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

of the muscles, we must lay ivet excitors with active induction currents on those points of the skin which lie as much as possi- ble immediately over the said muscles. We find that the sur- face muscles of the trunk, as well as those of the extremities, by operating in the manner thus prescribed, may easily be made to contract; while many of the deeper lying muscles may be reached in the region of their source, or of their concourse,—for there are such places, — where they are peculiarly accessible to the direct in-working of the electric current. "Where this is not the case, we must apply a more intense current, or have recourse to Indirect Faradaization, which, though probably less efficacious, either as effect or as remedy, is, however, here to be preferred." No mention whatever is made of placing the electrodes with reference to the oblique course of the fibres of the muscles, nor yet is there any allusion to the action obtained as being through the nerves, but direct excitement is plainly inferred. The fact of muscle border points has here too, doubtless, been observed; but its bearing for practice was not discovered. I have elsewhere said — and it should be particularly borne in mind — that all persons are not in a like degree susceptible to the influence of the various electric currents. Not only does the application of the Faradaic currents show a surprising differ- ence between one person and another, but I find that this can, and docs, vary in the same individual from day to day; yes, even from morning to evening. This result of actual experi- ence should have a place and bearing in the mind of every physician, as regards the widely varying susceptibility of differ- ent patients, and even of the same patient at different times, to the influence of a given dose of the various medicines, as well as to Faradaism or Galvanism. There are cases, we know, where even the indiscriminate ap- plications of small, wet electrodes to the surface of muscles, and with very moderate induction currents, such as are quite supporta- ble by the sentient nerves, will sometimes produce a contraction of the whole muscle, or at least of the surface fibres of that muscle. This result is obtained most readily in proportion as the skin at that point is thin, and the muscle is also thin and