Nerve-vibration and excitation as agents in the treatment of functional disorder and organic disease / by J. Mortimer Granville.

Date:
1883
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Nerve-vibration and excitation as agents in the treatment of functional disorder and organic disease / by J. Mortimer Granville. 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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    mechanical effect upon the sensory nerves. By the aid of a large tuning fork and sounding-board he caused hemianaesthesia to disappear, and provoked contractions in hysterical subjects at la Salpetriere, as rapidly as with the magnet or electricity. The pains of an ataxic were subdued when* his legs were brought under the influence of these sound-waves. M. Boudet de Paris then thought this might be applied locally over a nerve —the sonorous being changed to mechanical vibrations by means of a small button attached to the resonater, and applied over the nerve. He therefore contrived a small apparatus consisting of an electrically mounted tuning fork, the vibrations of which were transmitted to a rod which could be easily applied over a nerve. In a healthy man this mechanical excitation produced rapid local analgesia, often anaesthesia, the maximum effect being produced by application over a nerve which could be compressed on a bony surface. When placed against the skull its walls vibrate in harmony with the tuning-fork, and a sensation of approaching vertigo, frequently followed by a desire for sleep, is produced. An attack of migraine can be cut short by the appli- cation. Neuralgia—especially of the fifth, where the nerves issue from bony canals—disappears after a few minutes’ application of the instrument to the nerve at. such points, but in the case of deeper-seated nerves,, much protected by soft parts, it is more difficult to get good results. The writer suggests this treatment for the pains of ataxies and syphilitics ; he thinks there is no limit to its applications, and suggests that perhaps cranial vibrations may induce cerebral and thus general E