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

shrunk to a very small volume, and that the ?/«balance in the equilibrium between the different sets of muscles of the upper extremity might no longer be exclusively due to the lesion in the brain, which undoubtedly was the primitive cause of it, but also due in some measure to the long-maintained over- weight of the contracted flexors over the paralyzed extensors. 1 thought that by administering the electric stimulus to the re- laxed extensors, the equilibrium might be restored. This view was confirmed by the result of the treatments; for after I had Faradaized the extensor muscles of the forearm for some time, the tendons of the flexors, (by reflex action ?) which had before projected like tight strings beneath the skin, now became soft and flexible. The patient was able of himself to open his hand and stretch his fingers. But having been some time afterwards exposed to violent cold, and a draught of wind, the flexors again assumed a degree of rigidity. By further treatment, he again improved ; but he left the hospital before being completely cured." We can quote a multitude of facts in support of the accuracy of these propositions, the importance of which is fairly shown in such cases as where the exact cause of the paralysis is not so apparent or decided, as for instance, in traumatic cases, where there is a tumor compressing the nerve trunk, (or other deep- seated cause that produces the paralysis, or pain, or both) — a phenomenon the nature of which is not hid from this test, in the majority of contusions, compressions, or disorganizations. Dr. Duchenne gives a very marked case to illustrate the accuracy and value of this diagnostic power in a patient, where he, from his great experience and confidence in the electric test, was led to attribute the paralysis of the case to some alteration in the nerve trunk that led to the affected muscles, notwithstanding the con- trary appearances. From a careful examination of the case, by this electric questioning of the nerve and muscle witnesses, there was clearly proved a lesion existing at the level of the emergence of those nerves which constitute the cervical and bra- chial plexus of the right side. This local lesion, so masked, he found was due to an exostosis of long standing, and which he