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

preserved ^impaired, says, " I find myself inclined towards the common opinion of hemorrhage, and yet I feel at times that there are powerful reasons for suspending this judgment — reasons that I derived from the nature of the paralytic accidents themselves. Besides, I remember to have heard M. Rccamier teach — and I have since observed it to be so myself—' that, when there is dis- sonance among the symptoms in this class of grave cases, they are due to ramollissement; while, on the other hand, we must conclude that hemorrhage exists where there is a consonance in the paralytic phenomena.'" There is force in the distinc- tion laid down by Rccamier, and it remains demonstrated, at any rate, that a sudden paralysis of a portion of the body may bo the result of a ramollissement. Tlie " Electric Test" of Paralysis. We may fairly conclude now, that all cases of cerebral paral- ysis presenting for treatments — say a few months after the causing attack — can be pretty clearly and reliably arranged, by aid of the electro-magnetic test, into three classes, two of which are not as yet suitable for this treatment, while the one and larger class of patients, i. c., where the " electro-muscular contractility " is diminished from the healthy standard, we may very reasonably hope for a still further restoration, by the aid of electro-therapeutics, or even a complete cure, if at once treated and skilfully managed. Again, we may conclude that there is no kind of paralysis, where we find exalted electro-muscular contractility, except in those cases where the paralysis is maintained by an irritative lesion in the brain ; and the greater the irritative brain lesion, the more marked is the electro-responsive phenomenon in the affected muscles, to the given moderate current. Again, we must not conclude, on the other hand, that all lesions of the brain are necessarily irritative, unless showing for months or more, and to the present time, exalted electro-muscular ex- citability. Again, if, on testing, we do find the muscles of a paralytic