'With the Compliments 
of the jfiuthor. 
ELECTRICITY 
AS A 
RESTORATIVE AGENT 
IN 
NARCOSIS AND ASPHYXIA. 
[Reprint from VIRGINIA MEDICAL MONTHLY, November, 1874.} 
JOHN J. CALDWELL, M.D., 
tfjnw» wu. w iti ghuriiii a ) 
-R A T.T IT! IMIID. 
P. O. BOX 699. ELECTRICITY 
AS A 
Restorative Agent in Narcosis & Asphyxia.* 
I propose in this paper to consider briefly the results of the 
electric current in the resuscitation of cases suffering from the 
poisonous effects of opium and other narcotics, as well as of 
suspended animation from drowning, &c. 
I would call the attention of practitioners to the necessity of 
greater care and caution in the restoration of suspended vital 
functions. And, in this connection, I beg leave to refer to 
some of the wonderful results of the application of electricity 
(faradism) in the accomplishment of such restoration; to the 
theory of the application of the current in these cases; and to 
the necessity of proper batteries and instruments being placed 
in all life-saving stations, police headquarters, hospitals, and 
other institutions; while I shall also briefly refer to the kind of 
battery most to be recommended in such cases. 
Case I.—ln the latter part of the summer of 1873, I was 
called, late in the night, to see a little child, Jennie C., suffering 
from a poisonous dose of laudanum. The messenger bore a 
note from her professional attendant, Professor Murray, of this 
city, stating that as he had exhausted all other means without 
benefit, he had concluded to try faradism, at the same time in- 
viting me to join him with my battery. We found the patient 
to be deeply narcotized from an accidental dose of laudanum, 
taken some twelve hours previously. 
The current was passed by placing the positive pole over the 
nerve at the angle of the sterno-cleido-mastoid 
muscle, whilst the the epigastrium. 
A powerful primary current was applied and continued for more 
*The Committee (Drs. Baiklej, Edgar and Frothingham) to whom this 
paper was referred at the late session of the American Medical Association, 
just prior to the adjournment of the Section, for such action as they might 
deem proper, returned the paper to the author with permission to publish. 3 
than three hours, with the happy result of complete restoration, 
encouraging and urging the respirations from eight or nine up 
to eighteen or twenty per minute, at which point the pupils be- 
came dilated, the pulse normal, and the sensorium capable of 
acknowledging the previous remedies. Hence vomiting and 
purging followed, and the patient’s life saved thereby. Here 
we present a typical case of profound narcosis, as well as the 
antidote. 
We were induced in this, as in many similar cases, to try the 
efficacy of the current from the interesting experiments made 
upon living rabbits, detailed by Dr. Wilson Phillip in his dis- 
sertations in the Philosophical Transactions at the London 
Academy of Science. In one instance, after incision in the 
neck, severing the pneumogastric, the parsley that had been 
eaten remained in the stomach undigested; and, after evincing 
much difficulty in breathing, the animal seemed to die of suffo- 
cation. In other rabbits, similarly treated, when the galvanic 
power was transmitted along the nerve, no difficulty of breath- 
ing occurred, though the voltaic action was kept up for twenty- 
six hours. The rabbits were then killed, and the parsley found 
in a perfectly digested state. Hence it appears that the gal- 
vanic energy is capable of supplying the nervous influence, so 
that, while under it, the stomach, otherwise inactive, digests 
food as usual. 
The same experiment was tried upon dogs, with like results— 
the battery current, however, never being so strong as to occa- 
sion painful shocks. 
Case ll.—On May 11th, 1874, I was summoned to the 
“Maryland Inebriate Asylum” to attend the case of an at- 
tempted suicide in the person of one of the inmates, who had 
taken a poisonous dose of opium. The usual remedies having 
been ineffectually resorted to by the accomplisned physician of 
the institution, Dr. Parrish, be requested my attendance, with a 
battery ready for use. We found the patient in an unconscious 
state. A faradic battery was applied about 3A. M., and con- 
tinued constantly in use until 7 A. M., during which time the 
respirations were increased from seven per minute to eighteen, 
with the same results as we had in the foregoing case. 
Case Hl.—Mr. S., aged 50, suffering from delirium tremens, 4 
with insomnia. Here, owing to complete alcoholism, every 
nerve centre of importance was terribly irritated, and, as a 
consequence, general agitation, with insomnia, prevailed. 
Faradism was applied, as in the former cases, but with this 
difference, that the poles were simply reversed, with the view of 
obtaining the sedative instead of the tonic effect of the current. 
After a few hours’ application I was enabled to subdue the irri- 
tation, so that this, with the use of large and frequent doses of 
digitalis, produced quietude, sleep, and healthier action of the 
emunctories. 
Case IY.—George, a colored boy, aged 80, was so frightened 
by his pursuers, that he threw himself off the dock into deep 
water. He was fished up after half an hour, apparently drowned, 
much to the alarm of the by-standers, who applied the usual 
means in such cases. A short time afterwards I was sent for, 
with the view of applying the current; but when I reached him, 
such was his condition that I had but slight hopes to encourage 
me, though, upon examination, I found some heat about the 
spinal cord and brain, and through these organs I applied a 
powerful secondary current for several hours. At length I dis- 
covered faint heart actions, with occasional sighs, which gradu- 
ally augmented, until at last the organs resumed their functions, 
and the patient was restored. 
I have no hesitancy in stating as my belief, that were these 
batteries generally recommended to be placed at life-saving sta- 
tions, &c., many of the apparently drowned could be saved— 
even after all semblance of animation has ceased, or even as 
long as there remains one spark of vitality and heat in the 
great centres. 
I would recommend the remarkably powerful battery now 
pretty generally used in the Navy, known as that of the Gal- 
vano-Faradic Manufacturing Company, Double-cell, Double- 
helix, Hard Rubber Battery. By it we can obtain the most 
gentle current, as well as one powerful enough to rend the mus- 
cles of an ox, possessing the widest range of application, and 
the most controllable current yet known in that division of elec- 
tricity termed faradism. 
Case V.—The following is extracted from the Virginia Med- 
ical Monthly, May, 1874, entitled “Resuscitation after thirteen 5 
and half minutes of apparent death:" “At a meeting of the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons, N. Y., March 11th, Dr. 
Lewis A. Sayre exhibited a string of beads, one of which had 
been taken from the trachea of a child seven years of age. *** 
She was relieved by tracheotomy. *** She coughed out the 
bead, gave one inspiration, and died. *** Alcohol was in- 
jected into the rectum, and the galvanic current passed through 
the phrenic nerve. *** She immediately rallied, and then 
had no further trouble.” 
Case Yl.—The following is a remarkable case of narcosis, 
which came under the charge of Ed. C. Harwood, M.D., of 
New York, and wrhich I found in the Medical and Surgical 
Reporter: An infant, aged 19 days, was thoroughly narcotized 
by the careless administration of morphia by the nurse. A 
faradic battery was brought into requisition. One pole was 
applied over the phrenic nerve and the other over the sterno- 
cleido-mastoid muscle. The current was kept up for several 
hours, with good results. 
Case Yll.—The following is from the Hospital Reports, 
Philadelphia, of a surgical olinique of Prof. W. H. Pancoast {Med. 
and Surg. Reporter, May 9th, 1874): The patient, a female, 
suffered so much, that on one occasion, about a month ago, 
while out on leave, she bought and used some morphine and 
chloral in a four ounce mixture, which, on investigation, was 
found to contain 120 grains of chloral and 8 grains of mor- 
phine. She fell into profound narcotism, from which she was 
aroused with the greatest difficulty. Dr. Miller was compelled 
to use the battery for fourteen hours, and saved her life. 
These are only typical cases, and I think will indicate that, 
of the many thousands of accidents or suicidal attempts through 
the agencies dwelt upon, life, in the great majority of cases, 
might be saved by the timely and scientific application of the 
current. 
This paper would be incomplete if I failed to refer to the 
electro-motor properties of the animal body, in order that we 
may have a clearer understanding of the changes produced by 
the action of the electric current on the various animal tissues. 
E. Du Bois-Reymond “was the first to succeed in demonstrat- 
ing the presence of specific muscle and nerve currents;, by the 6 
deflection of the magnetic needle;” and it was he, also, who 
ascertained that “if the nerve or muscle be excited by electric 
currents or by mechanical or chemical irritants, so that the first 
is rendered physiologically active, and the latter caused to con- 
tract, and then placed at two symmetrical points in connection 
with the galvano-multiplier, a less deflection of the needle is 
produced than when the nerve or muscle is in a quiescent state. 
This is called the negative variation of the current.” The con- 
clusion arrived at by Du Bois-Beymond was, that nerve and 
muscle contain innumerable positive and negative electric mole- 
cules, which move with great regularity throughout the tissue. 
Then, perchance, the power of electricity, in these cases, may 
he to restore the suspended electrical forces of the body to a 
normal condition, and thus re-animate the failing vitality. 
The toxic condition produced by chloroform may be remedied 
much in the same way; that is to say, by appealing to the vaso- 
motor centres through the pneumogastric axis. 
For experiments illustrating the influence of ancesthetics on 
the vaso-motor centres, permit me to extract briefly from a late 
and able paper by Drs. Bowditch and Minot, read before the 
Boston Society of Medical Science, and reported in the Boston 
Medical and Surgical Journal of May, 1874; 
“Anaesthetics in producing insensibility to pain accomplish 
such result by antagonizing the effects of irritation of sensitive 
nerves. One of the most constant physiological results of irri- 
tation of a sensitive nerve is a rise of arterial blood tension, 
due to a reflex stimulation through the vaso-motor centres of 
the muscular walls of the smaller arteries, especially those of 
the intestines. It is ascertained that in the majority of cases 
the rise of blood tension consequent upon the irritation of the 
saphenous nerve, is less marked when the animal is under the 
influence of ether than when the anaesthetic is not used.” 
The first object was to determine the effects of anaesthesia on 
this reflex rise of blood tension. This was accomplished in the 
following manner: 
An animal, being placed on the operating table in the supine 
position, a solution of curare was injected into the jugular vein, 
when paralysis ensued. When the respiratory movements ceased, 
the trachea was connected by means of a glass canula inserted into it with the apparatus for artificial respiration, which was so 
adjusted as to imitate, as closely as possible, the normal respira- 
tory rhythm. A canula was then placed in the carotid artery 
and connected with a mercury manometer, carrying a pen, by 
means of which the blood tension was recorded on a long strip 
of paper, which was kept in uniform motion by clock work. 
The saphenous nerve was then placed upon electrodes. 
The irritation of the nerve was produced by closing the cur- 
rents, by means of a key provided with a pen; thus recording 
the blood tension, which could be seen at a glance. After the 
anaesthetic had been administered, the nerve was again irritated. 
Then the blood tension was notably decreased, and so continued 
to be as long as these experiments were tried. 
But far more constant and obvious were the results obtained 
from chloroform. Here the irritation of the saphenous nerve 
caused a less marked rise in the blood—tension, and sometimes 
there was no rise whatever. 
These facts present to my mind the clearest evidence in favor 
of the electrical remedy in cases of deep chloroform toxaemia, 
and the propriety of having accessibility to a faradic instru- 
ment, complete and ready for immediate use, in chloroform ad- 
ministrations. It is also more than probable that electricity 
would be serviceable in many cases of still-birth. 
P. S.—Since the above was written, I have read the interest- 
ing report in The Baltimorean—an weekly paper pub- 
lished in this city—taken from the Yonker’s (N. Y.) Gazette, of 
a case of resuscitation from drowning by the galvanic battery, 
which occurred at Ocean Grove, Monmouth Co., N. J.: 
A youth, aged 17 years, while bathing, suddenly disappeared, 
and was beyond the aid of spectators or other bathers. “After 
awhile the tide drifted him ashore far below the place he was 
last seen, and he was taken up for dead, and a barrel made ready 
for the old process of resuscitation.” In a short time a female 
physician, Dr. Hastings, of Philadelphia, arrived with her bat- 
tery and applied the electric poles “to his stomach and back, 
thus contracting the muscles of the stomach, causing the water 
to pour from his mouth; then inflated his lungs, and injected 
stimulants and medicine into his bowels. When she first exam- 
ined the body, there was no heart-beat, no pulse, no circulation 8 
whatever. In less than an hour, she had caused an artificial 
circulation through the heart, and he breathed, and shortly after 
that was screaming for help with the agony of a drowning man. 
*** After six days he has been restored to his right mind, and 
is now able to walk about the house; but his memory of the 
event is gone, as much so as if his life had been entirely cut off. 
It is probable that after awhile, as strength returns and old as- 
sociations surround him, the memory of the fearful event will 
return.” 
Dr. Scheling reports in March No. New York Medical Jour- 
nal that, after several hours’ continued use of Dr. A. Murrey’s 
double-celled electrical apparatus, he succeeded in saving the 
life of a patient who had taken seven and a Aa{/jgrains of mor- 
phine. * 
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