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

but always in the same order and at short moves. The lower— that is, the negative — electrode should never be placed above any painful neuralgic spot, but always aim to include between the two electrodes the painful nerve trunk, as well as the painful periphery. When the whole nervous system appears to be more or less implicated in the neuralgic or hypcrsesthetic state, I then ap- ply the positive electrode rather to the nape of the neck, at first, and then, by skating4ike motions, from minute to minute, gently work it along down the back, not only over the spinous pro- cesses, but again on the,muscles of the sides of the back, while the lower sponge is planted below all painful localities. I say, glide the positive sponge in stages gently along down the back, more slowly over the Cauda equina, and so along over the hip or the crest of the ilium, and down the lower limb, tracing along the painful track. Let the seance last as long as the pain con- tinues, i. e., never quit while pain or even soreness remains. If the pain returns within six hours, repeat the seance at once; but if merely some pain lingers here and there in after hours, then daily applications will suffice. If a moderate current is first used, and does not succeed, then bring a stronger one to bear upon the case. If this has been fairly tried, and, perhaps, faithfully repeated, and yet without success, then I change the mode of proceeding by applying the electrodes reversed, i. e., with an up-running current, embracing- only the nerve trunk of the affected part. But these are rare cases. Where the neu- ralgic-like pain is seated, and proves obstinate, the circle treat- ments, daily repeated, will eradicate the last vestige. We notice that M. Magendie was the first fairly to employ the primary, continuous galvanic current in the treatment of neural- gias. When the pain was in the face, for instance, he employed two acu-puncture needles to convey the current, the one from the positive pole inserted in the very spot where the painful nerve makes its exit from the bone, while the other needle was inserted into the substance of the muscles that receive the twigs of that nerve. The negative needle was removed and then reinserted every few minutes wherever pain was felt, until all the pains were fairly chased away. But this was not always effected per-