AppUcatton of this Fluid and -EleBrici/jf to Medicine. 3 Z^ 



gave orders that he (hould be broncht back next day, that 

 the operation might be repeated. It was two o'clock in the 

 afternoon when the patient was Galvanized, and at fix next 

 morning he came to Roffi himfelf to tell him that he was 

 completely cured, as he experienced no pain or difficulty of 

 fwallowirg, and was entirely freed from his averfion to water 

 and to liquids: no perfuafion, however, could induce him to 

 fubmit to a new operation. 



" But a ft-w days after, fome (light pains havin? given him 

 reafon to api reheud a new attack of hydrophobia, he re- 

 turned io Ra[}l, who bv repeating the operation made all the 

 fymptoiiK difappear. This cure was alio effe6ted in the pre- 

 fcnce of ie' cral pcrfons. The patient was endowed with fo 

 great fcnfibility, ihat for more than a month after he felt in 

 the Ihoulders a fenuition of the Galvanic fliocks, whi; h I 

 felt only a? far as t!ie articulation of the finger, though I am 

 not one of the Icall fenfible. You fee by thefe trials what 

 are the advantages which may be hoped for from Galvanifm. 

 I enterlaiu no doubt that a mean fo a6live may preferve from 

 the grave many individuals, by Galvanizing them at the mo- 

 ment when the play of the vital organs is fufpended by an 

 accidental caufe. 



*' This will become more evident by an explanation of the 

 medical action of ele6lricitv on the human body, 



*' Several celebrated writers have clafled ele6lrlcity among 

 thofe remedies which are moft certain and moft afilive; 

 others have fliown the inutility, and even dcUiger, of this 

 fluid confidered as a remedy j and both fcem to be fupported 

 by well attefted fafls. 



"Nothing, however, can be more eafily explained, if we re- 

 fleft, that moft of thofe who have applied eletlricity to me- 

 dicine have been guided bv quackerv, without confultincr the 

 nature of the difcafe, or of the agent which they employed. 

 For this reafoa I ftated in the memoir which is about to ap- 

 pear in the Tranfaftionj of the Academy, that the greateft 

 circumfpeclion (lioukl be obfervcd in the ufe of Galvanifm, 

 which, like cleftricity, may be attended with bad confe- 

 quences ; and even advanced, that the latter, though a very 

 good remedy of itfelf, has done more hurt than good by im- 

 proper application. 



" I (hall not here fpeak of the chemical properties which 

 during the cnthufiafit) of novelty has been afcribed to elec- 

 tricity, fuch as that of transfufiug into the human botly the 

 aftion of remedies enclofed in glafs tubes, by rubbing it with 

 ihcm. 



*' It is well known that it is the fate of new difcoverics to be 

 Y ^ exaggerated. 



