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

ondarihj established, and henceforth capable of being induced by only simple physiological stimuli. In this case there is an en- tirely new pathological condition. As regards the ovary, the original local excitement there may depend upon congestion or inflammation, on mechanical or physiological over-excitation of them, or on degeneration, or a purely neuralgic state. This diagnosis is worthy of our most careful search. A second series of clinical researches authorizes the reference of a great number of this class of functional disturbances, oc- curring in the " sensitive sphere," to a special pathological condi- tion, whose material element is, as yet, entirely unknown, but which is characterized by an exaggerated excitability of the sensitive nerves. The term hyperasthesia is used to designate this condition. We clinically recognize the existence of this organic state when we find that physiological stimuli, or slight causes of excitement, produce functional manifestations in the sen- sitive nerves, which appear spontaneous or exaggerated. This organic condition of the individual nervous system is doubtless sometimes idiopathic, as a part of an original constitution; or it may become developed from errors. At other times it is the consequence of simple anaemia, or chlorotic anosmia. Here, too, we must attack the cause; and iron is the sovereign remedy — the most direct galvanic treatment possible for this peculiar state of the organism. A third scries of cases reveals the existence of a more com- plex pathological condition. Here the hyperaesthesia is asso- ciated with a particular morbid condition of the spinal cord, unknown as regards its material element, but characterized by a pathological excitability, in virtue of which the reflex property of the organ becomes exaggerated, so that we may term this, with propriety, reflex excitability. At the bedside it is recog- nized,— 1. By characters already attributed to hyperaesthesia. 2. There is the existence of a greater or less number of per- manent centres of exalted sensibility, the artificial and mechani- cal excitement of which, readily induces reflex movements in the form of convulsive attacks.