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

the case was regarded as an attack of a neuralgic and rheu- matic character, affecting the aponeurotic or muscular struc- tures. The surgeon thus portrays his own experience: — " ' On the fourth night from the commencement of the attack, I awoke with a drenching perspiration and extremely severe pains, with tonic rigidity of the muscles of the chest, more especially of the left side and shoulder. The pain, on attempt- ing to move, was most excruciating. I found myself unable to expand my chest, and the breathing was wholly abdominal. I could not move. A sense of oppression and heat about the sternum kept increasing, and the dyspnoea became so urgent that I was fearful effusion was taking place in the pericardium. Dr. Banks was called in, and immediately proposed acu- puncture. In the course of a minute or two after the insertion of the fii>t needle, which was pushed inward and downward until in contact with the lower portion of the sternum, and while 1 was silting up, I experienced a sensation as if some strong, tense structure, which had previously bound down the sternum, had given way. This sensation was followed by a sense of approaching syncope, which was removed by lying down. While in the recumbent position, I now found, to my surprise and delight, that I could take a deep inspiration freely. But the muscular pain still continuing, and encouraged as I was by the great relief in my breathing already afforded, I now, on my part, anxiously wished for the introduction of other needles along the course of the fibres of the several muscles affected. This having been done, I felt, in the course of about ten or fifteen minutes, no uneasiness whatever in the chest, and was aide to move about in any direction ; indeed, so great was the relief, that after the removal of the needles, I was able to dress myself with ease. I felt well. On the following evening, and for about a week after, I felt some stiffness (but no pain) in the left side, which, with a second insertion of three needles, together with a slight anodyne, was entirely removed. "' In this statement,' the doctor proceeds to say, ' I have endeavored to relate my case and personal experience in simple acu-puncture as faithfully as possible, and I find it difficult now