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

clcs may be arranged in one of the three following orders of conditions: First. Where the electro-mnscular excitability of the affected muscles, both in regard to their muscular sensibility and con- tractibility, is lost, or very nearly so. Second. Where the response to electrization is moderately prompt, i. e., much as the standard in health. Third. Where the response of electric contraction is found evidently increased, even above the healthy standard. Now, if we examine these cases, we find in the first class, or those where the electro-contractibility and sensibility are nearly if not quite lost, we have, in all probability, a case of lead palsy, or of traumatic paralysis. But we should bear in mind, how- ever, that some hysterical and rheumatic paralyses, if of long standing-, do present the very same peculiarities, and that the same may be presented occasionally in diseases of the cercbro- spiral axis; so that other evidence on these points must also aid to the ultimate diagnosis. Then, if we examine the second class, or those which show a natural response to the effects of the current, i. e., both by mus- cular sensation and contraction, the same as would be produced if the current were applied to the same set of muscles on the sound side, and, if of long- standing-, then we have, in all prob- ability, a case of curable cerebral paralysis; but if the case has a history of but recent date, and other evidence also tallies, then it is more likely to be a hysterical or rheumatic palsy, or a spon- taneous paralysis, that has arisen from local cold, or fatigue ; but that there is no lead cause, nor is the continuity or integrity of the nervous communication from the affected muscles to the spinal cord interrupted, we may rest fully assured. Then, again, if we examine the class of cases where the response is exalted above the natural, when the Faradaic cur- rents are only applied as usual to the palsied muscles, then, in all probability, we have a case of actual brain disease, the result, perhaps, of a long previous apoplexy, the coagulated cyst of which remains as a persistent irritating lesion, which is situated within the cranium, and thus sustains the peculiar and true 43