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

in electro-puncture, that the steel needles should always he superseded by those of zinc; or rather, by needles covered by a layer of this metal. The " galvano-puncture " should then be practised in the fol- lowing manner : A certain number of needles, connected with the positive pole of a galvanic battery, are inserted into the tu- mor, whether the sac of an aneurism, or the cavity of an aneu- rismal varix. The negative pole should be supplied with a plate of platinum, which must be put upon the skin adjacent to the aneurism, after having augmented the conductibility of the epidermis by moistening it with a saline or acidulated solu- tion. Aneurisms of large arteries have been successfully treated by galvanic currents, and there are some such cases which must otherwise prove fatal, fur they can be cured only by this means, if at all. Even these desperate cases present some chances of success, although not without some pain, and some little danger; and yet I believe not necessarily so, if carefully performed. The electric treatment here is based, then, upon the property given to living blood while being traversed by an electric cur- rent, i. e., of its coagulating at the positive pole. This, it is known, also takes place with albumen, in or out of living tissues, as Dr. De la Rive says, " probably by a secondary effect of an acid, liberated only by a law of action at the same electrode, from the decomposition of a salt, one of the constituents of the blood, and of albumen." In this operation, it is necessary to introduce the electro- puncture needle well into the centre of the aneurismal sac. I say needle, for one is sufficient, although heretofore two have almost always been employed. That needle must connect with the positive pole of the battery, while the other electrode may be a sponge, or a metal covered with wet wash-leather, which should be applied to the skin very near to the former pole, but on the opposite side of the aneurismal tumor from the place where the needle enters. Then the continuous primary current from about twenty elements of Daniell's battery is required to produce the coagulum; and to this end, the current should be