300 Notices respecting New Books. 
«¢ The galvanism was seldom used more than onee aday. In 
some of the more severe cases it was used morning and evening. 
About a sixth part of those who have used it appear, as far as 
we yet know, to have obtained a radical cure. It in no case 
failed to give more or less relief, provided there was little inflam- 
matory tendency. It failed to give considerable relief only in 
about one-tenth; I may add, that were it only the means of 
present relief, we have reason to believe that, as being more in- 
nocent, it would be found preferable to the heating, spirituous, 
and soporific, medicines, which are so constantly employed in 
this disease. 
« As it often happened that a very small Galvanic power, that 
of not more than from four to six four-inch double plates, re- 
lieved the dyspnoea, may we not hope, that a Galvanic apparatus 
may be constructed, which can be worn by the patient, of suffi- 
cient power to prevent its recurrence in some of the cases in 
which the occasional use of the remedy does not produce a ra-~ 
dical cure ? 
‘© | wished to try if the impression on the mind, in the em- 
ployment of galvanism, has any share in the relief obtained from 
it. 1 had not at this time seen its effects in apoplexy. I found 
that by scratching the skin with the sharp end of a wire, I could 
produce a sensation so similar to that excited by galvanism, that 
those who had most frequently been subjected to this influence 
were deceived by it. By this method, and arranging the trough, 
pieces of metal, &c. as usual, I deceived several who had formerly 
received relief from galvanism, and also several who had not 
yet used it. All of them said that they experienced ne relief 
from what I did. Without allowing them to rise, I substituted 
for this process the real applieation of galvanism, merely by im~- 
mersing in the trough one end of the wire with which I had 
scratched the nape of the neck, the wire at the pit of the stomach 
having been all the time applied as usual by the patients them- 
selves. Before the application of the galvanism had been con- 
tinued as long as the previous process, they all said they were 
relieved. I relate the particulars of the two following experi- 
ments, because, independently of the prineipal object in view in 
making them, they point ont two circumstances of importance 
in judging of the modus operand: of galvanism in asthmatie 
cases. 
« The first was made on an unusually intelligent lady, of about 
thirty-five years of age, who had for many years laboured under 
habitual asthma, than whom J have known none more capable 
of giving a distinct account of their feelings. Her breathing was 
very much oppressed at the time that she first used galvanism. 
The immediate effect was, that she breathed with ease. She 
' said 
