The conditions of the unipolar stimulation in physiology and therapeutics / by A. de Watteville.

  • Watteville, A. de (Armand), 1846-1925.
Date:
[1879?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The conditions of the unipolar stimulation in physiology and therapeutics / by A. de Watteville. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    4/20 (page 4)
    opening of the current, and at the former more readily than at the latter, it is difficult to see how many electrotherapeu- tical writers have been able to continue speaking of the results obtained by physiologists as dependent on the direction of the current with reference to the nerve; and to place their so- called “polar method” in a position of antagonism to the “ physiological method.” 1 In the latter, it is true, in order to eliminate many disturbing elements, such as the influence of the central organs, the action of derived currents, &c., the nerve is usually exsected, and both poles applied to it directly ; but apart from these differences of manipulation, there is no such fundamental difference between the two methods as has been claimed. Let us first throw a retrospective glance into the origins of that polar method, the subject of so many mis- understandings and passionate recriminations. Among the earlier observers we come across but few and vague data concerning the effects of the galvanic current on the living body. Ritter2 noticed that a strong current flowing from hand to hand produced in the arm up which it flows a sensation of increased mobility, and vice versa. Matteucci3 repeated the observation of Nobili, that tetanised frogs’ legs were quieted by an ascending current, and even proposed therapeutical applications of this fact.4 Valentin5 is the first to make an explicit statement on the subject. He finds that in the living animal contraction occurs most readily on closing the current, whatever be its direction. Fick and Orelli6 found the same happen in their experiments on the ulnar nerve in man. Schiff7 puts down as a law that “con- traction occurs in the living subject on making the current in 1 Hermann says (loc. cit. vol. ii. p 63) : “ Pfluger the first showed that stimu- lation of the nerve occurs at one electrode only, on making the current at the kathode, on breaking it at the anode ” ; and recognises Chauveau’s independent discovery of the same fact. Biedermann, by the way (“ Uber die polaren Wirkun- gen des elektrischen Stromes iin entnervten Muskel,” 1 Sitzungsberichte der K. K. Akad. d. Wissenschaften,’ vol. lxxix. p. 289), has' successfully demonstrated the polar effects on curarised muscle. 2 ‘ Beitrage zur n'ahere Kenntniss des Galvanismus,' Jena, 1802. 3 ‘Essai sur les Phenomenes Uectriques des Auimaux,’ 1840. 4 Of. ‘Traite des Phenomenes elect ro-physiologiques,’ chap, ix., “Usage therapeutique du Courant continu.” 1844. B Loc. cit. * ‘ Wiener Medicinische Wochenschrift,’ 1856. 7 ‘ Lchrbuch der Nervenphysiologie,’ p. 80, 1856.