A manual of practical medical electricity - the Röntgen rays and Finsen light (1902) (14780558841)

Identifier: manualofpractica00turn (find matches)
Title: A manual of practical medical electricity : the Röntgen rays and Finsen light
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Turner, Dawson
Subjects: X-Rays Electrophysiology Electrosurgery Electric Stimulation Therapy Electrotherapeutics X-rays Electrophysiology Electrosurgery
Publisher: New York : William Wood & Company
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School



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plication of static electricity to ordinary casesof neurasthenia, it is usually best to begin by electric bathsof short duration (five minutes), and after these have beentwo or three times repeated and lengthened, to go on tothe souffle and sparks. Dr. McClure ( Static Electricity in Medicine ) lays downthe fundamental law that, whether we use the souffle, thefriction, or sparks, we ought to begin at the centres, andfollow the course of the nerves from their origin to theirtermination. Even if it is a local affection that we aretreating, the whole body should be generally treated,beginning at the head. CHAPTER IIGALVANIC ELECTRICITY Apart from its valuable electrolytic effects, the mostimportant therapeutical properties of the galvanic currentare to be found in its power of relieving pain and spasm,and of stimulating muscles and nerves. We have seenthat it is the best stimulus for involuntary and for de-generated voluntary muscles, and the only stimulus forthe nerves of special sense.
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Fig. 129.—Diagrammatic Representation of the Area ofCuRRENT Diffusion in the Ordinary Application ofboth P:lectrodes to the Ulnar Nerve (Erb). There are four different directions of the current in the nerve. For whatever purpose we employ it, the effect it willproduce will depend largely upon the density or concentra-tion. At the points of entrance and exit of the current,this varies inversely with the size of the electrodes, andwe can accordingly increase or diminish it there as weclioose, so far as the feelings of the patient will permit ;but when once it has penetrated the surface of the body,it is no longer under strict control. Electro-Therapeutics 267 Following the law of shunts and derived circuits, thecurrent in traversing the body will pass almost entirelyby those tissues that conduct it most easily, viz., themuscles ; and it will spread out and diffuse itself in them,and in the surrounding tissues, in a way that cannot becalculated. It is therefore impossible, except by ga