Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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first, diminished thereby — i. e., within certain limits. In the former, the sufferer will commence his walk feeling but little pain; but at every step it increases, and the farther he walks, the more severe it becomes. In the chronic sciatica, he feels stiff, and starts with difficulty; but, once up and off, he pro- gresses with more and more ease after having walked a little dis- tance, and then may even feel almost well, for a short time, being quite free from pain: but if he extends his rambles, a feel- ing of fatigue soon creeps on, followed by pain, and these in- crease. The exercise thus acting as a remedial agent to a cer- tain extent, that limit passed, it becomes an irritant, and then tends, on the contrary, to aggravate the very disease upon which it had just before exercised a beneficial effect. Now, a delicate illustration of this is observed in treating an ordinary case of inflammation of the conjunctiva of the eye, which, moreover, shows the striking effects of the judicious and skilful use of dif- ferent stimulants in the varied treatments of disease. At the very turning-point of a case of this kind, the application of an appropriate stimulant operates upon the disease " like a charm," and, for the patient, most advantageously. If the application be delayed, a stimulant of the same strength would prove use- less, or worse than useless ; to produce the desired effect, its potency would then, probably, need to be doubled. But, on the other hand, where the stimulant is applied too soon, — i. e., pre- maturely, — or if too strong, it operates then as an irritant, and rather augments the disease it was intended to cure. Exactly similar effects are produced upon the nerves, although hidden from view ; for it is a law in therapeutics that, whether the application be direct or indirect, stimulating or soothing, the same influences may be brought to bear, and the same results obtained, upon diseased parts, wherever seated. It is obvious that an inflammatory action cannot go on long, in any structure, without producing important changes in its organization. The more active the disease, and the more deli- cate the tissue, the more rapidly will a healthy structure be de- teriorated, and the function of the organ be deranged. But probably the sheath of the nerve is the primary seat of the dis-