Guide for using medical batteries : (being a compendium from his larger work on medical electricity and nervous diseases.) : showing the most approved apparatus, methods and rules, for the medical employment of electricity in the treatment of nervous diseases / by Alfred C. Garratt.

  • Garratt, Alfred C. (Alfred Charles), 1813?-1891.
Date:
1867
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Guide for using medical batteries : (being a compendium from his larger work on medical electricity and nervous diseases.) : showing the most approved apparatus, methods and rules, for the medical employment of electricity in the treatment of nervous diseases / by Alfred C. Garratt. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    16/196 (page 8)
    the cases, the stage of the affection, the form of the electricity, and the method of its application, that any marked-and uniform success can possibly be expected. It is true, that by only a random employment of electricity a few accidental and truly wonderful successes have been obtained; but with a multitude of failures, and not a few truly injurious effects. On the other hand, we do know, by observing certain rules and methods, that the nerves and organs, under certain circumstances, can be called into natural action more certainly and more thoroughly by means of electricity than by any other known agency or remedy. In fact, we are able, by merely vary- ing the form of electricity, or the mode of application, to arouse or to allay their vital power ; to diminish or increase their true functional action. Thus, while we would not claim for electri- city a cure-all, we do insist that it is one of our most valuable aids in certain diagnoses, and one of our most controllable and precious remedies. For therapeutical means we may have recourse to three classes of electrical instruments, viz., the Electric Machine, the G-alvanic Battery, or the Induction Apparatus. There is quite. a variety of instruments in all three classes; but we should choose them according to their action and the form of the element they respectively produce. Electricity in motion, be it remembered, results from the reunion or neutralization of the two separated opposite electric principles. This may be instantaneous, inter- mitted, or continuous. In the former case it constitutes the simple discharge; in the second case a more or less continuous current; in the third there are produced rapidly interrupted currents, which are usually as frequently alternated or reversed. By the electrical machine we get a peculiar form of electricity for remedial purposes, possessing great intensity, while there is but feeble quantity. This machine may consist of a revolving cylinder, or plate of glass, which is submitted to the friction of cushions or rubbers. As a general thing, a plate machine is, for equal size, of far higher power than the cylinder; but it mat- ters very little which form of friction machine is used. If we were going to purchase for practical purposes, we should de-