A treatise on localized electrization : and its applications to pathology and therapeutics / by G.B. Duchenne ; translated from the third edition of the original, by Herbert Tibbits.

Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on localized electrization : and its applications to pathology and therapeutics / by G.B. Duchenne ; translated from the third edition of the original, by Herbert Tibbits. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    in practice. It would be wrong, however, to suppose tliat the therapeutical action of electricity is always the same, whatever its source. I make no claim to have entirely solved this difficult question; but I hope to establish that friction electricity, contact electricity, and induced electricity possess special physiological and therapeutical properties, and that each of tliem will fulfil particular indications. Part I. STATIC ELECTRICITY. ' § I.—Physiological Properties. The principal methods employed for the application of static electricity are, as is well known, electrization by simple contact, called the electric bath; electrization by sparks; and, lastl}'', elec- trization by the I^eyden jar. The other methods do not appear to me sufficiently important to require discussion. A.—Electro-positive and Negative Baths. The electric bath has long been ranked among the most valuable therapeutical agents. According to Giacomini,^ the positive form is apjilied and acts in the following manner :— The patient, being insulated, is placed in contact with the conductor of the electrical machine. The whole surface of the body is thus electrified, while the air which surrounds the body is rendered electro-negative. The positive electricity by which the organism is charged is confined to the surface, and probably accumulates in the skin, by virtue of the law above-mentioned, for it has no effect upon any internal organs. Neither the pulse, nor the secretions, nor the intellectual functions, nor the respiration, undergo any particular change ; and the accumulated electricity which constitutes the bath, escapes from all points of the epidermis, from the hair, beard, and nails, &c. Giacomini attributes a hyposthenic influence to the electro- negative bath, which withdraws from the body a greater or smaller quantity of its natural electricity. This is done by in- sulating the patient, and by placing his body, and especially the diseased part, in connection with the cushion or rubber of the machine. The plate, being then turned, discharges vitreous electricity in proportion as it has accumulated. It is evident, according to Giacomini, that the electricity yielded by the cushion is derived from the nerves of the patient, instead of from the ground, as iu the case of the positive bath. Cited in La Bihliotheque du M^ecin PracHciev. Pnris. imo. Vol. siv. p. 90.