ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 171 



terns of electric medical treatment, after the extraordinary 

 illusions of their earlier days had vanished, would at length 

 have sunk into disuse, had they not escaped from the ruts 

 of empiricism. With its usual boldness, it had at first 

 gained them a high rank, which it had no power to main- 

 tain. It was experimental physiology, with its exact analy- 

 sis of the mechanical effects of this fluid upon the springs 

 of the organism, which made its application in the healing 

 art sure, true, and solid, as it now is. In this, as in all 

 things, blind art has been the impulse to scientific research, 

 which in turn steadily enlightens and perfects art. 



It is singular that induction currents have met with much 

 better fortune than galvanic ones. The latter, the use of 

 which introduced electric treatment, have gained real im- 

 portance in physiology and medicine only within a few 

 years, and after the reputation of induction currents was 

 well established, thanks chiefly to the efforts of Duchenne. 

 A German physiologist and anatomist, Remak, who died 

 six years ago, was the first to urge the singular remedial 

 virtues of the voltaic current. Remak, after devoting 

 twenty years to the study of the most difficult ques- 

 tions in embryology and histology, undertook, in 1854, the 

 systematic examination and ascertainment of the action of 

 continuous currents on the vital economy. He soon gained 

 remarkable dexterity in dealing with the electric agent, 

 and detecting with the readiest insight the proper points 

 for applying the battery-poles in each malady. Those who, 

 with us, witnessed in 1864 his practice at the hospital, will 

 remember it clearly. The methods of Duchenne were al- 

 most the only ones accepted in practice in France, till 

 Remak came to prove to Paris physicians the powers of 

 electrization by constant currents, in cases where Faraday's 

 currents had been without effect. The teaching of the 

 Berlin practitioner bore its fruits. A rising young physi- 

 cian, Hiffelsheim, was beginning to spread throughout Paris 



