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

3. But I consider these noxious emanations are disturbed electro-galvanic currents and electric accumulations, — sometimes positive, sometimes negative, — causing a want of electrical equilibrium in human bodies. 4. That these electric agencies are untowardly excited or set free from soils of fens or marshes, drains and sewers, by the known effects of evaporation, chemical action, and infiltration of decomposing substances, and putrid depos- its, or from foul waters, among minerals, ores, metals, and dissimilar strata of soils and subsoils, and also in wet lands, or during rainy seasons, after long- continued absorption by the earth of solar heat. 5. That as it is notorious that there are more insalubrious dry and high places in the Roman Campagna affected with malarious diseases, than wet and low situations. I consider that in such elevated and arid spots, long noted for insalubrity, there is emitted from the earth's surface an untoward emanation of electro-galvanism, with its concomitant lethal agent called ozone, set free by causes operating within the soils of that locality, either by the juxtaposition of strata of dissimilar materials, acting electrically upon each other, or by the infiltration of subterranean streams, or mineral waters, and by internal heat, and consequent liberation of steam — electricity; or by some other agents, acting upon materials contained in the ground, analogous to the manner in which we operate upon artificial substances in a galvanic apparatus. 6. That in some of the thousand ways in which galvanism is produced in the earth or air, its undue influence (under certain circumstances) disturbs the natural electricity of human beings, particularly when recumbent, in contact with the ground, or on beds, near the earth. 7. That this protracted or often repeated disturbance, either in the relative quantity of electricity itself, or in the due proportion of the positive or nega- tive, (fluids,) alters the condition and functions of the human nerves, and probably the relative state of the particles, and the polar relations of the atoms, or corpuscular molecules, and at all events is capable of exciting or depressing the vital functions, and of acting chemically on the circulating ani- mal fluids. This is obvious near rivers, and during east winds ; the agency of passive or negative electricity, then, and there, inducing diseases of debility. 8. That these untoward galvanic agencies account more clearly for the spe- cific cause, specific symptoms, and specific cures of some classes of complaints, such as intermittents, than the hitherto assumed action of marsh miasmata, which are supposed to be so various in their nature. In regions in which there are no fens or marshes, such as the Island of Ascension, Sec, the agues incident to strangers are the same as where morasses are extensive. In both circumstances, the disorders occur at particular seasons, are confined to par- ticular situations, and require particular and identical treatment. 9. That the doctrine of marsh miasms is untenable, because malarious diseases attributed to them are common where there are no marshes, and be- cause domestic animals are in general perfectly healthy, whilst human beings