How to Use a Galvanic Battery in Medicine and Surgery: A Discourse Delivered Before the Hunterian Society, Third EditionTibbits, Herbert
Science
How to Use a Galvanic Battery in Medicine and Surgery: A Discourse Delivered Before the Hunterian Society, Third Edition
Tibbits, Herbert
Electrotherapeutics
[16] In the treatment of _Neuralgia_ by the constant current the
electrodes should be so applied as to include between them the part
or nerve affected--the number of cells the highest number that can
be borne without pain, _i.e._, the current to be distinctly but not
painfully felt, both electrodes being immovable. [SN: Electricity in
Neuralgia.] Time, five to ten minutes. Frequency, as often as the
attacks of pain recur. I am satisfied that in severe cases this rule
of application is essential--that the influence of the current shall
be maintained as much as may be in the irritable nerve during the
intervals of pain. In one case under my care the patient was galvanized
with benefit 27 times in the 24 hours; but in milder cases one or two
applications daily will generally suffice. A weak current from two or
three cells--the electrodes being applied to each temple for one or
two minutes--will sometimes dissipate a severe headache. This soothing
influence of the current is often useful in allaying SPASM, as, for
example, in spasmodic torticollis. The current should be localized in
the irritable muscles: and it is generally advisable to energetically
Faradize their antagonists and to conjoin with the electrical treatment
appropriate gymnastic exercises, alternating with periods of perfect
rest. I may mention that the only recorded case of improvement in that
remarkable condition of spasm first described by Hammond under the name
of _Athetosis_ resulted from the Voltaic current. The case was brought
before the Medico-Chirurgical Society by Dr. Gowers, and is published
in the 49th volume of their Transactions. The reader will find the
subject of neuralgia very exhaustively considered in Dr. Anstie’s
work.[17] He quotes some extremely severe cases in which the effect of
Electrization was to arrest the pain in a few sittings, and to procure
a remission for several days or even weeks; and I have had several
cases which I believe to have been as fairly cured as an ague fit may
be said to be cured by quinine. Dr. Russell Reynolds also quotes the
case of a patient, a lady, who for twenty years had suffered from an
extremely severe neuralgia of the ophthalmic branch of the fifth nerve,
which recurred daily and from which her health had greatly suffered. It
was not only relieved but removed by a single application.
[17] “Neuralgia and the Diseases that resemble it.” By Francis E.
Anstie, M.D., &c. London: Macmillan and Co. 1871.
[18] Electrolysis is, of course, chiefly applicable to tumours which,
from their nature or situation, are difficult or impossible to be
removed by the knife; and, perhaps, also to malignant tumours; for
whether or not the Voltaic current exerts a special destructive
influence upon diseased germs, it seems certainly proved that there is
a less frequent return of cancerous growths removed by its agency than
by ordinary operative procedures or by caustics.
[SN: Electrolysis of Tumours.]
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