or paralyses the nervous energy in some part; which results follow the continued ab- straction of heat. But if the products of rheum- atism are formed, they can only be removed by such means as stimulate the nerves of the parts affected, so that contraction of the vessels supplied by these nerves ensues as a secondary consequence. These remedies act directly and indirectly. Those which act directly are mechanical stimulants, as shampooing, rubbing, passive and active motion, and electricity; those which have an indirect in- fluence are stimulating applications, the effect of which is explained by the reflex function, though we must admit that some advantage is derived from the local application. The analogy of the mechanico-physiological process in other effusions, and also the result ex juvantibus et nocentibus, prove that the rheumatic induration proceeds from a diminution of the vis nervosa.