On the application and effect of electricity and galvanism in the treatment of cancerous, nervous, rheumatic, and other affections / By Richard Moore Lawrance.

  • Lawrance, Richard Moore, 1822-
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the application and effect of electricity and galvanism in the treatment of cancerous, nervous, rheumatic, and other affections / By Richard Moore Lawrance. 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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    new facts attributable to electrical agency, which again drew the attention of philosophers to this subject. It was not, however, until the year 1746 that, in consequence of some interesting experi- ments which led to the introduction of the Leyden jar, the surprising effects of frictional electricity on the human body became known. When first discovered, imagination placed no limit to its medical powers ; and with no fixed laws to regulate its application, and no perception of the difference of effect produced by currents flowing in contrary directions, it was indiscriminately applied in the treatment of the most opposite diseases ; and as a natural consequence of such empiricism, together with the expensive and cumbersome apparatus required for its excitation in a state of even moderate tension, it quickly fell into disrepute, and it was not until the commencement of the present century that the study of Electro-Phy- siology was resumed. We are greatly indebted to the laborious researches of Matteucci and other phi- losophers for the progress which has since been made in this science, and, as Mr. Noad observes, 'It is much to be desired that the knowledge