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

mentions the fact that the constant current is less painful than the interrupted induction current, and as producing quick ery- thema, and even blisters. Speaking of the constant current appa- ratus which he employs for treating diseases of the retina, —pile a rubans, made of copper and zinc ribbons, moistened with the vinegar of wine, and hence extremely irregular in tension, — he says it (galvanism) is so uncertain in action, and so unmanage- able, that it is quite unsuitable for other physiological or thera- peutical purposes. Such are the amount and result of his ex- perience, according to his own showing. M. Becqucrcl, the discoverer of the more true physiological action of the primary currents of galvanism; M. Dubois-Rcy- mond, the discoverer of the most fundamental latvs in electro- physiology ; and M. Remak, who first put these into practice clinically, and thus gave a tangible starting point for " galvano- thcrapeutics," — arc names the medical world will yet more and more recognize and cherish. The latter, in speaking of his first bedside experience, says, " The results of my first applications of the galvanic current were quite contrary to what I and other medical men had been led to suppose." He observed that the constant current, when in reasonable strength, and managed with common sense, instead of "necessarily " weakening a nerve, or the excitability of a nerve, could, on the contrary, be so guided as to increase its excitability, to a certain degree, as is plainly shown in the sensitive nerves by an increased susceptibility even to a weaker current; while, in the motory nerves, it is mani- fested by the increased strength of the contractions that are produced by the occasional interruptions of such an exciting current after a long in-working. He also early observed that the natural voluntary capability of a muscle, or set of muscles, to contract and act normally, is increased more rapidly after being first a little excited by moderate induction currents, as done in the usual manner for such treatment, and then using the steady primary current, directed, for a certain length of time, both through the nerve trunk and the afflicted muscles. To il- lustrate his particular views, he gives the following case : — A man who had suffered for seventeen years from violent pains