Electro-physiology and electro-therapeutics : showing the best methods for the medical uses of electricity / By Alfred C. Garratt.
112/740
- Publication/creation
- Boston : Ticknor and Fields, 1861.
- Physical description
- 3 unnumbered pages, 716 pages, 2 leaves of plates : illustrations ; 26 cm
- Contributors
-
Garratt, Alfred C. (Alfred Charles), 1813?-1891
Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library
- Notes
-
3d ed. has title: Medical electricity
Includes index and testimonials
- Type/technique
- Electronic books
- Subjects
-
Electrophysiology
Electrotherapeutics
- Attribution and usage
-
This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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The image contains the following text:
But for the remedial use of the primary currents of galvan-
ism, not as a cautery, but as a peculiar nervine, by a catalytical
or polarizing effect on the nerves and muscles, we find Dr. Rob-
ert Remak, a Prussian physician, the most strenuous recent
advocate.
CHAPTER III.
ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES.
For therapeutical means we may have recourse to three
classes of electrical instruments, viz., the Electric Machine, the
Galvanic Battery, or the Induction Apparatus. There is quite
a variety of instruments in all three classes, but we should choose
them according to their action, and the form of the element they
respectively produce. Electricity in motion, as we have seen,
results from the reunion or neutralization of the two separated
opposite electric principles. This may be instantaneous, inter-
mitted, or continuous. In the former case it constitutes the
simple discharge; in the second case a more or less continuous
current; in the third, there are produced rapidly interrupted
currents, which are usually as frequently alternated or reversed.
Therefore the latter, as electro-magnetism, is best wherever we
wish rapidly discontinuous and alternated currents. The gal-
vanic battery is best for sustaining a more or less continuous cur-
rent in a given direction. The friction " electrical machine "
is the best for producing electricity of high tension, as sparks,
or the instantaneous discharge, also called the " shock."
By the electrical machine we get a peculiar form of electricity
for remedial purposes, possessing great intensity, while there is
but feeble quantity. This machine may consist of a revolving
cylinder, or plate of glass, which is submitted to the friction
of cushions or rubbers. As a general thing, a plate machine is,
for equal size, of far higher power than the cylinder; but it mat-
ters very little which form of friction machine is used. If we
were going to purchase for practical purposes, we should de-
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