Medical electricity : a practical handbook for students and practitioners / by W.E. Steavenson and H. Lewis Jones.

  • Steavenson, W. E. (William Edward), 1850-1891.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Medical electricity : a practical handbook for students and practitioners / by W.E. Steavenson and H. Lewis Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    treatment. He says: The fact stands well established that electricity is at present to be ranked amongst the means at our disposal for the cure of chorea, and that in severe cases its effects are often truly surprising. Where other means cannot be employed ; when the patient is scarcely able to swallow; where the skin is abraded from the prominent bones of the emaciated frame; when the powers of life seem nearly exhausted, sparks of electricity drawn from the whole length of the spine will often, after a few repetitions, effect a favourable change, and enable us to administer other means of cure. (Sir W. Gull continued to hold these views to the end of his professional life, and when I was appointed to the charge of the electrical department at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, he advised me to turn my attention particularly to the treatment of chorea by statical electricity. The results I have had have been most satisfactory. W.E.S.) Erb proposes the use of oblique galvanization of the head in chorea, but does not express any definite opinion as to its value. Some cases of chorea treated recently by electricity are recorded by Beard and Rockwell. The methods used by them were general faradization or central gal- vanization, the former method being used unless the patient seemed to bear it badly. Good results appear to have followed both plans of treatment ; the point of most importance insisted upon by the authors being that the currents used must be gentle and agreeable to the little patients, and that all shocks or alarms are to be avoided. It is difficult to estimate the true value of the results obtained from the electrical treatment of chorea, because the ordinary course of the disease is so uncertain, both