Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
700/740

muscles and the underlying viscera at another, and then strong localized Faradaization at another, and so on. Very many cases can thus be cured. But where this fails, I would strongly rec- ommend the galvano-puncture, or sparks drawn from the acu- puncture needles, for radical cure, which I know can reach a large class. Then there is another class of cases, or rather por- tion of cases, (for I cannot define them,) which do not seem to he benefited, much less cured, by these means. When this is thoroughly performed, however, and if not overdone, we can tes- tify from clinical experience, that in very many cases it wonder- fully obliterates the hernia, or at least restores the non-appear- ance of it, even where the truss is no more worn. A cold, wet cloth or sponge but instantly wiped as a shock across the lower bowels and groins, night and morning, aids in confirming the muscle tonicity. (See Appendix F, G.) Action of Narcotic Poisons. — Electricity as a Remedy. There is evidently a laiv of action, definitely manifested by different poisons on the nervous system, whether generated in the body, or introduced into the body. The action of nicotine (the quintessence of tobacco) has lately been investigated by M. Claude Bernard, and he finds that mammalia, birds, and reptiles are all destroyed alike by nicotine under similar symp- toms, and that whether taken by the stomach, or applied to a wound in the skin, or introduced into the eye. The arterial capillary system was especially primarily affected through the medium of the sympathetic nerve. Thus the circulation is ar- rested first in the capillaries, while the heart continues to pulsate. The veins are full, but they no longer convey the blood onward. It is therefore manifest that nicotine (tobacco) affects the nervous system o/org-anic life, just as strychnia affects the nervous system of animal life. Convulsions may and do occur in either case, (though not necessarily so,) as among the most prominent symptoms. This is worthy of note, for it must go to show the influence of the sympathetic nerves on the vas- cular capillary vessels. Dr. Bernard states that he found the