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

Directions for the Electric Sitting-, or Seance. A. Note 1. (See page 280, also notes in Appendix.) These explanatory- notes are introduced here to facilitate others, less experienced, in the employ- ment of electricity, by making very plain some of the minutiae of the author's method, (in sitting the patient, in managing the electrodes, and guiding the current, as by a law,) during each of the different orders of sittings instituted by him for the different classes of diseases appropriately so treated, and for such found most uniformly successful. The systematic rules here laid down for employing electricity as a remedy, although not found elsewhere in this or in any other language, are not the mere idea of a theory, but are the apparently well-corroborated results of the author's own clinical experience. The word " seance " means the same as if we should say, " a sitting for electric treatment." In my office — since this has been and is with me a special prac- tice— we have four different orders of attitudes for the "seance," (as it is termed by the French,) and for these we employ,— 1. The insulated chair and stool. 2. The cushioned ottoman, covered with rubber cloth. 3. The invalid's chair, with a head-rest. 4. The lounge, with pillows, &c. To prepare a person on the first order of sittings, the clothes need to be tucked up from the floor, &c, so as to insulate the patient as perfectly as possible. To prepare for the second order, the object is, to get free access to the whole back, thorax, and abdomen. If the patient is a boy or man, let him merely unbutton his clothes, and thus take his seat upon the ottoman, stool, or a chair turned sidewise, with his back towards the operator, his shirt and under flannel pulled up above the waistbands; while the latter takes his seat on a low stool behind the patient, with his table of apparatus close by, at his right hand. In this arrangement he can freely manoeuvre the electrodes, up or down the whole back, side muscles, thorax, abdomen, loins, hips, &c. If the patient be a female, let her lift or gather up the back part of her skirts, as she is about to take the seat; the corsets and dress are to be loosened, and thus the hand of the operator can be passed freely up the back, or from the neck downwards; so also over the sides, chest, muscles, abdomen, and loins, as the case may require, — without removing the clothing. In this attitude we also have easy access for adjusting one of the electrodes under the nates, coccyx, Poupart's ligament, or on the lumbar region, while operating on the nerves and muscles of the thighs and lower limbs with the other electrode. The reclining chair, or rocking chair, receives the patient for the third order, and is used for all operations about the face, eyes, ears, head, throat, &c. The lounge, or sofa, or cot, is the fourth order, and is desirable for a variety