RELATIONS TO OTHER SCIENCES 459 



ation we are enabled to decide whether paralysis occurring in the 

 mouth, the pharynx, or the larynx is of central or of peripheral 

 origin. By employing both forms of current we succeed in many 

 cases in curing paralytic disorders, more particularly when they 

 are of functional character. 



Again, electricity in the form of the galvano-cautery is of prac- 

 tically daily use in the hands of the laryngologist and rhinologist. 

 It has superseded the employment of most other forms of caustics, 

 and few laryngologists nowadays would care to be without it. 



Yet another form of employment of electric force, namely, elec- 

 trolysis is highly extolled by some devoted adherents who util- 

 ize it for the treatment of such troublesome affections as ozena, 

 naso-pharyngeal fibromata, reduction of irregularities of the nasal 

 septum, etc. It must, however, be confessed that this method has 

 never met with general adoption by the bulk of laryngologists. 



Finally, in recent times the motor power of electricity has been 

 largely used, and I do not think anywhere more than in the United 

 States, as the driving force of such instruments as trephines, saws, 

 drills, particularly in nasal surgery and electro-motor masseurs in 

 aural therapeutics. If the method has not yet met with general 

 acceptance in Europe it is, I think, more from want of acquaint- 

 ance with it than from any other cause, and I feel confident that 

 the more general the domestic use of electricity shall become, the 

 greater role will the electro-motor play in our instrumentarium. 



Even as it is now, however, the rapid sketch I have just drawn 

 will suffice, I trust, to show the enormous importance of this branch 

 of physics for our special field of research. 



II. Chemistry 



Whilst it cannot be said that chemistry, apart from its general 

 relations with medicine, is so closely connected in its various branches 

 with laryngology, rhinology, and otology as physics, yet there are 

 points enough of very great and immediate importance which link 

 these two sciences together. 



In the first place, synthetic chemistry gains every day in im- 

 portance for us by enriching us with new and important pharma- 

 ceutical preparations. Need I remind you of orthoform, anes- 

 thesine, adrenalin, iodoform, sozoiodol, peroxide of hydrogen 

 to mention a few only of the large number of new remedies which 

 form, so to say, our present stock-in-trade, and for the introduc- 

 tion of which* we are indebted to synthetic chemistry? Every 

 day increases our power of doing good, due to the progress made 

 in this collateral science, and we are therefore accustomed to watch 



