188 Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



medy, and also electricity, were resorted to without effect. Galva- 

 nism was also attempted, but was so much resisted by the boy's 

 fears that it could not then be applied. His general health was in- 

 variably good. At length, by strong recommendation, his fears of 

 galvanism were overcome, and it was applied five different days. 

 On Friday week, being the evening of the fifth application, exactly 

 eight months to a day, he retired to bed as usual, and awoke sud- 

 denly about eleven o'clock, making so much noise as to awaken 

 some of his schoolfellows. Their astonishment produced so much 

 alarm that the nurse opened the door of her adjoining apartment to 

 learn the cause, when many voices exclaimed, " Oh ! nurse, Oldham 

 can speak again." The nurse doubting the fact, immediately went to 

 him, and discovered the reality of this phenomenon. In the morn- 

 ing the boy had quite recovered his speech, and <>n being asked if he 

 felt any peculiar sensation, merely said, he thought he was being 

 galvanised, as he felt the tip of his tongue affected, together with a 

 rumbling in his inside. His speech has continued perfect ever since. 



In addition to the above statement it may be proper to say, some 

 time previous to the commencement of the experiment, he was 

 brought to my house, but having been somewhere electrified, the boy 

 was so much frightened, on seeing a large apparatus in the room, 

 that, considering the agitation he then laboured under, I did not 

 think it prudent to urge him further, and he departed without being 

 galvanized. About two or three months after he came again, at- 

 tended by a medical assistant, with a note from Mr. Field, the re- 

 spectable apothecary to the Hospital, assuring me that the boy 

 was willing to submit to the experiment, and to be repeated accord- 

 ing to my direction ; and, in truth, he suffered me to proceed in a 

 willing manner. 1 began with a small galvanic trough, plates in 

 breadth and depth one inch, with diluted muriatic acid. Having 

 placed a piece of insulated platina on his tongue, which, holding in 

 his own hand, he could shift according to instruction, while I ap- 

 plied another conductor to different parts of the larynx, varying the 

 direction according as I perceived the muscles to be most easily 

 put in motion, and the vocal nerves apparently excited. F*y the ac- 

 count he gave after his recovery, a sensation of warmth always con- 

 tinued for some time as he returned home, and there constantly 

 occurred an increased flow of saliva during the operation. 



I am not aware that any further particulars are necessary to be 

 stated, as every person conversant with the medical application of gal- 

 vanism or electricity, must know the necessity of attending to the 

 present sensations, as a guide which admits of variation according to 

 the state or temperament of the sensory nerves at the time of applica- 

 tion. I deem it only necessary to add, that my young patient at- 

 tended three days in the week, and it was on the morning after the 

 fifth time that 1 received a grateful letter from the father, informinw 

 me of his son's entire restoration of speech at 1 1 o'clock on the pre- 

 ceding night, having been galvanized at 3 o'clock on the same day, 





