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

the living animal, the circulation in the vessels of the foot tis- sues is seen to stop instantly, as if by magic. The current of venous blood which naturally flows from the capillaries towards the larger veins, as seen just before, not only stops, but also soon begins to retrograde slightly; while the current of arterial blood (just before observed as flowing in the smallest ramifica- tion of arteries towards the capillaries) is seen now to tend a little towards the capillaries, and even to be drawn into them, while the capillaries are all enlarged. The consequence is, they are engorged, as we also can see them xinder the skin by the naked eye. When the electric current is withdrawn, after it has been running for about a minute, the blood is seen to move on again, flowing in its natural order, both in the veins and in the arteries, only more rapidly than before the trial, and the engorgement soon vanishes. But on applying the electric cur- rent again, the same phenomenon is reproduced. The action of the current is as marked upon the lymph corpuscule as on the common blood corpuscules ; and this we hold to be a very sig- nificant fact, because they move flowing rather along the side of the vessels, and are therefore less acted upon by the vis a tergo of the heart's action. But we may be asked, How do Galvanic or Faradaic ciirrents act upon the living human organism ? Or rather, What are the first radical effects ? Dr. Alfred Smee thinks the surface pole of the peripheral battery, in his scheme of nervo-electric battery of animal life, is excited to increased action, inasmuch as when two needles arc placed respectively the one in the skin and fascia, while the other is plunged deep into the substance of the live muscle by the closure of a conductor between them, there is in- dicated by the galvanometer a decided native current. But this does not answer the question. If it were put to me I would say, In part it is known, but in part we do not know. The every where present vitality, unknown and yet seen, in all parts of living bodies, is the mainspring of life; but as no one knows what that is, ivho will attempt to explain it ? M. Matteucci has proved that there exists in the muscles a material which is highly nitrogenous and acid, while in the blood 14