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

its nerve trunk, there can be produced visible contractions in the palsied muscle itself, which, however, will fall back into its helplessness as soon as this influence is withdrawn. Dr. Du- chenne is of the opinion that all such cases as arise either from a lesion of the brain, or of the spinal marrow, are by no means "necessarily" suitable cases to receive electrical treatmrnls dur- ing the earlier stages, —certainly not until after some six or eight months after the attack. But where the red or white softening, or the apoplectic clot, has not caused the person to sink under the immediate shock, but, on the other hand, the person has rallied, although slowly, and the clot has undergone resorption, and the hemorrhagic focus has cicatrized, or the softening has been restored, (either of which being manifested by the general appearance, history, and electro-muscular test,) no doubt in such favorable cases, judicious electrical treatments may be re- sorted to, not only with safety, but also witli the greatest benefit. In some of the more favorable cases, we shall often find nature restoring in part, at least, some of the voluntary muscle move- ment, and this is another favorable omen. Dr. Duchcnne de- clares, however, that in recent cases of paralysis, so long as the work of cicatrization of the damaged brain is not completely terminated, he finds the application of induction currents, (in the way he employs them,) as treatments for restoring motion and the power of the will, is not only useless, but may prove very hurtful. In fact, it has been frequently observed that from the too early resort to this active agent, and that perhaps in no kind of order, new cerebral hemorrhages are more apt to follow. He in another place says, however, that nothing is more variable than the duration of the time that is absolutely necessary to bring about cicatrization in each individual case; yet after a delay of some half year, more or less, we may em- ploy Faradaization for those paralyzed muscles, whose electro- muscular contractility has only been diminished by the pro- longed inaction, and severance from the influence and coopera- tion of the will. Duchenne shows that for those muscles in which the prompt electro-muscular contractility has remained quite intact, such