Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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tinued until 8 or 9 o'clock P. M. Of course there is a ieason
why these hours are selected for the commencement and termi-
nation of the paroxysm. What then can it be ?
In the first place, we find that the atmospheric tides attain
their maximum and minimum at certain hours of the day, for
there are tides in the circumambient atmosphere, as well as in the
circumambient ocean ; and therewith there are also changes in
the electricity of the air and the magnetism of the earth. From
8 to 10 o'clock A. M. and P. M., the barometer is at its
maximum height; the electric tension is at its maximum too;
and there is also the greatest maximum variation east of the
magnetic needle at the same hours. Prom 4 to 5 o'clock A. M.
and P. M., the barometer is at minimum; and so is also the
electric tension. It ought to be borne in mind, that there are
other diseases which have a relation to these meteoric hours, but
principally those of the nervous system; as those whose onset
is dependent upon some predisposing condition of the nervous
system. The respiratory movements, and of course the activity
of the circulation, are in connection also with these hours. About
4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, with a minimum temperature, a
minimum electric tension, and minimum height of the barom-
eter, there is also a minimum consumption of oxygen. Further,
I have ascertained by frequent inquiry that sleep to the nervous,
generally comes on about that hour, after a feverish restless
night; and, what is more remarkable, the statistics of deaths in
the State show, that the mortal changes are in the proportion of
three to two ; that the last sleep — the sleep of death — will
occur at that hour. Now, all these coincidences cannot be acci-
dental ; and as the operation of natural laws is as unerring as
that of the most exquisite machinery, due investigation and in-
quiry only are requisite to lay bare this whole mystery.
Dr. Pallas, chief physician of the French army in Africa,
asserts that the greater number of diseases, particularly the
" neuroses," are due to the influence of widely deviating elec-
tricity ; the principal sources of which are thunder clouds and
marshy soils. By their geographical constitution, and their
effects upon the human organism, marshes (says M. Pallas)