Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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mended by Baron Humboldt. After removing the raised cuti- cle, be applied to one of these sores a small plate of silver, and to the other a small plate of zinc. Tbese two plates, being first bound on the sides of the larynx of the patient, were then brought into metallic contact by means of the two connecting wires, which were brought together and twisted. This was borne but for a quarter of an hour. The larynx began to heave convulsively, and there appeared also an abundant flow of ichorous fluid from the raw surfaces, and a sighing or sob- bing continued for some time. Tbere was soon observed a free expectoration of mucus, which was followed, in the course of two hours, with some little voice. This primitive " localized''' galvanizing was thus repeated from day to day for a few more times, and which was attended with like phenomena, when the voice and power of the throat were perfectly restored. Tbe loss of voice in this case, I should have said, was of several years' standing. In the Dublin Quarterly Journal for February, 1S-17, is recorded a case much the same, and which was treated in the same manner, and with the same good result. But in this instance, the improvement in the voice began in the evening of the very first day, after the first application of the metal plates to the blistering on the sides of the throat. The case continued to improve until the fourth day, when the voice was again lost. But the process being repeated, and this time, moreover, the apparatus being allowed to remain on all night, this was fol- lowed with the other effects in permanently restoring the voice, which continues. Dr. Duchenne gives an account of two cases of hysterical aphonia, one of six months' standing, and the other of more than two years, both of which he treated and cured by the direct Faradaic use of electro-magnetism, directed to the larynx. He also makes mention of other cases of cures, but he mentions no failures. Dr. Althaus, of London, appears to have had ample facilities for trying electro-magnetism in hysterical aphonia. Of the fifteen cases he saw, two were married, thirteen were single, and 49