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

greater degree than before. From such premises, surely, the author can never concur in the somewhat general opinion, that any considerable employment of the so-called constant galvanic current upon the human organism, has necessarily, a paralyzing effect. That paralysis, as well as a paralyzing tendency, can be produced by an injudicious use of electric currents, and that more readily by the galvanic, than the Faradaic currents, the author concedes. But, because the former has more power and uniformity of effect, upon and through the large nerve trunks particularly, is the reason why, when correctly employed, it is so greatly valued by the author as a therapeutic. In the most recent and popular work published in England on this subject, — and it is a most excellent work in many respects,— it is laid down as true, that " if the continuous galvanic current is allowed to traverse the spinal cord, then there is produced la paralyzing- effect,' whatever may be the point to which the poles are directed." Again: " The inverse continuous current [gal- vanic] is more powerful for paralyzing- the spinal cord than even the direct galvanic current." Such, indeed, are the gener- ally received views. Dr. Duchenne has also, in this direction, powerfully convinced the medical world, and greatly deterred from the employment of galvanism ; but such views certainly do not accord with my own clinical experience, and there- fore I cannot adopt them. The anterior roots of the spinal nerves, according to Dr. A. .Shaw, as should be mentioned here, arise by numerous fine rad- icles from the very surface of the anterior column, thus appar- ently showing that the part of the cord from which they derive the power of motion, is situated superficially. The posterior roots, on the contrary, dip boldly into the interspace between the posterior lateral, and posterior columns, and they reach a deep part of the organ before they subdivide to form any per- ceptible connection with the spinal cord; in short, the mode of the origin of the posterior roots is quite different from that of the anterior, and from their passage so deeply into the interior it may be inferred that the part of the cord which bestows sen- sibility is situated deeply. These views throw light on a fact