An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism: With a Series of Curious and Interesting Experiments Performed Before the Commissioners of the French National Institute, and Repeated Lately in the Anatomical Theatres of LondonAldini, Giovanni
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An Account of the Late Improvements in Galvanism: With a Series of Curious and Interesting Experiments Performed Before the Commissioners of the French National Institute, and Repeated Lately in the Anatomical Theatres of London
Aldini, Giovanni
Electricity -- Early works to 1850
Agreeably to the principles already established, in regard to the
treatment of madness, I advised Lanzarini to spend the rest of his
life at a distance from his native country, lest, having continually
before his eyes those objects which had occasioned his disease, it
might recur with double violence. But though he had given me several
proofs of his docility, I found it impossible to persuade him to make
this sacrifice. A kind of _nostalgia_, perhaps, attached him to his
former master, to whom he returned, after paying a visit to the curé
of the parish. The latter, when he first saw him, imagined he had run
away from the hospital; but by his conversation he was soon convinced
of his being completely cured. After this period, I obtained a regular
report respecting his behaviour and the state of his health, from the
above curé, and from the person who had paid all the expenses of his
residence in the hospital; and I learned, with great satisfaction,
that he continued to enjoy good health, and to exercise his usual
employment.
By the same treatment I cured, of a similar disorder, Charles Bellini,
a labourer, who was restored to society in a shorter space of time,
because the affection was not so violent as in the preceding case. The
phænomena which took place when the patient was subjected to the
action of the pile, when the Galvanism was applied to the brain, and
during the whole progress of the cure, were nearly the same. I must,
however, freely acknowledge, that two cures are not sufficient to
establish the application of Galvanism as an universal remedy in such
cases. But on this account it ought not to be rejected: at any rate it
deserves further examination; for it is well known that all remedies
require certain conditions before they can perform their effect. I
have therefore several times found it impossible to obtain the same
result in other patients afflicted with melancholy madness, to whom I
administered Galvanism; and in cases of raving madness I have even
found it dangerous. In some instances, melancholy madness derives its
origin from a certain general constitution of the animal machine, or
from some great alteration in the brain; and it is evident that in
such cases the action of Galvanism would be of no avail. But if the
derangement of the intellectual functions depend only on some humour
intercepted between the membranes and other parts of the brain, there
is reason to hope that Galvanism, if prudently administered, may be
attended with great benefit. The real cases in which it may be
administered with success, can be ascertained only by experience. I
must observe also, that the method of administering it is not yet
reduced to that state of simplicity, which is necessary before it can
be brought into regular use in large hospitals. The physicians, under
whose care they are placed, have in general a great deal of private
practice, and cannot conveniently attend to operations which require a
continued labour for several months.
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