While here the _general_ electric influence is the main remedial agency,
there is no reason why the possible—or, I should say, probable—good to
be obtained from its _local_ influence should not be realized—the less
so that it is so facile to obtain this in the bath, by means of the
surface board. While individual cases will undoubtedly call for
modifications, I have found the following plan to answer best in
certainly more than half the cases that have come under my observation:
The first five minutes of the bath may be occupied by a general galvanic
current of medium intensity, _descending_ where the patient is of an
irritable, _ascending_ where of a phlegmatic temperament. The pole
connected with the foot electrode should now be detached, and the
surface board substituted. The second five or ten minutes may be
consumed by running a galvanic current between the head electrode and
the surface board, the latter applied alternately to the penis, scrotum,
perineum and, where thought best, also to the lumbo-sacral region.
Where, as is usual, the impotency is accompanied by a certain degree of
cutaneous anæsthesia of the penis, but especially where the seminal
secretion is scanty, the board should be positive (ascending current);
where however nocturnal spermatorrhœa, premature discharges (before
coition is possible) or other irritable phenomena characterize a case,
the surface board should be negative (descending current). The head of
the patient should rest on a sponge thoroughly saturated with water, and
communicating with the water of the bath, so as to include the
cerebellum in the direct circuit. The last five or ten minutes of the
bath should be devoted to passing the faradic current between the head
electrode and the surface board, this last applied about the genitals,
but chiefly about the perineum, the current to be of sufficient
intensity to contract the perineal muscles. With anæmic patients iron
should be added to the baths. These should be taken at first daily,
later on every other day, then three times a week, and so on until it
becomes apparent that all the good that can be obtained from them has
been obtained—whether this be a perfect cure or only a certain degree
of improvement. Where it is thought requisite, internal medication and
various hygienic measures may be advantageously resorted to as
adjuvants. While these will do no good when employed alone, they may
serve to enhance the effects of the baths.
In the following cases, I will include some where the impotency was not
perfect, where the conditions were merely those of sexual debility. As
there is here merely a difference in degree, it would be superfluous to
separate the two conditions under distinct heads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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