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

other, is applicable only under certain conditions; and the suc- cess of it will depend not only upon the tact and acumen of the practitioner in the selection of his cases, but also the particular phase of the disease at which its use is apparently indicated." There is a singular case mentioned of a young girl aged seventeen years, that must be rare, but it is quoted here to show the rallying power of electricity in some desperate cases. This case, by the way, was witnessed by MM. Coindet and Duval, in Geneva. It seems that, under an hysterical influence, there suddenly appeared on the hand of the young lady a " gangrene," the result of a temporary stoppage of the circulation in that limb. All the fingers of her right hand became of slaty color, cold, and anaesthetic, and the patient suffered at the same time most acute pains ; the radial pulse was totally gone. Here — i. e., in this stage, after all other means failed — electricity, after Dr. Duchenne's method, was hastily adopted, and after only ten minutes, the girl cried out that she was able to move her fin- gers, and she did move them ; the pains, that had been agoniz- ing, ceased; the radial pulse reappeared; sleep, which had been wanting for five nights, was at once enjoyed; but upon waking, the pains returned. After each seance the pains were calmed, stiffness of the fingers was less firm, the night's rest became good ; the rigidity of the arm soon disappeared after the first seance, and the throbbing of the arteries was established as natural. What was very remarkable, from the second day, there was produced, after each treatment, a profuse transpira- tion from the fingers of a very fetid odor. In seven days, the color and warmth of the hands were mostly restored, although her general health was evidently broken and poor. We see, however, that the local good effects of the currents were in- contestably evident. (See pp. 412,477 Note C, and App. F,G.) Aphonia, or Loss of Voice. Dr. Grapengeesser, a German physician, cured a case of aphonia by means of voltaic electricity, as long ago as 1801. He drew a blister on each side of the throat, as had been recom-