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

and all invalids feel pains and depressions. "When the negative lower stratum of air, which is near the surface of the earth, obtains also in the higher strata for a while, as before a storm, and sometimes just after, then it is that the rheumatisms ache, and the neuralgias give their ugly twinges ; the frail feel a pe- culiar fatigue and are irritable, or are perhaps drowsy. In the extremely sick, the dyspnoea of emphysema and of heart disease are worse ; complicated chronic rheumatism is awaked, par- oxysms of fever anticipate their accustomed hour ; in severe acute diseases the symptoms are doubly alarming; while in fatal cases, death will arrive earlier in unsettled and stormy weather than would have been had the atmosphere been serene. It is highly probable that this state of humid and negative air induces a large and sudden precipitation of the native elec- tricity of the living body to the earth, which disturbs the animal electricity, changing the state of fibres, nerves, and organs; and this perturbates the regular functions that arc so entirely de- pending upon the normal ncrvo-elcctric equilibrium. One indirect effect of atmospheric electricity on the health of man is through ozone, which indeed is but a modification of the oxygen of the air from an electrical operation. The hypothesis of Dr. Boeckcl makes a direct ratio between the diminution of ozone in the atmosphere at a given season, and the prevalence of cholera and of miasmatic diseases, as he believes he has demonstrated it at Berne and Strasburg. Dr. Casper, of Berlin, has made extensive observations, which result thus: — 1. The greatest number of births occur between nine o'clock in the evening and six in the morning; while the smallest num- ber occur between nine o'clock in the morning and six in the evening. 2. The pains of labor commence most frequently between twelve o'clock at night and three o'clock in the morning; least frequently from six to nine in the morning. 3. The influence of night is more marked with respect to the commencement of labor pains than with respect to complete delivery.