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

department of nature's rare phenomena the object of his pro- tracted study, says there are three kinds of results produced on man by lightning: first, it can cure preexisting affections; sec- ond, it can produce wounds and infirmities; third, it can cause death. He enumerates in his work, under the first order, as " occasional recoveries by thunder and lightning," amaurosis, deafness, roaring in the ears, paralysis, and rheumatism. Ho speaks of the phenomena as " unforeseen, various, appearing as opposites, involved in contrasts, and mysterious." He quotes the case of a man that was struck by lightning who manifested no appearance of life until an hour and a quarter afterwards, yet he entirely recovered his consciousness together with his un- diminished intellect; but, strange to say, his sight was totally destroyed. His skin and muscular sensations were obtused, and his movements were very difficult. The various parts of his body no longer seemed to belong to him. But his taste, hearing, and smell were exquisitely augmented. His rest was poor, and his days were heavy. The general prostration was great, and this was attended with headache. Indeed, there was a veritable re- solution of the general muscular forces; and the body in a de- gree was only a dead mass, mostly obeying the laws of gravity. He was burned and bruised, and these did not heal. Be- sides, he suffered from a succession of cramps. At the end of a month the pulse was low, frequent, and irregular. Gal- vanism was then here applied near the wounds and burns, as also an up-running current upon the spine, which caused imme- diate relief. He was soon observed to be improving. The gal- vanizing was continued from time to time, and, together with quinine, leeches, baths, and good nursing he gradually bettered until it worked a complete cure. But it was four months before the galvanic treatment was discontinued. Professor Olmsted, of New Haven, speaks of a man by the name of Samuel Leffers, who, having been blind for years, was restored to sight by a flash of lightning. M. Boudin mentions that somewhere in France, in August, 1846, there was a group of laborers struck by a bolt of lightning, when four were killed, and six were badly wounded. One of these men had on a goat-