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

volition, but rather that the function of " volition " is suspended. Therefore, if electric currents are applied to the spine to re- establish this function, it affords the cure. (See App. E, F.) Hysterical Affections of Joints. — Sir Benjamin Brodie states the remarkable fact, which no one is so well able correctly to ascertain as a surgeon of his great experience, that four fifths of the supposed cases of joint diseases which occur among the better classes are truly hysterical. You may always expect to find in these cases other indications of the hysterical state. See his practical little volume on " Local Nervous Affections." He says there is always exceeding tenderness. The joints most fre- quently affected are the hip and the knee. The patient keeps the painful joint quite at rest, and always yielding to a partial flexed position, and being fearful of the least disturbance. When the joint is moved by you, she will call out with much more ex- pression of pain than if there were actual ulcerative disease of the cartilages. Dr. Balman, of Liverpool, gives an interesting account of a case of hysterical paralysis in a young lady of seventeen,that had heen treated for three years for curvature of the spine. The curva- ture at first appeared to be lateral, but subsequently angular curvature came on. When he first saw her, she was upon the sofa, looking pale, but otherwise appearing well. Her attendant said she had been unable to stand, walk, or speak, since the fit of the previous day. " Upon examination," he says, " I found the spine very crooked, with an angular curvature of the last two dorsal vertebra; on passing my fingers down the median line, there appeared to be distinct tenderness both between the scapu- las and over and about the seat of the projecting spine, extend- ing down to the sacrum ; the feet and limbs were cold, livid, and completely insensible to the prick of a needle, as far as the knees; the hands were in a similar condition, but the loss of sensation did not extend beyond the wrists. " Although unable to stand or support the body for a moment without assistance, I soon afterwards learned she was enabled to turn the feet about in almost any direction when lying down in bed; her nights were restless and without sleep, and the eyes