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

Chills and Fever. Ague, (from Gothic agis, " trembling, ") and all the shades, phases, and degrees of this class of morbid nervous phenomena, — from the masked or " dumb ague," and the chills, to true inter- mitting fever, and even the congestive forms of bilious fevers as they occur in the great valley of the Mississippi,—for disturbed conditions of the vaso-motory and nervous system, electro-thera- peutics, u>/;e« employed at the right stage, and in the right meth- od for the given case, even when complicated with accouchement or accident, must now be reckoned as among the more potent, important, and grand remedies. The electric currents can be so employed, if the general principles laid down in this work are observed, as to " break the chill," to anticipate and annihilate the habit of its periodical recurrence, and for reestablishing and forti- fying the nervous system with its accustomed powers of endurance. For spleen enlargement, or ague-cake, for the congested and slug- gish liver, and for torpidity of the stomach, pancreas, kidneys, and intestines, the electrodes, in skilful hands, become, in effect, an argumcnlum ad hominem ; they are indeed the very mainspring and power of all the train of medication. (See Appendix F, 2.) Treatment.—First, the place: the patient, we presume, is in bed, in a room where the air is dry and warm, (not sitting up before the blaze of the fire, nor where a draught of wind is allowed to blow upon any portion of his body or limbs.) Second, the time: just a little before the hour and minute for the invasion of the cold stage, shake, or rigors, is the time to work. Prepare the pa- tient comfortably; wet the sponge electrodes in very warm water, or salt water, and see that the battery or machine works well; then commence before the horripilatio of yawning, stretching, sigh- ing, " cold chills down the back," goose-flesh, and collapse of the features, get the start, (as in Faradaic tooth-extracting,) and maintain it, first, by a current from the nape of the neck to the regions of the liver, stomach, and bowels; next up and down the back ; and then using team-electrodes to Faradaize the surface. When the chill is broken, repeat a daily seance, but at different hours, to fortify the invigoration. (See pages 54 and 694.)