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
Catalogue details

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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    Electrization by sparks produces a sensation analogous to that of whipping, and appears principally adapted for cases in which it is necessary slightly to stimulate the skin; altliough it would be insufficient if very active stimulation were desired. In fact, to obtain such active stimulation, it would be necessary to have recourse to static electricity of high tension, such as would be furnished by the Leyden jar, and which would also produce such muscular contractions and general shock as to complicate the action upon the skin, and to contra-indicate the employment of the agent. Electrization by sparks is, therefore, useless in cases of profound and obstinate anaesthesia, or where it is wished to produce an instantaneous revulsion, such as would be effected by the actual cautery. Electrization by sparks, even when they are yielded by a powerful machine, and by spherical exciters, is only able to produce contraction of some superficial or very excitable muscles, such as the platysma, the upper half of the sterno-mastoid, the margin of the trapezius, and some muscles of the face. In order that static electricity may affect the muscles generally, especially when they are covered by an abundance of cellular tissue, it would be necessary to employ a high tension by means of a Leyden jar. But the resulting shock, which would possibly extend to the nervous centres, would render such an operation dangerous or impracticable. The knowledge of the local organic changes produced by the discharge of a Leyden jar enables us better to appreciate the thera- peutic action. It has been already shewn that an organ so elec- trified only undergoes excitation after having suffered, for some time, from all the effects of torpor. It is easy to conceive that if any organ were exposed to discharges too frequent or too powerful, or if its vitality were already depressed, the stage of electric torpor might be indefinitely prolonged. However favourable may be the conditions under which it is attempted to practise muscular electrization by the Leyden jar, it will always be imprudent to expose the patient to many discharges. Jlence it would be impossible to electrify all the muscles in cases of paralysis of one or more of the limbs. Moreover, the operation is always painful; since the cutaneous excitation inseparable from the use of static electricity increases in proportion to the increase of tension. It appears, then, on the whole, that the excitation of muscles by static electricity ought generally to be excluded from practice, and the more so since it may be replaced by another electric agent, which will be desciibed in the third section (induced electricity):