A treatise of practical instructions in the medical and surgical uses of electricity : including instructions in electrical diagnosing and a new method of general and local electrization. Also clinical experiences of fifteen years.

  • Morrill, S. E.
Date:
1882
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise of practical instructions in the medical and surgical uses of electricity : including instructions in electrical diagnosing and a new method of general and local electrization. Also clinical experiences of fifteen years. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    SALT OR CHLORIDE OF SODIUM. I consider salt an important and essential element, as an adjunct to electricity; together they work in har- mony and help us to diagnose with more certainty than could possibly be done without it. I will briefly give some of the principal reasons why we consider it of so much importance, both for diagnosing and giving electrical treatments. Salt has .some characteristics, peculiar to itself, dif- fering from all other compounds or elements, organic or inorganic. It is not in any sense nourishing, as it does not furnish support to any organ or function, and does nothing towards sustaining life, as has been often proved in the case of the shipwrecked and famishing sailor. Neither is it a chemical agent, combining with some other element in the system to effect a necessary change, as the acids combine with alkaline bases and remove effete matter from the system in the excretions; but it is chloride of sodium, wherever found, in the stom- ach, in the blood, or in the excretions. But whatever else is accomplished in the system by salt, its essential use is that of a condiment, exciting the excretory or- gans to do their duty, and certain it is, that it does in- cite to action the salivary and other glands. Take into the mouth a bit of salt fish, and the mouth is immedi- ately filled with saliva, and when it is received into the stomach, the gastric juice also immediately gushes out. Of these effects on the glands of the mouth and stom- ach Ave can have no doubt, as they are under the ob-