Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
656/740

small pox itself, — in this very early, and yet, perhaps, full late enough stage of what may as yet he termed " no disease," where there is perhaps merely unusual pallor of the countenance, and of the general surface, as also of the mucous membrane of the lips, mouth, and fauces, with perchance here and there some already injected patches in the pharynx, and, at the same time, there are notably diminished chest movements, (for the muscles of the thorax are probably already relaxed, if not wasted, though there is but little or no alarm,) the patient most usually being conscious of only a sense of weakness, and a dryness in the air passages which induces a cough, and this is referred to the fauces, pharynx, and upper part of the larynx alone, being most annoying in the early morning, or on changes of weather, or of temperature — this is the stage, and these are the cases, I say, that I have so often met with, which, after having resisted the seda- tives, nauseants, and expectorants of orthodox prescriptions, Pe- ruvian sirups and lozenges — after all, yield to the methodical application of labile, but gentle currents of Galvanism or Farada- ism, directed more especially to the upper part of the spine, and to the enfeebled chest muscles, daily or tri-weekly repeated, and that in connection with the very same regimen, and such rational prescriptions as before had not proved quite sufficient to gain the day, being directed to but the internal portion of the malady, while this other portion of it remained unreached, and, perhaps, unheeded. That the general tonic, and perhaps the oil, phos- phates, or chalybeate plan of treatment, is likewise needed for these " not sick" persons, can scarcely be doubted. This all applies, however, to this first stage of consumption, or, if you please, rather to such marks of a candidate for it; nevertheless, if here met, and thus managed, I contend that death, even from uncom- plicated pulmonary consumption, occurring, as it does, mostly among the youthful and those in the very prime of life, might become as notably rare, as it is now appallingly frequent. I could show this by detailing numerous and almost uniformly successful cases, but I do not see that it could any way illustrate the modus operandi. (See Appendix F, G.)