THEORY OF DISEASE. 2G1 



bly, will imagine that electricity is to be considered 

 as the cause of the phenomena of motion in the 

 body ; but still, the medicinal action of electricity, 

 as well as that of a magnet, which, when placed in 

 contact with the body, produces a current of elec- 

 tricity, cannot be denied. For to the existing force 

 of motion or of disturbance there is added, in the 

 electrical current, a new cause of motion and of 

 change in form and structure, which cannot be 

 considered as altogether inefficient. 



Practical medicine, in many diseases, makes use 

 of cold in a highly rational manner, as a means of 

 exalting and accelerating, in an unwonted degree, the 

 change of matter. This occurs especially in certain 

 morbid conditions in the substance of the centre of 

 the apparatus of motion ; when a glowing heat and a 

 rapid current of blood towards the head point out an 

 abnormal metamorphosis of the brain. When this 

 condition continues beyond a certain time, experi- 

 ence teaches that all motions in the body cease. If 

 the change of matter be chiefly confined to the 

 brain, then the change of matter, the generation of 

 force, diminishes in all other parts. By surrounding 

 the head with ice, the temperature is lowered, but 

 the cause of the liberation of heat continues ; the 

 metamorphosis, which decides the issue of the dis- 

 ease, is limited to a short period. We must not 

 forget, that the ice melts and absorbs heat from the 

 diseased part ; that if the ice be removed before the 

 completion of the metamorphosis, the temperature 



