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

if not entirely, to the pubic, and another to the epigastric at- tachment of the rectus abdominis, while others refer their com- plaints equally to all these spots simultaneously, or in .suc- cession. Treatment.—For the "muscle pains" of muscular hyperes- thesia, in both men and women, but particularly in the hysteri- cal female, resort has been had by physicians, from time imme- morial, both to the antiphlogistics and the antispasmodics — the anodynes and the revulsions — to topical emollients, cata- plasms, liniments, &c, &c. After a persevering employment of these classes of means, and this under the widest facilities, M. Briquet says he finds they are really of little or no perma- nent use whatever, as any benefit that has at times seemed to accrue, after all, depended much upon the temperature at which they have been applied. Narcotics give a precarious ameliora- tion, and that is all that is procured from them. Even these, then, require to be varied, and after all are but little to be re- lied upon. The condition for pain is still there. The truly heroic remedies in all muscular hyperesthesia are the stimulants. Dry heat, applied by cloths as hot as can be borne ; very hot cataplasms, and chloroform, which acts more as an irritant than as a narcotic; sinapisms, which are still more effective if applied for ten or fifteen minutes, and two or three times a day at the same place, — very frequently relieve the pain. Tincture of iodine, or of capsicum, repeated twice a day, will speedily succeed in some. Blisters, after all, have more power, usually, than all the preceding list of stimuli. (See G, Note 5.) " Faradaization" of the skin, as performed by Dr. Duchenne, is, after all, the means, par excellence, for all these cases, accord- ing to the experience of Dr. Briquet. By this kind of electric current, ho says, if strong, and limited to the affected muscle for but a few minutes, the hyperaesthesia is sometimes at once dissipated; and when this is the case, even firm pressure, or movements of various kinds, fail afterwards to induce any sort of pain. Not infrequently a single application suffices; but sometimes the pains return at the end of an hour, but more commonly after five or six hours. If they have not returned by