AN/ESTHESIA 
Can Now be Produced from a Drug and an 
Electric Current. 
Patient will not be Robbed of all Consciousness, 
CLEVER APPARATUS CONSTRUCTED BY A CINCINNATI MAN. 
It may Make it Possible for a Man to watch the 
Amputation of his own Leg. 
That electricity will play an important part in the use of anaes- 
thetics in the future has been demonstrated by the perfection, in Cin- 
cinnati, of an apparatus that has already accomplished wonderful re- 
sults. During- the past week there has been finally constructed and 
tested what is known as a cataphoresis outfit, by which anaesthesia is 
produced by an electric current and a surface application of some of 
the well known local anaesthetics. The strong point in favor of the new 
method is that it will produce perfect local anaesthesia, or loss of feel- 
ing, without the loss of consciousness attendant upon the use of ether 
and chloroform. 
The little instrument that serves to bring about these results has 
been made by D. J. Hauss, E. E., for Dr. Paul R. Scudder, D. D. S. 
Numerous attempts have been made here in Cincinnati, as else- 
where, to produce anaesthesia by the employment of an electric cur- 
rent. It has been tried in many ways, not only with the direct appli- 
cation of the current, but also by the use of the electric current to 
carry an anaesthetic drug from the surface into the living tissue. This 
latter method has, in a degree, proven successful, and it is upon this 
theory that the cataphoresis machine has been perfected, 
It is a well known fact that an electric current will tend to carry 
substances from the positive pole to the negative. It is this principle 
that is used in electroplating, and it is the same' that is used in the 
apparatus in question. 2 
HOW IT IS DONE. 
All that is necessary to accomplish the desired results is that the 
patient who is to undergo an operation shall be charged with electri- 
city from the negative electrode of a battery. An application to the 
affected part, a tooth for example, is then made of cocaine or other 
drug, and the positive electrode, consisting in the case of the treat- 
ment of a tooth, of a needle, is then brought in contact with that part 
to which the drug is applied. The current then finishes the work by 
carrying the anaesthetic into the tissue or into the nerve of the tooth, 
rendering the nerve completely insensible. As long as the electricity 
is supplied the current will flow from the positive to the negative elec- 
trode and with it will be carried the drug to whatever extent may be 
desired. The effect will last, of course, according to the strength of 
the current, the time of application, the quantity of the drug used, and 
other conditions, it being entirely dependent upon such known quan- 
tities that with the successful regulation of the current the exact result 
of the application can be foreknown. 
Many experiments have been made along the line described, but 
something has always been in the way of an entirely successful out- 
come. In many experiments primary batteries have been tried for the 
production of the desired current, but this current has been found un- 
reliable and hence entirely unsatisfactory. Storage batteries have also 
been used, but a serious objection to them has been found in that 
changing or adding cells produces a momentary short circuit which 
injures the plates of a storage battery and is quite unpleasant to the 
patient. 
DIFFICULTY OVERCOME. 
It is here that the Cincinnati machine has overcome the difficulties, 
and has been presented as the first instrument that can be said to work 
satisfactorily. The short circuiting is overcome by the employment 
of a sliding rheostat which has a double contact and an interposing 
resistance between the two contacts, thus avoiding all the danger of a 
short circuit. 
The construction of the machine, as will be seen from the accom- 
panying cut, is very simple. The storage batteries are inclosed in a 3 
box, the cover of which is white marble. An ordinary hollow handle 
electrode is connected with the negative terminal. The positive elec- 
trode, in this case a dental instrument, is connected with a wire that 
is, in turn, connected with the water rheostat and thence with the 
positive terminal. There are the charging posts for the storage bat- 
teries within, and a sliding regulating contact, coming in contact 
with the brass knobs below it. The thumb-screw is used to regulate 
the water rheostat. The storage outfit consists of from six to eight 
cells, and the value of the water rheostat is that by the turn of the 
thumb-screw the dentist or physician is able to increase or decrease 
the current without the slightest pain or shock to the patient. In- 
deed, the operations of the entire apparatus are most perfect, and the 
quantity of the current is so slight that it cannot be felt by the pa- 
tient during application. 
THE APPARATUS AT WORK. 
As operated by Dr. Scudder with complete success, the electrode 
being placed in the hand of the patient, cocaine is introduced into or 
about the tooth to be treated. The platinum needle electrode is then 
applied and insensibly to the patient the current carries the powerful 
drug into the extremely sensitive dentine, or if the nerve is exposed, 
directly into the nerve. After a brief application the complete insen- 
sitiveness is found to last from 25 to 30 minutes, which is sufficient to 
allow the cutting away part of the dental work to be done, or the nerve 
to be taken out, if desired. 
While the application of the idea to surgical cases involves more 
care and trouble, it is believed that the preliminary experiments war- 
rant the justification of the belief that most of such operations can be 
performed by the aid of the cataphoresis-producing outfit. If a leg is 
to be amputated it is, of course, probable that the mode of rendering 
the patient unconscious will always be followed. In minor operations, 
however, there is the novel and maybe desirable possibility of having 
them performed while the patient remains in a conscious state. Some 
strong-nerved man may sit calmly by and see his own finger or hand 
cut off without being in the least inconvenienced by pain. This, how- 
ever remains to be accomplished by the wonderful apparatus. 
Physicians and electricians have been figuring and working on the 
perfection of the machine for some time. As before stated, partial 
success has been attained, and Dr. G. X. Heise, of Cincinnati, has 
done some good work with primary batteries. His success with such 
an outfit as this, however, was due to great care and close computa- 
tion, much more minute and delicate than is possible to be given 
every case. Mr. Hauss has been working on the plan for 
several months, and the ultimate success is realized to be one that is 
destined to revolutionize the general use of anaesthetics.-—Cincinnati 
Enquirer, JVor. 29, 1896.