Chap, xv.] -FARADISATION. 159 



mechanical contrivance, and may, therefore, be made 

 fast or slow, as desired. By the former way the 

 utmost heating and chemical effects are obtained, and 

 nutrition is, therefore, powerfully affected : by the latter 

 method the stimulating properties of the current are 

 obtained. 



Faradisation may be applied generally. One 

 good way of doing this is to seat the patient in a chair, 

 stripped to the waist, and his bare feet on a metal 

 plate to which one pole is attached. The operator 

 has the other pole connected to a sponge electrode, 

 which he applies to various parts of the patient's body 

 as desired. This is the method of Beard and Rock- 

 well of New York. Localised faradisation is the 

 phrase used by Duchenne when the two electrodes are 

 applied near one another, so as to confine their action 

 to groups of muscles, or single muscles, or nerves, or 

 limited regions of the body. Again, a muscle may be 

 faradised directly, when the moist electrodes are so 

 applied that the current is sent to the muscle sub- 

 stance itself, or indirectly when the stimulus is applied 

 to the nerve which supplies the muscle. As has been 

 seen (page 68), a feebler current will produce contrac- 

 tion of a muscle when applied to its motor nerve, than 

 when applied to its own substance. Certain places can 

 be marked 011 the skin, from which an induced current, 

 applied by a moist sponge electrode, can reach the 

 motor nerves of separate muscles or groups. These 

 are termed MOTOR POINTS. 



APPLICATIONS OF ELECTRICITY. 



The two chief purposes for which electricity is 

 therapeutically employed are (A) for DIAGNOSIS, and 



(B) for TREATMENT. 



Diagnosis. The electrical current is employed : 



(1) To detect alterations of irritability or sensibility, 



(2) to aid in distinguishing between forms of paralysis, 



