Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.

to know the rules there given, and to be an anatomist in order to be able to produce the contractions of single muscles, or bun- dles of muscles, but that there are a number of details into which we must be initiated, the description of which he can- not, however, take up as yet, for by so doing he would over- step the limits he was obliged to lay down for himself. Then, again, he says there exists in every muscle an anatomical point, on which the excitors are to be placed, if we wish to obtain a perfect contraction. It is also often necessary to give to the members a certain position, for the electrization to succeed. For an explanation of these, he proposes to give his attention as soon as he finishes his electro-physiological researches. It is now five years since that work was published; but no such maps, charts, or explanations have as yet appeared. It is to be regret- ted that such statements, so replete with suggestive interest to medical practice as well as to science, made by one so com- petent, have not been more fully elucidated. Faradaization. This term originated with Dr. Duchenne ; and I now proceed to give an account of his "method" of using induction currents, as explained in his large and popular work, De VElectrisation localisee, et de son Application a la Physiologie, la Pathologie, et la Therapeutique, Paris, 1855. He first states, " that if the skin and the metallic electrodes are both perfectly dry, then the currents of induction do not penetrate into the subjacent tissues, but reunite on the surface of the epidermis; and that in this case there are produced sparks, (!) with a special crepi- tation, but no physiological effects." Now, we must mark this statement of his, for evidently he is employing a machine for producing induction currents, such as we never think of employ- ing in this country for medical purposes. His method and rules will not therefore always apply to us, nor shall we be liable to meet with his mishaps, nor yet, perhaps, with his marvellous cures. It may, therefore, be laid down as a rule, first of all, that