II^HHmiv^I ,'r..^-:«si*.i NATIONAL LIBRARY OF NLM Q01227fl5 b ^ODQZQOQZ&OQZQ JQ w r&z ) I) i! jl Surgeon General's Office ^ K-rfo. N uon^tf-A G-^GaQ(XjX?0-GoaC-J3r^3Q^2gQ.Cg^' NLM001227826 *h -b Medical Static Electricity, ^rfKiAis ■ A-!-+(>* h TREATMENT NERVOUS AND RHEUMATIC AFFECTIONS Static Electricity. DR. A. ARTHIUS TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BV J. H. ETHERIDGE, M.D., Prefessor of General Therapeutics, Rush Medical College, Chicago. / K Ui CHICAGO: W. B. Keen, Cooke & Co, 033) n "W fr vrtg/l 1874. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by W. B. KEEN, COOKE & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PRINTED AT THE LAKESIDE PRESS, Clark and Adams sts., Chicago. NOTICE TO THE READER, The following translation was made from a de- sire to contribute to the literature of a subject, scarcely known to young American Physicians. The use of Static Electricity, in a primitive form, in treating diseases, was well known to medical men in this country, fifty years ago. The ap- plication of it, as recommended by the author, is wholly new. The "Fluidique bath," spoken of so frequently, means a bath of electric "fluid." No English word expresses the meaning of " fluidique," so the French adjective is retained. The translator is indebted to a friend for a copy of the original,— she having received it from a relative in Paris, who was cured of an obsti- nate nervous disorder by Dr. Arthius' new method. Chicago,, Dec. 26, 1873. INTRODUCTION. Static Electricity is destined to render most important service to the medical art. Of all the treatments of Nervous Diseases and Rheumatic Affections now in vogue, none is to be compared, for efficacy, to the electrical treatment, which we advocate. Still, we are the first to aver that Electro - therapy is yet in its infancy. From time to time great works have been ac- complished by our predecessors; it is but justice to state this. But the best of them fail singularly in method, and present, the rather, only gropings and brilliant experiments, instead of decisive con- quests. Like other things which have presented obstacles, Electricity has more than once discour- aged its adepts. Therefore, till this time, it has 10 INTRODUCTION. seemed to shine only with occasional brilliancy; and, in the estimation of many practitioners, it has not yet left the domain of empiricism. Many causes have conspired to this result, and chief among them has been the confounding of Dynamic and Static Electricities. Many a time have we received responses of this kind: " Do not urge it; I have already tried Electricity, but without success," Or else:— " Do not talk to me about Electricity; it is atrocious." To which we invariably respond:— "Try ours." "How about yours? Are there two kinds of Electricity, Doctor ? " "Oh, yes; there are two kinds of Electricity. One, called Dynamic, generated artificially, by piles; it is this which you have tried and found so lit- tle successful. The other, called Static, is gener- ated by simple friction, and is analogous to natural INTRODUCTION. 11 Electricity, contained in the air which we breathe; this is ours." Dynamic Electricity, as we shall show in this work, is often dangerous, rarely efficacious. The number of diseases it can cure is very limited. Produced by the chemical decomposition of met- als, attacked by powerful acids, it carries with it, into the organism, enough of their original elements to frequently cause great troubles. Nearly always the patient dreads it, and receives it only with reluctance. Static Electricity, on the contrary, our Electric- ity cannot in a single case be dangerous; even when it is not curative, it is beneficial. This is, preeminently, a regulator of the functions, a dis- penser of harmony, a distributor of equilibrium; and it introduces into the organism some foreign substances, in the fluidique form, which are only the medicaments designed by the physician, and appropriate to the malady which he wishes to combat. 12 INTRODUCTION. How many times have we not relieved, even cured, patients previously aggravated by the use of Voltaic Electricity? But what prejudices, what resistances to over- come, by the kindness of a deplorable ambiguity. The design of this book is to correct this. If it succeed, the author will never regret his trouble. TABLE of contents. CHAPTER I. PAGE. History of Medical Electricity. - - - 17 CHAPTER II. Inferiority of Dynamic Electricity—Its Dangers, 22 CHAPTER III. Static Electricity ; Operative Procedures, - 33 Electric Machine, 34 Insulator, - - - - - 38 Excitators, ----- 39 Electric Bath. - - - - 41 Absorption of Electricity by the Human Body, 49 Electric Currents, - - - - 52 Sparks and Electric Frictions, - - 55 Electric Douches and Pulverizations, - - 59 Natural Electric Currents, - - 60 Frictions — Shampooing, - - - - 60 Examination of the Patient, - - 61 14 TABLE OF CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. PAGE On Transport of Medicines by Static Electricity, 68 CHAPTER V. Medicines, ---... EXPERIMEMTS OF Dr. BURQ, ... CHAPTER VI. Clinical Observations, .... Epilepsy, - Paralysis with Aphasia, - Progressive Locomotor Ataxia, Rheumatism, .... Muscular Contractions, ... Rheumatism — General Innervation, Moral Prostra- tion, - Hysteria, .... Chorea, or St. Vitus' Dance, Neuralgias, - Facial Neuralgia, Intercostal Neuralgia, Sciatica, .... Gastralgia —Nervous Vomitings, 78 86 97 98 100 105 no 112 114 H5 "5 "7 "7 118 Ii8 119 TABLE OF CONTENTS. 15 PAGE Asthma — Pulmonary Emphysema, ... 122 Deafness, - - - - - - 125 Amaurosis, ...--. 128 Action of Static Electricity on Menstruation — Dysmenorrhcea, - - - - - 13° Chronic Diarrhoea, - - - - - 136 Incontinence of Urine, .... 138 Paralysis of the Bladder, ... Tonic and Recuperating Action of Static Electric- ity upon Enfeebled Subjects and Old People, 139 Hypochondria, ...--- 142 Hectic Fever, ..... 143 Pulmonary Phthisis, ... - - 143 MEDICAL static electricity. I. history of medical electricity. A few years after the discovery of the Elec- trical Machine, about 1744, Electricity began to applied to the treatment of diseases. Kruger, a professor in Helmstadt, first employed it as a cu- rative means, and the trials of it which he made were successful. Two years later, in 1746, when the effects of the Leyden Jar became familiar, a great terror was excited by it, suddenly, because of its very power. Herman - Klyn cured, by means of this apparatus, a woman, paralyzed two years; he carefully avoided strong discharges, and used only sparks and very slight electrical shocks. In 1748, Jallabert of Geneva, cured a patient with a 2 18 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. paralysis of the right arm, of long standing, fol- lowing a hemiplegia, produced by a violent fall. Jallabert made use of sparks and a few moderate shocks, and obtained a cure in two months. After these observers, came the Abbe Nollett, Privati, (of Venice,) etc., who studied the effects of Electricity on different diseases. Encouraged by the successes of these learned experimenters, Lindult, a Swedish physician, fol- lowed in their footsteps, and obtained, in 1753, a remarkable cure of chorea, or St. Guy's dance, at the same time that another practitioner cured a case of epilepsy, both grave and inveterate. Ten years later, in 1763, Doctor Watson cured a case of general tetanus, against which all the remedies, then vaunted against this terrible affec- tion, w^ere uselessly employed. Finally, a great number of remarkable cures having been described in the treatment of the most rebellious nervous diseases, Static Electricity definitely took the important place in medicine to which it is entitled. But at the end of the last century, in 1789, MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 19 Galvani made his grand discovery, and soon after- wards Volta invented the pile which bears his name. The power of the Voltaic machine much exceeded that of the primitive Electrical machine. Moreover the pile worked at all times, and seemed insensible to the atmospheric variations which sometimes paralyzed the action of the ordinary machine. In a word, a constancy of effect was obtained with the pile, such as was natural to give to it the preference, and it is this which really gave it (preference). Static Electricity was partly abandoned, and replaced by the con- tinuous currents. But the results were far from answering the general expectation ; the numerous experiments which were made in France, and at the same time in Germany, showed that the con- tinuous currents not only achieved cures much more rarely, but that they afterwards produced the most grave accidents. Nevertheless they were used up to 1832, a pe- riod in which Faraday, the illustrious English physician, discovered the currents by induction, and thus furnished to medicine a source of Elec- 20 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. tricity, energetic and of easy employment. In- duction currents entered immediately into thera- peutics, and were applied by the aid of two kinds of apparatus: one called the Electro-magnetic ma- chine ; the other, the Magneto-electric machine, ac- cording as the currents were induced by the direct currents of the pile, or by the magnet. For some years, piles, more manageable and constant than the early ones, having been discov- ered, the continuous currents were again used, to the detriment of induction currents, which are still much used.* To recapitulate, we use to-day in medicine two Electricities, absolutely different in their origin, in their physiological effects, and especially in their therapeutical results. The one, called Dy- namic Electricity, meaning Voltaic Electricity and Electricity by induction ; the other, Static, or Frictional Electricit}^. * Let us say, in passing, that the pile most used now, for pro- ducing continuous currents, is that of Ramak, of which each ele- ment, as every one knows, is composed of two metals, zinc and copper, and of two liquids, acidulated water (water and sulphuric acid) and a solution of sulphate of copper. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 21 Each of these electrical methods has its parti- sans and its adversaries. As to ourselves, we have pronounced vigorously in favor of Static Electric- ity, which gives the most happy results in diseases considered incurable, and which is always exempt from danger, even to the most delicate persons, such as females and the youngest children. We are engaged only in the employment of Sta- tic Electricity ; we see the great perfections it has received, and the immense services which it can render to medicine and humanity. But, having begun this study, it is necessary to explain why we prefer it to Dynamic Electricity ; we now pass on to say a few words of the inconveniences and the dangers which the use of the latter presents to our view. 22 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. II. INFERIORITY OF DYNAMIC ELECTRICI- TY: ITS DANGERS. The continuous currents are to-day quite the fashion, and in almost universal usage in the ap- plication of Medical Electricity. Extolled by specialists, they owe their efficacy to their very essence (continuity of action) and to their indif- ference to atmospheric conditions ; in all kinds of weather, in all seasons, the Voltaic currents act with uniformity, and it is known that their con- stancy never leaves the operator in default. But it must be immediately said, these currents derive their origin and power from chemical de- composition. Dynamic Electricity participates, necessarily, in the very elements which compose the generating pile. It is not the point of contact of heterogeneous MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 23 bodies which develops Electricity, but rather the chemical actions which take place in these bodies when they are put together. The quantity of Electricity developed by a pile depends, conse- quently, upon the power of chemical action, and upon the quality of the agents in decomposition. Hence, it is easy to understand all the disorders which can be produced in an organism as delicate as ours, all the corrosive currents, saturated with violent acids, which destroy everything, from flesh even to metals. The dangers of Dynamic Electricity are very great, and its use demands a particular prudence. Open the works of Dr. Duchenne (of Boulogne), of Drs. Onimus and Legros, the conceded apostles of this method, and you will see upon almost ev- ery page, the most alarming therapeutical results. It is by their own avowals that we establish the proof of what we say, and we are only embar- rassed for a choice in our citations. Every one knows the Voltameter (Fig. 1), an instrument used to decompose water by means of the pile ; that oxygen is carried to the positive 24 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. pole, and hydrogen to the negative pole, and that the volume of hydrogen is double the volume of oxygen. This decomposition of water by Voltaic Elec- FlG. I. tricity is capital, in that it shows that the currents in passing across a compound body, decompose it. If from this we arrive at the chemical effects upon the human body of the pile, we note the disorganization of the skin, an extremely painful morbid phenomenon; and if the application be MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 25 prolonged, we see all the symptoms of an acute inflammation rapidly supervening. In women and children, whose skin is finer than that of a man, the continuous currents, when they do not disorganize the skin, very often determine the ap- pearance of small vesicles, which leave after them a brown scar, very slow in disappearing, or give rise to furuncles, more or less obstinate. The surgeon utilizes this corrosive property of the continued currents, to break down living tis- sues and tumors of various kinds, as constrictions, polypi, cancers, etc. Doctors Malley and Tripier have often obtained, by this means, cures of ure- thral strictures. Doctor Tripier has, more than once, attributed to the action of continuous cur- rents, a notable reduction of the volume of the prostate in cases of hypertrophy of that organ. Professor Nelaton has cured, by the same means, a voluminous tumor of the nasal fossee. " This tumor," said this illustrious surgeon, "was very vascular, gave rise to haemorrhages by the least contact, and had been treated with the most ener- getic substances without success. It was broken 26 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. down in six sittings, by implanting the two elec- trodes in the mass." Thus, are the continuous currents able to disor- ganize tissues, and, moreover, by the decomposi- tion of metals and acids, which make up the pile, they introduce into the organism toxic elements, which can produce great troubles. We give only a few examples which have presented themselves within the past few years. M. Becquerel * cites a case of a young wo- man, to whom Dynamic Electricity was adminis- tered for neuralgia during the menstrual flow, and the latter was immediately checked. Doctors Onimus and Legros, f who confirm this fact, say that the continuous currents can, on the contrary, produce the opposite accident, i. e., haemorrhages, more or less grave. In a case of progressive locomotor ataxia, Doc- tor Onimus applied the continuous currents to the * " Treatise on the Applications of Electricity to Medical and Surgical Therapeutics." By Dr. Becquerel. i860. f "Treatise on Medical Elei^ricity." By Drs. Onimus and Legros. 1873. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 27 spinal cord. After a few sittings, the patient was suddenly seized with a spitting of blood. Doctor Onimus honestly says, " This patient never had an haemoptysis, and surely, although we may admit a coincidence, we easily believe that Electrization was the cause of this accident." In another patient, troubled with amaurosis, and treated by the same physician, epistaxis unexpect- edly supervened upon each Electrization. When the induction currents are employed, as was done by Doctor Duchenne, we expose our- selves to much the greatest dangers. Doctor Du- chenne reports an accident which happened to a patient whom he electrized for a right hemiplegia, supervening upon a cerebral haemorrhage, dating back two years and a half. " One day," says the author,* " as Electrization of the muscles of the face and tongue, upon the right side, was being practiced, with considerable force, the patient was seized almost immediately with a new apoplectic attack, which necessitated many bleedings." This accident which, according to the view of * " Localized Electrization." By Dr. Duchenne (of Boulogne). 1872. 28 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. the operator himself, had placed the patient's life in danger, is not an isolated instance ; it is, on the contrary, frequent, since, out of ten cases of facial hemiplegia, arising from cerebral causes, to which Duchenne had applied localized Faradization, cerebral phenomenon, more or less grave, have supervened upon the operation three times. When more delicate parts, as the optic nerve, for example, are acted on, still greater dangers are incurred. In his book, Doctor Duchenne cites an accident of this kind, in one of the patients, affected with paralysis of the muscles of one side of the face. "One day," he says, "as I was using the galvanic apparatus, and as I directed the current upon the paralyzed muscles, which contracted very feebly, the patient perceived at the same instant a considerable flame in the eye of the corresponding side, and he wrote : ' I see your room all on fire.' He besought me to sus- pend the operation. When he experienced again the dazzling occasioned by the same strong exci- tation of the retina, he complained of considera- ble trouble of vision, and perceived that he could MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 29 not see any more, on the side where the operation was carried on. The eye of the opposite side did not seem to have suffered. I made him take a foot bath immediately; when he was taken home a blood-letting was performed. But his vision did not improve ; in spite of the employment of a series of excitant means, and a rational treatment not the least amendment was obtainable. Vision remains considerably impaired." We can multiply infinitely our citations, but have we not already said enough to show how we ought to be reserved in the use of Dynamic Elec- tricity ? Far be from us the thought to reject it in a per- emptory manner, yet it is a violent, painful, dis- turbing means, and so rarely efficacious that it ought to be confined to the treatment of a few surgical affections, and to certain paralyses of the limbs, where a violent excitation is not to be feared. But when it acts upon delicate organs, when, particularly, it has to do with nervous affections, which need soothing and restraining, not only 30 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. does Dynamic Electricity do no good, but it may lead to the greatest dangers. Finally, let us note the accidents of what Doc- tor Duchenne calls Electrization, or localized Far- adization. First, let us say, in passing, that we are very far from admitting the localization of the electric current in any particular part of the body. This localization does not and cannot exist, what- ever be the electrical proceeding which we employ, or the part to which it may be applied; quite to the contrary, in all cases and always, the nervous centers are influenced. How can we think to im- pose limits to an agent so subtile, so expansive as the electric fluid ? We do not deny that Doctor Duchenne can contract, individually, each muscle, or each muscular fasciculus, by holding, very closely, humid rheophores placed over points of the skin corresponding to the surface of the mus- cle on which he wishes to act. But the muscular contraction is the coarse fact, and it is evident that the nerves of the part wdiich is electrized are influenced by the electric current, and transmit, immediately, the influence which they have re- MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 31 ceived to the nervous trunk and to the nerve centers themselves. And the proof is what Doc- tor Duchenne observes, " that localized Faradiza- tion occasions the flashes, the sensation of weak- ness, the general numbness, the nausea, the vomiting, the troubles of circulation and respira- tion, even when the operation, very gently per- formed, does not produce a single local sensation." It would be easy for us to cite a certain number of accidents, developed by Doctor Duchenne while he practiced Faradization of certain muscles, but cui bono ? Does not Doctor Duchenne, while he speaks of the general effects of localized Electri- zation, sufficiently refute himself by the very terms he uses ? Finally, it is this which especially concerns pa- tients who demand only one thing, a cure for their ills, that the therapeutic results of Dynamic Electricity leave much to be desired. In order to be convinced, it suffices to open the special works which have appeared recently, and we are con- vinced that the number of cures is most limited. Excepting certain paralyses, upon which we have said Voltaic Electricity has a particular action, it 32 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. is wholly inefficacious in most of the nervous dis- eases. It never produces the good results in those numerous cases where, from some cause, the or- ganism is enfeebled and needs, not a violent exci- tant, but a potent restorer, which Static Electrici- ty alone can furnish. Many a time have we obtained, by our method, in a few months, sometimes in a few weeks, cures of affections which, for years, had been ineffica- ciously treated by induction currents, and by con- tinued currents ! Let us pass on to the study of Static Electricity, generated by friction, which derives nothing from chemical decompositions, and which is subject ever to the conditions of the atmosphere in which it acts. Thanks to the perfections which it has received, Static Electricity answers to all the ther- apeutical needs of the diseases which are in this department, also of those that it cures the most frequently; and we affirm, without fear of con- tradiction, even in those very rare cases where it does not radically cure, it always relieves and ame- liorates, in a singular manner, the general state of the patient. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 33 III. static electricity. OPERATIVE PROCEDURE. From the earliest applications of Electricity down to our day, Static Electricity has received modifications and improvements without number. It certainly would not be without interest to fol- low it from its commencement, and see the phases through which it has passed, down to our day; but it would be foreign to our design, and more- over, the subject is of sufficient importance to deserve being the object of a separate work, which we shall publish at some future time. We are contented to expose the method, such as it is to-day, i. e., with all the additions, the modifications, and the improvements, which it has received from all those who have studied it. 3 34 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. But being obliged to know the different pro- ceedings, by the aid of which Medical Electricity is administered, it is necessary to say a word about the apparatus which produces it. ELECTRIC MACHINE. The Electric Machine is composed, First, of a plate of glass, of a greater or less diameter, held vertically by means of an axle, to which a crank communicates, as desired, a rotary movement; Second, of two pairs of cushions, covered with a skin, coated with mosaic gold (deuto - sulphide of tin), or with the oxide of gold, which press the plate between them, and are in communication with the ground, the common reservoir; Third, lastly, of a metallic conductor, isolated by means of a support of glass, and terminated by the side of the plate, and very near to it, by points more or less numerous. When the crank is turned, the glass plate, by its friction upon the cushions, becomes charged upon its two surfaces by vitreous or positive elec- MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 35 tricity, w^hile the resinous or negative electricity covers the cushions and passes away to the ground by the communicating metallic chain. The positive electricity which remains upon the glass then decomposes the neutral fluid of the conductor; it draws the negative electricity and repels, in the conductor, the positive electricity, which becomes free, and is diffused upon its sur- face. It is this positive fluid which the patient receives. A great number of Electric Machines exist, but not one, it must be said, gives all that science has the right to demand of it. Since Medical Elec- tricity has remained, to a certain extent, in its infancy up to the present time, it is certainly not strange that it has imperfect machines. Let us now briefly describe the one which has, to us, seemed to give the best results. The form ought to be as simple as possible; that which Doctor Beckensteiner has adopted seems to us to be one of the best. The diameter of the plate is about 80 centimetres (about 284 inches); with a wheel (plate, circular,) of this MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 37 dimension, we have a sufficiently powerful ma- chine, and one that answers all the needs of prac- tice. But the part of most importance is the metallic conductor. In all machines this piece is, without exception, of copper. When we come to explain the phe- nomena of transport it will be easily understood what an enormous error our predecessors commit- ted. They believed in transport, but did not see that it takes place not only from the excitator (or excitor), but from the source (i. e., from the ma- chine). A person who is upon the insulator receives gold from the excitator—if the excitator used be of gold — and copper from the machine. How, in most cases, can one derive benefit from such a melange, and hope for a complete result from such a proceeding ? There are some practitioners who connect the patient with the machine by means of a silver spiral. Far from lessening the inconvenience which we point out, they increase it still more, for in place of two different influences, the patient is subjected to a third one at the same time — gold, silver, and copper. 38 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY, Does not what we speak of appear, in this res- pect, very evident, that the conductor from the machine, which stores up the Electricity, and which communicates it to the patient, ought always to be of the same metal as the excitator used ? There should be as many conductors as excitators. When, for example, the disease calls for the use of gold, the excitator, the conductor, and the tube of communication ought to be of gold. In a word, the excitator, the conductor from the ma- chine, and the tube of communication ought always to be of the same nature. INSULATOR, OR ELECTRIC STOOL. The insulator, or electric stool, is only a broad oak plank, the angles of which are rounded; it rests upon four glass feet, a little elevated, and covered with a varnish coating of gum lac, to ren- der the insulation more complete. The insulator ought to be large enough to hold a chair, upon which the patient sits. (See Figs. 2 and 5.) In very damp weather a part of the Electricity MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 39 escapes upon the surface of the glass feet, and is lost in the earth. To obviate this inconvenience, Bertholon* contrived wrhat he called " a method of double insulation," which consists in placing each glass foot of the insulator in a goblet of the same substance. There is another proceeding which insulates still more completely: the feet of the chair upon which the patient is seated are placed in goblets of glass, and on the front part of the insulator a glass plate is placed, large enough to allow the patient to put his feet upon it. In this way the Electricity cannot escape to the earth. Finally, a third proceeding consists in covering the whole of the insulator with a sheet, rather thick, of hardened caoutchouc. EXCITATORS. The instrument called an excitator is a simple rod of metal or wood, with a point at one end and a ball at the other. The point gives the cur- * " Electrizing the Human Body in a State of Health and of Disease." 1780. 40 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. rent and the ball the sparks. The material of the excitator varies according to the disease which is treated. Fig. 3. When the physician operates, while he himself is insulated, which is preferable in a great number of cases, the form of the excitator ought to be Fig. 4. modified. The middle of the rod (Fig. 4), i. e., the part AB, is of glass, and upon its two extrem- ities, at A and B, are soldered the metallic parts. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 41 Beyond, near the points A and B, at O, is found a little hook, to which is attached the chain K, which connects the excitator with the ground. The metal of this chain ought to be of the same nature as that of the excitator. The chain K, is seen to pass through the ring at the end of the glass rod, held in the left hand of the operator. This little instrument has no other object than to keep the chain from the side of the insulator, for contact would prevent all phenomena. ELECTRIC BATH. By this term is meant a purely fluidique bath, and not a liquid bath, such as is in usage in Dy- namic Electricity. The Voltaic bath is simply an ordinary bath, the water of which is in communi- cation with one of the rheophores of an induction apparatus, or of a powerful pile, while the other rheophore is applied upon some part of the body above the water, the shoulders, for instance. This bath, to which from the first, has been attributed a certain efficacy, does not possess, as has been since discovered, any curative virtue. 42 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. In our fluidique bath, the patient is dressed, seated upon the insulator, is put in communica- tion with the machine by means of a metallic tube (Figs. 2 and 5). As soon as the wheel i's put in motion the patient feels that he is inundated with the fluid (electric) from head to foot; he is plunged in the electric fluid as a fish is in water. The hair is disturbed, the respiration becomes more free, and an agreeable sensation pervades the whole body. All physicians who have studied Static Elec- tricity, have observed that the fluidique bath induces an acceleration of the pulse. Moreover, it enjoys important peculiarities: it is singularly calmant, eases the respiration, develops animal heat, augments cutaneous transpiration, makes more active the urinary secretion, disperses ner- vous irritations, gives tone to the whole organism, increases the vital forces, and augments the ener- gy of absorption. In a word, it excites and facil- itates the play of all the functions. The well- being which it instantaneously procures, causes those who have once experienced it to wish for a repetition of its beneficent effects. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 43 The fluidique bath is a curative means, very efficacious and at the same time very mild. It is by this that we always commence the treatment of a patient, whatever his trouble may be, by ad- ministering, for a few days, the fluidique bath, before passing on to more active means ; and in proceeding thus, with prudence, we need never fear the least inconvenience. " The electric bath," says Mauduyt, " serves to sound, as it were, the temperaments of patients, and to lead to avoiding every accident." Electricity augments animal heat. This fact has been put beyond a doubt by the experiments of Jellabert, Sigand de Lafond, Franklin, etc., who have seen the mercury rise several degrees in thermometers placed in the axillae, during Elec- trization. Every one, without exception, acknowl- edges an augmentation of heat at the end of each sitting; in some is produced a moderate degree of sweating, while in others most copious sweatings supervened. For this reason, patients ought never to expose themselves to the air immediately after an electrization, but should delay going out at least ten minutes. 44 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. In view of the facts which we have produced, of which the truth can be easily confirmed, we have been not a little astonished to see that M. Duchenne affirms " that Static Electricity affects neither the internal organs, nor the pulse, nor the secretions, nor the intellectual functions, nor the respiration, and that it is to - day abandoned, its therapeutical value being as little appreciable as its physiological action." We can only believe that a savant of Doctor Duchenne's value can have written these words in a partisan spirit, and solely to give strength to the cause of Dynamic Electricity. We prefer to think that he found it easier and more convenient to simply repeat the words of Giacomini, who ex- perimented in this very manner. In the two large and learned volumes which he has published on localized Electrization, Doctor Duchenne devotes scarcely four pages to Static Electricity. It is true that every word is an error, and on this account perhaps he has done well to remain so reserved. On one point, however, he is quite right, and MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 45 we are happy to be in accord with him once; it is when he speaks of the danger of producing vio- lent commotions (in the body) from repeated dis- charges of the Leyden Jar. We partake of the fears of Doctor Duchenne. But he will allow us to tell him that it is a long time since the use of shocks from the Leyden Jar were used. In 1819, a distinguished Paris physician, Doctor Pascalis, who used Static Electricity with great success, said, " It is known that simple electrization by baths, brush, and sparks answer much better to the medical views demanded, than more violent shocks.'' * For our part, it is scarcely necessary to say that we have always expressly condemned the use of the Leyden Jar. Singularly enough, after having so disdainfully banished Static Electricity from therapeutics, Doc- tor Duchenne says, " It is assuredly incontestable that Static Electricity which, for so many years was used exclusively in practical medicine, has * " Memoir on Electricity." By Dr. Pascalis. 1819. 46 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. accomplished cures, bordering, in appearance, on the marvelous." * Farther along, as if this general avowal was in- sufficient, he says, " Static Electricity has cured chorea or St. Guy's dance, and a large number of nervous and paralytic affections." f What do we think of these contradictions ? Happily, all the physicians who make use of Dy- namic Electricity are not so severe on Static Elec- tricity as Doctor Duchenne ! In his learned work,$ Doctor Tripier, who daily used Dynamic Electric- ity, says " Static Electricity offers resources too much neglected in our day." A few pages farther on, in speaking of the operative procedures, he says " These procedures are well nigh completely abandoned; there is in it (Static Electricit}'), however, such as the electric bath, the electriza- tion by needles, the souffle, that which cannot be supplied by any equivalent procedure, and before being banished from therapeutics, an ex- * " On Localized Electrization," page 7. \ Ibid. Pages 204 and 211. % " Manual of Electro-Therapy." By Doctor Tripier. 1861. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 47 perimental study should be again entered into, to learn its effects,." Here is certainly scientific lan- guage, which consoles for certain sharp and erro- neous affirmations. How ought communication to be established between the patient and the machine ? All physicians who have preceded us have es- tablished this communication by means of a metal- lic spiral, terminating in a ring, held in the hand of the patient. After having used successively the spiral and the tube, we give decided prefer- ence to the latter. It offers a considerable more surface, and, the quantity of electricity being in direct proportion to the surfaces, an abundance of electricity thus reaches the patient. We should see to it well that the tube is very smooth, so that no escape can possibly take place into the atmos- phere, by any roughness whatever. It ought, moreover, to be encased in a glass tube, especially in wet weather. Lastly, it should always be of the same nature as the excitator and the conductor of the machine. Whether the spiral or the tube be used, it is 48 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. very important to determine exactly the part of the body which should be directly in communica- tion with the machine. Experience has demonstrated that the electric current ought always to be directed from the or- igin to the termination of the nerves; from the head, or the spinal cord, to the extremities. Now let it be understood that, in placing the ring in communication with the hand of the patient, we give to the current a direction wholly opposite to that which it ought to have; that is to say, it is made to pass from the termination of the nerves towards the nervous centers, when this is contrary to what it should be. Consequently, we have two opposite currents — the current from the machine, and that from the excitator. We should endeavor to make them act in the same way, and this is the way we proceed : We substitute for the terminal ring a small plate of the same metal as the tube, about five centimetres long, by three wide. This plate, instead of being held in the hand, is placed upon the nucha, on a level with the upper cervical vertebra ( Figs. 2 and 5). MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. . 49 The current thus reaches, directly, the nervous centers, and passes thoroughly over the nerves from their origin to their termination. The cur- rent from the machine, and that from the excita- tor, consequently act in the same way. ABSORPTION OF ELECTRICITY BY THE HUMAN BODY. Before proceeding to detail the method of ad- ministering Static Electricity to patients, it is important to say a word of the manner'in which it penetrates our organisms. The body of man absorbs, sucks up, as it were, the electric fluid through all its pores, which open upon its surface. These pores, through which passes the product of cutaneous transpiration, are, in truth, very small; but the molecules of which the elec- tric material is composed have the least imaginable diameter. " They have," says Bertholon, " a tenu- ity, at the least, equal to that of the atoms of light itself, a fluid the subtilty of which is beyond all imagination. Moreover, these pores afford a very easy entrance to more dense bodies, as mercury, 4 50 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. and, in general, all pharmaceutical preparations." It is through the pores that the electric fluid is transmitted to the depth of the various organs and the more delicate organic structures. It is in this way also that the infinitely small particles, which escape from the excitators and to which Electric- ity serves as a vehicle, are carried into our organ- isms. The pores of the surface of the body are not the only channel which allow Electricity to penetrate our econo'my. It also has the lungs, which, with each inspiration, receive either the simple electric fluid, like that obtained in the electric bath, pro- ducing around the patient an electric atmosphere which penetrates the lungs as ordinary air; or (receive) the medicated electric fluid as when the point of the excitator is directed to (into) the open mouth. The electric fluid, charged or not with medicated principles, reaches, the same time as the air, the bronchial vesicles, to pass into the vascular system and commingle with the blood and thus to circulate throughout the whole body. By this operation the patient perceives a* taste MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 51 of metal very pronounced, which is wholly accord- ing to the excitator. As to his expiration, it has a metallic odor so strong that persons around him can perceive it at a great distance. Every one will be impressed as we were by the powerful and novel auxiliary afforded by the elec- tric current. All physicians resort almost exclu- sively to the stomach as the agent of transmission, in the organism, of chosen medicaments. Whether the dose be infinitesimal or large it is always addressed to it (the stomach). We thus fatigue deplorably the essential organ of life, the mar- vellous crucible wherein the great phenomenon of digestion takes place, and soon worn out, it func- tionates only imperfectly and becomes the seat of those affections which have upon the whole econ- omy an effect so fatal. This imperious necessity of sparing as much as possible the stomach, has imposed itself for a long time upon science ; numbers of physicians have sought for other means of absorption. In thoracic troubles, for example, instead of confin- ing medicine to the stomach it is generally agreed 52 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. to carry them directly to the laryngeal and bron- chial mucous membrane by the aid of pulveriza- tions. The skin is also often used, since more than one celebrated specialist can affirm, that, very often, in syphilitic affections, he has obtained much better results in using mercurial inunctions than in ad- ministering mercury by the stomach, as is gener- ally done. Static Electricity utilizes at once the principal means of absorption, the stomach, the skin and the bronchi. ELECTRIC CURRENTS. To produce a very perceptible electric current it is sufficient to bring near to the patient, seated on the insulator, the point of the excitator held at a few centimetres distant. (Figs. 2 and 5.) The patient then experiences the sensation of a breeze, cool or lukewarm according to the nature of the excitator and according as the organ, to which the current is directed, is sound or diseased. If the excitator, instead of terminating in a sin- 54 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. gle point is terminated by a metallic plate, upon which is implanted a greater or less number of points we obtain a current much more soft to which the name " Electric Souffle " has been given. First and foremost, it will be thought that the more points there are the stronger the current ought to be : it is quite the contrary because the force of the current is divided into as many parts as there I Fig. 6. are points, and the action of each is enfeebled by that the neighboring ones exercise upon it. Be- sides its mildness, this instrument offers another advantage, in that it occupies a larger space and embraces at the same time a whole region. Let us say once for all, that the currents, as frictions and sparks, ought always to be directed from above downwards, and always, also, in the exact direction of the nerves and the diseased muscles. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 55 SPARKS AND ELECTRICAL FRICTIONS. If, instead of the point, we bring near to the patient the round part of the excitator, we obtain a spark more or less strong, according to the dis- tance, but always without shock. The excitator is then removed in order to give to the conductor and the patient time to become recharged with the fluid, and in approaching the bulb (of the excita- tor) a new spark is obtained. The sparks induce slightly the sense of stinging, of heat and of contraction of the muscles, elec- trized. They agree especially in cases of paraly- sis, of feebleness, of atony, of numbness, and act as a dissolvant of certain engorgements and of certain tumors. If we cover with flannel a part of the body in such a way that the flannel is applied so exactly as not to form a single wrinkle, and then gently bring to this part so covered the bulb of the exci- tator, we experience a gentle heat and a prickling resulting from a multitude of small sparks which flash between the flannel and the bulb of the exci- 56 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. tator. This method of Electrization is called elec- tric friction, and gives, in many cases, the best re- sults. Manduyt, who has often made use of this means, has by it secured very good effects. It is to Dr. Masars de Cazales that we are indebted for this excellent procedure. Instead of covering the diseased parts we can lay them bare and develop with flannel the bulb of the excitator. This pro- cedure is even superior in some cases to the pre- ceding, because it allows us the better to follow the course of the nerves and muscles. We cannot too often repeat that, in order to obtain a strong friction, the external clothing should be of woolen or of silk. Cotton and linen being too good conductors do not allow the con- venient practicing of this operation. When we wish to subject to the influence of the electric current certain cavities, as the mouth, the ear, etc., it is sufficient to present to the opening the point of the excitator. But if it is necessary to have recourse to sparks and to penetrate deeply, this is the method of procedure : We take a glass tube, very thick, and varnished with shellac, with MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 57 a small metallic rod passing through it, the two extremities of which projecting beyond the tube are terminated by bulbs. When, as represented in the figure, we wish to electrize the ear in a case of deafness ; the patient seated upon the insula- Fig. 7. tor, takes in his hand the glass tube and pushes one of the bulbs deeply into the ear, while the operator, by the aid of the ordinary excitator, causes a spark to flash from the other bulb. This spark is immediately reproduced at the other ex- tremity, that is to say, between the bulb intro- duced into the ear and the portion of the ear to 58 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. which it corresponds. This latter bulb should be very small so as to penetrate as far as possible and reach very nearly to the tympanic membrane. All the operations which precede, and all those which follow, are to be practiced, as we have said, while the patient is upon the insulator and the physician upon the ground (or floor). In certain cases it is preferable to reverse these positions, i.e., to have the physician upon the insulator and the patient on the ground (or floor). The electric fluid which he receives seems more gentle to him, and certain authors, among them Cavello,* a cel- ebrated English physician, give preference to this procedure, and aver that they have by this means obtained the greatest advantages. There are some cases where this is the only pro- cedure that can be used ; it is when the patient is in bed and it is impossible for him to leave it. The physician then mounts the insulator and elec- trizes the patient in bed. It is true that we can insulate the bed by means of glass feet, but this is too long and inconvenient. *" Complete treatise on Electricity." By Cavello. 1785. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 59 ELECTRIC DOUCHES. —PULVERIZATIONS. In certain affections, generally those affecting the organ of vision, as conjunctivitis, blepharoph- thalmia, etc., appropriate collyria are of great effi- cacy. We have many a time confirmed that if, to the peculiar properties of a collyrium, the action Fig. 8. of Electricity be added, we obtain a much more rapid cure. To practice this little operation we make use of a hollow glass excitator, the extrem- ity of which terminating in a point, is provided with a capillary opening, traversed by a wire of platinum, the least oxydizable of the metals. The aperture is thus almost completely closed. The collyrium is turned into this apparatus, the extrem- 60 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. ity of which is presented before the diseased part. We immediately see formed by the action of the electric current a liquid spray, flowing (passing) in the form of extremely fine sprinkling, which constitutes a veritable electric douche. (Fig. 8.) In certain affections which will be spoken of farther on, we have very frequently employed with advantage the pulverization of a medicated solution administered by the aid of a pulverizator to the diseased part made bare, while the patient is in communication with the machine. NATURAL ELECTRICAL CURRENTS.— FRICTIONS.— SHAMPOOING. Electric friction, we have seen, is determined by the bulb of the excitator directed upon differ- ent parts of the body. We can obtain the same phenomenon by using the hand alone. In these cases the operator places his hands lightly upon various parts of the body of the subject seated on the insulator. Both experience tingling, which are not at all painful either to the one or to the other. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 61 If it take place, or if the patient is too irrita- ble, the hand of the operator acts at a distance and frictions are replaced by currents analagous to those produced by the metallic points, but stronger than they are. The currents, which we may call natural electrical currents, since they are produced directly by the hands and without the aid of the intervention of any instrument possess quieting properties very pronounced. By their use we have many a time quieted pains most vio- lent and rebellious, and among others the shooting, atrocious pains peculiar to progressive locomotor ataxia. Finally, another operation can be made, yet more directly, with the hands upon the electrized patient — this is the shampooing, practised as the ordinary shampooing, with this difference, that it is not always necessary to remove the clothing. EXAMINATION OF THE PATIENT. We invite the attention of all our confreres to the two following axioms : 62 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 1st. Whenever a man is suffering, the electric fluid ceases to pass uniformly in his organism ; 2d. Electricity from the machine is always without effect or is sensibly modified by the place or seat of any disease whatever. It is unnecessary to insist upon the physician understanding, by this aid, what an assistance he has in establishing a diagnosis. In a crowd of latent diseases, of equivocal seat, electricity accu- rately points out the organ affected, and the prac- titioner has only to demand of science the malady which affects the patient. Of all the regions of the body the vertebral column is the one where the trouble in the electric currents shows itself in the most sensible manner. Before proceeding, it is necessary to examine the way in which it is affected by Electricity. With the electric bath, nothing is easier. While the patient is in communication with the machine, the physician gently brings near to the different parts of the body the bulb of the metallic excitator, and observes attentively the places which remain insensible, rebellious to all excitation. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 63 Dr. Beckensteiner* ordinarily uses his hand in this exploratory operation. He carries it along the back, from the upper cervical vertebrae to the * sacrum, mildly and lightly. By this contact the physician and patient both perceive the slightest prickling in the sound parts and none at all in the diseased parts. In this case the hand produces the same effect as the bulb of the excitator, but its action is perhaps more delicate Let us cite only two examples, in order the bet- ter to comprehend the importance of the part played by Electricity in establishing a diagnosis. In progressive locomotor ataxia it is in vain that the operator solicits vibrations in all the inferior part of the vertebral column. And in pulmonary phthisis not only will insensibility of certain points ' of the spine be constant, but a sensation of heat, very marked, will point out the region of the chest the most directly affected. Physicians of the last century nearly always in- sulated themselves when administering Electricity. However, they understood the method of non- * " Practical Electricity," 2 vols., by Dr. Beckensteiner. 1859. 64 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. insulation and of using it sometimes. To cite only one case: — Bertholon relates that he caused an alopecia to be cured, which was induced by a long and grave sickness, by directing upon the head of the subject currents produced solely with the hand. As to ourselves, we think that it is much better that the physician be isolated, and wholly without the circle of action. In this way the Electricity which reaches the patient is more direct, more pure, and ought, consequently, to produce the best results, as we have many a time proven, hav- ing; often made comparison of the two methods. We have exhibited in this chapter the different methods of using Static Electricity in the treatment of diseases. We will detail farther on procedures applicable to this or that case. We only wish now to well establish what we have many times hinted at before, that it must be used, if we desire to succeed, with the greatest prudence, and never to pass to a stronger use of it when we perceive MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 65 that a feebler one suffices. It is always bad to have recourse to a vigorous treatment when a mild one answers our purpose. We cannot do better than to reproduce the law laid down by Manduyt.* " If Electricity is a remedy, it should, like all other remedial agents, be administered in a degree proportional to the necessities of the case, to the temperament, to the constitution of the patient to be electrized ; without which we run a risk, either of using the Electricity to a degree too feeble to have any action upon the disease, or of using it to a degree so violent as to excite in the animal econ- omy a new trouble, in addition to the one already existing." It is now well to repeat here an observation, made by Dr. Thillaye,f of great importance, and which ought always to be present in the minds of physicians who use our method : " It generally seems that the more we commence * " Memoirs upon the different Manners of Electrization." 1778. f " Essay upon the Medical Employment of Electricity and Galvanism." By Dr. Thillaye. 1803. 5 66 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. to administer Electricity with force, the quicker do we reach a state of amelioration to which we can add no more. While in advancing more slowly we have the benefit of approaching a cure more slowly and often even of accomplishing it." Finally, let us say that all physicians who suc- cessfully use Static Electricity agree in asserting that we must continue the use of it a long time in order to obtain a complete cure. When the disease is recent it disappears rapidly, but in combating chronic affections, against which all things have been uselessly employed, it takes a long time and firm perseverance. Often have we seen patients who, for a considerable length of time—two, three, and even four months — ap- parently resisting our treatment, finally yield and become quickly cured. However it is with elec- tricity as with many other remedies, which in chronic affections show their effects only with - time. Besides, it is not to be forgotten, that pa- tients do not demand the aid of Electricity until after having tried, without a single benefit, all the MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 67 resources of other treatments,— a condition very disadvatageous to a speedy cure. All these considerations should engage the at- tention of the patient as well as that of the phy- sician, so as not to discourage too promptly, as has frequently happened, to the one and to the other. 68 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. IV. ON THE TRANSPORT OF MEDICINES BY STATIC ELECTRICITY. Electricity, as we said in the preceding chapter, carries with it the molecules of substances which it traverses to transmit them to the patient, whom we are thus able to cause to absorb by the skin and the lungs all utilizable agents in medicine. This phenomenon, as is easily comprehended, is < of extreme importance and discovers to the healing art a horizon wholly new. It is necessarily indis- pensable to establish this by certain indubitable proofs. Physicians of the 18th century who applied static electricity to the cure of diseases were not slow to note that the intensity and action of the current varied with the nature of the excitator. Thus they used excitators of different materials, MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 69 according to the affection which they wished to combat. M. Privati, of Venice, is the first to point out the carrjdng of medicines by means of Electricity. His experiments date back to 1747. He verified the action of certain remedies on the system which were held in the hand by the patient as he was electrized. He claims to have purged many persons while they held during electrization pur- gative substances. Unfortunately he exaggerates the value of this fact (process) and falls into the error of maintaining that odoriferous bodies sealed in hermetically tight tubes of glass and electrized by friction diffuse their odor by traversing the pores of the glass, and produce the same effects as though administered internally. Privati claims to have secured by this means rapid cures of diseases of long standing; but we are forced to conclude that these cases ought to be accredited solely to the action of electricity ; glass being a non-conductor of Electricity can not conduct elec- tricity to other bodies, as it can be conducted to it by friction. Privati experimented under unfavor- 70 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. able auspices, with defective apparatus, and the results which he claims to have attained do not merit ordinary confidence. But it is nevertheless true that he is the first who showed the important phenomena of transport. Medical electricity has daily, since the experi- ments of Privati, undergone improvements, and the physicians who came after him used as excita- tors substances which varied with the disease they desired to cure. So Manduyt proved that, in the treatment of amaurosis, the currents generated with a wooden point succeeded better than those obtained by the aid of a metallic point. But it is only within recent years that transport has been established upon well-grounded, mathe- matical proof, so to speak. M. Becquerel (Treatise on Electricity and Mag- netism, 1835) expresses himself thus in the chap- ter where he treats of the transport of ponderable substances by electric discharges: " When the electric current traverses metallic wires, and if the tension be sufficient, it melts, MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 71 volatilizes and eventually disperses them : but how is this phenomena accomplished ? Are the pon- derable particles carried by virtue of the reciprocal affinity between them and Electricity? Observa- tions, made by M. Fusinieri, will some day settle this question. " This physician has observed that a spark which traverses the air, in passing, from a conductor of brass, carries with it some brass in a state of fusion and some incandescent particles of zinc. When it leaves a knob of silver it bears with it some sil- ver in a state of fusion: but if it traverses a plate of copper, the silver is carried through that metal, which it perforates to the thickness of many cen- timetres, if the passage from one surface to the other be effected obliquely; one portion of the silver then remains imprisoned in the opening which it has made in the copper and the other portion penetrates the body of the excitator placed at the other side. " Gold transported by the spark behaves in the same way with reference to silver wire which it traverses. One part of the gold remains in the 72 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. silver and spreads itself upon both surfaces, in the form of round flakes, so very thin that they dis- appear in a short time. " In these transports there is a reciprocity of action ; that is to say, that if the spark flashes forth between the silver and the copper, there is a transport of silver to the copper and of copper to the silver. When the spark leaves a metal and passes into the air it carries with it a group of molecules. " According to M. Fusinieri, the electrical prin- ciple is endowed with a spontaneous expansive force, of which one sees instances in the manner in which brass and gold are disseminated on the polished surface of silver. .These metals are de- posited in excessively thin flakes, which disappear by volatilization." Priestly had already observed effects of this nature, in the same manner as the phenomena of transport; but instead of employing the simple spark, as Fusinieri did, he used an electric battery and obtained similar phenomena, but much more pronounced. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 73 "The first time," said M. Becquerel, "that Priestly used an electric battery, that great phy- sician observed that with each discharge he pro- duced a very black dust, arising from the metal, although the metal wire was not melted and the chain which he used was very large. " He furthermore observed that a sheet of paper on which the chain had lain was marked by a black streak, all along where the chain laid, and that the latter had lost a very minute part of its weight. " To reassure himself of the effect of dispersion, Priestly caused a discharge to traverse a piece of charcoal. The carbon was reduced to powder; the cardboard upon which it was placed was torn, and the carbon penetrated the interior. " Having placed the chain on a plate of glass, he so placed it during the discharge as to make spots of an agreeable aspect, of the width and color of each link. The metal at the exterior (outer) part of these marks could be easily de- tached from the glass, while in the middle part it was made a body with the glass." (Was into the glass.) 74 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. All these experiments, asM. Becquerel remarked in closing, show conclusively the phenomena of transport. We owe to M. Beckensteiner and to M. Pari- sal, chemist, of Lyons, an experiment no less con- clusive than the foregoing, and that was made the first time by these two savans in 1838. A person seated on the insulator, in communi- cation with an electrical machine in motion, held in the hollow of his hand some starch, dissolved in a little water. In exciting sparks upon the starch with a bit of iodine, small blue spots could be immediately seen wherever the sparks flashed. In order to make these spots appear, there must necessarily be a transport of the molecules of iodine, which, with the starch, formed the iodide of starch, whose color, every one knows, is a beautiful blue. Some more of the very certain proofs follow. 1st. From the different sensation which Elec- tricity gives according to the metals which serve as conductors. This difference is explainable oily by transport, without which the sensation would be the same with all metals. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 76 2d. The very odor of the current, which varies with the substance of the excitator to such a de- gree that at the end of a few sittings it is easy for the patient to distinguish the nature of the metal used, merely by the odor of the electric fluid. 3d. From the variety of the therapeutic results. The results ought certainly to be always identical, whatever the nature of the excitator. Now, it is not so at all. Thus, afterpains rapidly disappear by the currents and a slight friction of copper (red), while one seeks in vain with all other me- tals to attain a like result. 4th. From the loss, very appreciable, in weight, sustained by the metallic excitators by daily use. 5th. Finally, from an observation wholly per- sonal, and what we owe to chance. We have ex- citators of pure gold and others of silver, plated. The film of gold which coats these latter is toler- ably thick, and at both ends—that is, on the bulb and on the point—it is at least double that on the rod (shank), which the operator holds in his hand. If there be no transport, the gold ought not to 76 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. disappear from the extremities, which never touch either the patient or an object. It should, on the contrary, leave the rod, on which the film (plating) is less thick, and which the doctor always holds in his open hand. We observe quite to the con- trary. At the end of twenty or thirty days the gold disappears from the bulb and point and shows the silver, while the rod remains intact, although subjected to continual handling, and the gold film which covers it is half as thick as that upon the extremities. Nearly every month we are obliged regild the bulb and point of the instrument. After these proofs which we have produced, no one will be able to deny transport. But will not some one object that the quantity of medicine transported is very small? True, it is extremely small; but the agent which serves (to it) as a vehicle, the electric fluid which transports it, is so MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 77 strong, so energetic, so penetrating, that this small dose, in a particular state, acquires a great power, and suffices in most cases to secure a cure. Nevertheless, if the doctor find that it is not sufficient, he has but to prescribe, internally, med- icines which he deems suitable, remembering the recommendations which we will make regarding the doses when we shall treat of this point in the chapter ensuing. 78 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. V. MEDICINES. We saw in the previous chapter what physicians of the last century knew of the phenomena of transport, which plays such a prominent part in the method which we advocate. They knew also that the therapeutical effects of Static Electricity differed according to the metal used to produce the current, the friction and the spark. Not only had they studied the electrical action of metals on the system, but they knew equally well that of the vegetables. In his memoir upon the different ways of administering Electricity, Manduyt establishes, in effect, that to cure or ameliorate blindness, amaurosis and many other affections of vision, he should make use of currents produced by a wooden point, and not of one of metal. MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 79 Transport being a fact well proven, well estab- lished, practitioners naturally enough considered that medicines passed directly into the organism by Electricity. Privati, of Venice, we have seen, in the preceding chapter, affirmed that he had purged patients on their holding in their hands purgative substances. His experiences were con- testable, but the idea was true and suggestive. Father Beccaria having volatilized mercury by the help of the electric spark, Gardini conceived the idea of applying to scrofulous tumors a plate of lead amalgamated with mercury and afterwards to excite sparks. " The electric fluid," says Ber- tholon, who reports this fact, " in penetrating the human body bears with it the particles of volatil- ized mercury by this process, and becomes by this operation more active and more fit to disperse and to cure these tumors: furthermore has he obtained by this method great success." " I advised," says Bertholon further, " a surgeon to use this method on syphilitic virus. The treat- ment is perfectly sure of its aim, and it seems to have been crowned with success." 80 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. M. Beckensteiner, a skillful physician of Lyons, followed the same course as his predecessors, and developed facts which they had not even outlined. Proceeding upon analogy, he made excitators of different materials, and when he had an anemia to treat, for example, he made use of an excitator of iron, a metal which medical men use with every success in this affection. After having used this system several months, we were not slow to notice that Bertholon, Ligaud de la Fond, Manduyt, Cavello, M. Beckensteiner, and indeed all our predecessors, had made]crooked progress. The imperfection of their method has most assuredly improved the popularization of Static Electricity, and has been the cause of the unmerited oblivion into which it has fallen. It is evident, a priori, that a medicine given in very small doses in suspension in water and by the usual way, the stomach, ought to produce an effect wholly different from the same medicine in infinitesimal doses but introduced by a fluid most energetic, the most subtle that exists. Who can say in what state the remedy is transported by the MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 81 electric fluid at the moment it arrives in the econ- omy ? Ought it not to be changed in its nature, in its composition, in its very essence, and there- fore, also, ought not the effects which it produces to be wholly different ? It is .now a well-estab- lished fact that all medicines which penetrate the human body by the aid of electricity cannot act in the same manner as though they were admin- istered by the stomach. Consequently, electrical therapy, such as has been practiced to the present day, rests on hy- potheses, or rather on analogies, which nothing justifies. In support of our assertion we may be able to cite a great many proofs. We content ourselves in producing one of them which sufficiently illu- minates the question. In medicine, one oftentimes uses with success, in the neuroses, certain preparations of silver. In accordance with this fact, which is far from being always true, M. Beckensteiner thought that prep- arations of silver administered electrically ought invariably to be right for nervous troubles and 6 82 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. rheumatism, and were indicated in all cases where a calmative is necessary to control pain. After having for several months made use of medical applications of Static Electricity, one fact was suddenly demonstrated to us, in *an evident manner, how far this belief is to be hazarded. One of our patients had suffered many years from rheumatic pains in his lower extremities. The principal seat of pain was in the muscles on the anterior part of the thigh. According to the ideas admitted thus far, this case demanded most cer- tainly the use of silver. We used, for a month, this metal in currents, in frictions, and in sparks, and, to our great astonishment, we did not get the least amelioration. We began to be hopeless, when one day the patient told us he suffered much less in the thighs, but that, on the contrary, he experienced in the abdominal region intoler- able sufferings. This was not the first time this phenomenon was produced ; suddenly and with- out cause the pains left the thighs and went to the abdomen. Well convinced that the pain in the belly was of the same nature as that in the MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. 83 thighs, we were of the idea of abandoning the silver, which yielded us no success, and of em- ploying red copper. By the aid of an excitor of this metal, we practiced for ten minutes the cur- rents and the frictions upon the abdomen. At the end of this short sitting the pain had disap- peared, but on the day following the thighs had again become painful. Struck with the result that we had obtained the day before, we electrized the thighs for several days with copper. After many sittings, a notable improvement showed itself and became more pronounced every day. Red copper was the medicine which was suitable to this pa- tient : it was certainly the electric quieter which aided these pains. We could, if it were necessary, multiply our examples; but does not the fact that we have just recorded amply prove that electro-therapy has been developed within a few months ? The reader will judge by what follows if this immense work is completed up to to-day. Far be from us the thought of denying the cures of neurosis which M. Beckensteiner claims to* 84 MEDICAL STATIC ELECTRICITY. have obtained by the aid of silver. We ourselves have cured many nervous affections by the use of this metal. But these patients have what Dr. Burq calls an idiosyncrasy for silver, the same as M. N. had an idiosyncrasy for red copper. From what precedes, it is evident that in elec- tro-therapy there is nothing specific. The calmant which succeeds with this one may fail with that