Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
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the opinions as to its efficacy, and however conflicting the evidence afforded on the subject, the failures appear to indicate little more than the absence of an efficient apparatus, or of the want of knowledge or experience in the application of it. Much more must be done in the way of investigation and careful ma- nipulation, before individuals or societies will be in a fair posi- tion to pass judgment on the value of an agent so powerful, and, when in the right hands, so efficient. The investigation of the causes of some of the failures shows, that the right effect would have been produced, had the right method and manipulation been adopted. Much of the experience on this head will neces- sarily be empirical until the relations between cause and effect here shall be so far determined as to establish a sufficiently accu- rate system of prognosis, and definite method of procedure. " One step towards the attainment of success in this speciality will be the employment of a suitable electro-magnetic apparatus, such as is capable of nice adjustment and easy application. The graduation of the current must be as minute as the manipulation is delicate. I have been in the habit of employing electricity for certain cases of toothaohe during the last, thirty years, and have relieved hundreds of cases, most of them permanently, many of them for a considerable period of time, some only temporarily, and very few not at all. " The cases of toothache which yield most readily to this treatment arc those in which the pain originates in the tooth itself. Those in which the pain results from a neuralgic affec- tion require a modified and more continuous treatment; but, as might be expected, in those cases where there is abscess at the root of the tooth, the pain is usually increased. " My mode of electric treatment here is to apply a metal disk, covered usually with moistened cloth, and connected with the positive pole, which is placed on the back of the neck ; placing a similar disk connected with the negative pole either on the tooth itself, or on the gum, or by passing this second disk along the course of the nerve, or its branches, exteriorly on the face. The degree of electro-magnetic power that is necessary, is very feeble. So efficacious is this remedy for toothache, that some