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

fected, will also aid in vitalizing the flesh, and so fortify it against others breaking out afresh. Nothing can compare with the rapidity with which a new character is given to the flabby granulations of a torpid ulcer by this little galvanic pair; even in the legs of old people, where, through want of vitality in the part, the sore will not heal. If very torpid, I apply the silver disk so as to cover the ulcer; i. e , lay the naked silver on the raw sore, for it is not painful, and it is often perfectly astonishing to see how quickly red and healthy granulations spring up under it, and the tedious sore is speedily and soundly healed. Should the healing be slow, however, then make a cantharides blister near by the ulcer, and remove the raised cuticle of the blister, and apply the zinc pad over this site for a part of the time. Thus, old, ill-conditioned, and " indolent ulcers " can be healed, that may have long resisted every other treatment. Electric Moxa. Dr. Wells, an English surgeon, and Dr. Golding Bird, also, ob- served, some years ago, that if two disks, the one of silver and the other of zinc, arc placed respectively on two blistered or other- wise raw surfaces of the body, and contact, as by a wire, is made between the plates, while the wire is insulated from the skin, and the action is thus maintained, say for two days, more or less, the surface beneath the silver plate was found healed over, while that under the zinc plate was converted into a superficial eschar. If the plates were replaced and maintained still longer, then the eschar deepened, so as to extend to the sub-cutaneous cellular tissue, and to present all the characteristics of a slough, pro- duced by chloride of zinc, or caustic of potash, except that the dead tissues were less compact. He noticed that the separation and cicatrization of such a slough is very tardy; but that it heals at once if covered in part or whole by the silver plate, the zinc being moistened and fixed any where upon the sound surface near by. The " electric moxa" thus made, is valued by some most distinguished medical men for certain cases of brain affec- tion, as well as for pain and paralysis. (See pp. 114-117.)