SECTION IV., 1907. {3 
— 
Traxs. R. S. C 
I.—The Influence of Electrolysis on the Nerve Centres. 
By Sir JAMES GRANT, K.C.M.G., F.R.C.P. 
Consulting Physician, General Hospital and St. Luke’s, Ottawa, Canada. 
(Read May 14, 1907.) 
In 1854, when a student at McGill University, my attention was 
directed to the marvellous operations of the nervous system, since which 
time I devoted spare hours to the problems of this intricate structure. 
Tear and wear are the result of both mental and physical strain, at no 
time more marked than in the present century. For many years I 
applied electricity in the ordinary way, frequently with beneficial results, 
without knowing exactly the why or the wherefore. 
The power of the galvanic current to decompose water was dis- 
covered, the first described by Nicholson and Carlisle in 1800. In 
1806 Sir Humphrey Davy presented to the Royal Society a lecture on 
some chemical agencies of electricity, and the following year announced 
the discovery of the decomposition of the fixed alkalies. The phenomena 
of electrolysis are due to a modification, by the current, of the chemical 
affinity of the particles through which the current passes, causing them 
to undergo decomposition and recomposition. In the electrolysis of 
inorganic substances, it cannot be expected to solve the mysteries of life 
and disease. As the body is largely composed of water, holding in 
solution salts of potash and soda, it thus becomes an excellent electrolyte. 
The current of a dry battery transmitted by an ordinary neurotone, is 
the simplest and most efficient method of electrical application. The 
umbilicus may be considered the storm centre, as far as collateral 
influence on the sympathetic system is concerned, as here the solar plexus 
approaches nearest the surface through its many filaments, which in turn 
accompany all the branches given off the abdominal aorta. It also 
interlaces with the nerve fibres of the phrenic plexuses, gastric, hepatic, 
and splenic plexuses, supro-renal plexuses, frenal plexuses, superior 
mesenteric plexus, spermatic plexuses, and inferior mesenteric plexuses. 
Although according to Bastion a wide basis of positive knowledge does 
not exist, it is accepted that the sympathetic system of nerves, with its 
double gangleonated cord and great gangleonic plexuses, is to a certain 
extent an independent nervous system, penetrating deeply by its roots 
