Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
688/740

of my own children, who suffer occasionally from defective teeth, apply it for themselves for a few minutes, and return to their room relieved from pain, and sure of a comfortable night's rest." "We have just said that the Faradaic tooth extraction is of Amer- ican origin; but we see that a wide attention is awakened in England on this subject. Mr. Sharpe, the dentist for the Chester Infirmary, says he has lately " extracted one hundred and fifty teeth from people of all ranks, of both sexes, and of every age. The testimony of each of these has been mostly satisfactory; a current of electricity having been directed through the tooth to be extracted ; some persons said they experienced pain, but not so much as usual; others, that they felt no pain whatever. Some patients have said, they were ' conscious of the pull, but the customary pang was absent.' The exclamation of many, after the operation, has been,' 0, how delightful!' ' How very nice !' ' How very wonderful!' &c. One gentleman, who was rather sceptical, after having a tooth extracted, said, ' Well, I would not disbelieve a man now if he should tell me he had learned to fly.' Feeling desirous of getting as satisfactory evidence as possible, I persuaded my youngest son, who is not more fond of having his teeth drawn than other boys of his age, to have a temporary molar tooth removed in this way, in order that he might be able to tell me what he thought of it. As soon as the tooth was out, he exclaimed, ' T/iafs the thing-. It will do it, papa.' " Dr. Lobb, of the Western General Dispensary, says, " I have now used the inverse continuous current of electricity (galva- nism) for more than twelve months, for the cure of some forms of neuralgia, toothache, &c. I have never used it to prevent pain during the extraction of teeth, but from what I know of its success in toothache, I have no doubt it will yet be found to be perfectly successful." Dr. Richardson, physician to the Royal Infirmary, &c, says in a recent paper, " The present unsatisfac- tory mode of preventing pain in surgical operations must un- questionably be ultimately superseded by some better process. It will be read of, some day, as a rude science that leads the whole human organism into the realm of dissolution, in order