lo5 "Experiment with a Galvanic Belt. 



the medium of your valuable Magazine, to fubniit the fol- 

 lowing exjicriment to the confideration of vour readers, with 

 the hope that others will be induced to try it, and alfo that it 

 may aflbrd relief to fome labouring under fimilar complaints. 

 For a confiderable time pall I have been much troubled 

 with a conrtant pain in the finall of my back and loins, and, 

 although it refcmbled the lumbago, it was fcarce ever fo vio- 

 lent ; but I always felt it mod after fitting long in a reclined 

 or writing pofture ; fo that, if I arofe fuddenly, it was with 

 much difficulty. This complaint continued for eight or ten 

 months, and lately with increafing inconvenience. The idea 

 of a galvanic belt or chain, compofcd of zinc and copper, 

 had often occurred to me, and I waited only in liop< s of 

 hc:;iiig it bad been applied in f^mil.ir cafe? : but th" rxreri- 

 ments of fcientific men taking a different direftion, 1 made 

 a belt confifling of fifteen fmall fquare plates of zinc, and 

 connetted each with two links of plated copper wire, faften- 

 ing the two ends with a common hook and eye, fo that there 

 war a perfeft chain or circle of metal round my body, and 

 by that means no interruption of the eleftric fluid could take 

 place. I alfo covered about three parts of the chain with 

 leather, leaving the remainder to come into conta6l with the 

 part where I felt the mod pain, I had not worn this belt 

 twelve hours before I found fcnfible relief, and the pain gra- 

 dually left me. In three weeks I had not the leall return, 

 ^and after wearing the belt three months I concluded it had 

 anfwered all my expeftations. Bui, to put the experiment 

 beyond the poffibility of dovtbt, I difcontinued it, and had 

 no pain wh^atever in mv back for two months, when at times 

 I perceived the fame pain return. 1 again had recourfe to 

 the belt, and am now wearing it, which, as at firfi;, has re- 

 »ioved all pains in that part, and I feel no inconvenience 

 whatever. 



A (hort time after ufing the belt I obferved a confidera- 

 ble oxidation on the zinc, which, I fuppofe, was occafioned 

 by the perf'piring matter from my ll'cin, and which, 1 con- 

 clude, V. as the medium or exciting agent, as is the cafe with 

 the diluted nitric acid in the galvanic pile. By fcraping ofl" 

 the oxide, which I conllantly did once in three or four days, 

 I believe the efiW. became greater. 



In giving vou this plain but circumfiantial account, T truft, 

 a difcovery fo valuable will not be flighted, but that unpre- 

 judiced perfons will alfo make the trial ; and I particularly 

 recommend it to the attention of thole wlio have complaints 

 Sif the fame kind. 



XXII. I«- 



