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

look upon these observations as of sufficient importance, at the present juncture, to induce physicians to test their validity, the more so as it can be done without great trouble, and with- out precluding the use of other remedies, and as the successful results here stated may very easily be accounted for. Whatever may be the difference of opinion as to the cause of cholera, and the nature of cholera or its symptoms, and consequent treat- ment, two points will be conceded by most thinking men. " 1. That it is of the utmost importance to keep up the power of the central, as well as of the digestive system, so that, if diarrhoea there must be, the other functions are disturbed as little as possible. " 2. That in this disease, that remedy is the most preferable and certain of effect, which is the most directly applicable, and the most independent of the disturbed digestive functions. " In sending a continuous mild stream of electricity (here using no interrupted or shock current) from the spine to the abdomen, I vitalize — keep up the power of—the whole central and digestive systems, and by keeping in action all functions, I prevent the diarrhoea from taking a virulent and passive char- acter. I do this instantly, and independently of digestive func- tions, strongly or mildly, continuously or intermittingly, at option. All the effects purporting to be produced by the means generally employed, are thus produced much more perfectly and instantaneously by this simple application. However, volumes of reasoning will never supply the test of experience. Therefore let electricity be fairly tried, and stand upon its own merits. " With regard to cases of collapse, I cannot speak from expe- rience, never having witnessed such a case. It is, however, a fact witnessed by me dozens of times, and very easily demon- strated, that spasms and cramps of the ordinary description cease in a few minutes under the influence of strong primary continuous (not shock) currents passed along down the spine and the contracted limbs ; and with regard to the maintenance of irritation in any given part of the body, it will be obvious to every one that no other means at command can bear the most distant comparison with electricity, for such purpose.