ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 173 



ed currents is not true as to currents from the battery. 

 Far from being always a stimulant, the latter may become 

 in certain cases, as Hiffelsheim maintained, a sedative and 

 calming agent. This control over circulation, joined with 

 the electrolytic power of the galvanic current, allows its 

 employment in the treatment of various kinds of conges- 

 tions. A congested state of the lymphatic ganglia, the 

 parotid glands, etc., may be relieved by this means, the 

 current acting in such cases both on the contractility of 

 the vessels and the composition of the humors. 



In cases of paralysis, more than any others, electricity 

 displays all its healing power. Paralysis occurs whenever 

 the motor nerves are separated from the nervous centres by 

 any injuring cause, or by any modification of texture im- 

 pairing their sensitiveness. With a destroyed nerve, pa- 

 ralysis is incurable, but, in case of its disease only, its func- 

 tions can almost always be restored by electric treatment. 

 As there is always some degree of muscular atrophy in the 

 case, electricity is directed upon the nerves and the muscles 

 at once, and the battery and the induction current are usually 

 employed together. As a rule, the first modifies the gen- 

 eral nutrition, and restores nervous excitability, while the 

 last stimulates the contractile power of the muscular fibres. 

 The difference of action between the two kinds of currents 

 is clear in certain paralyses in which the muscles show no 

 contraction under induction currents, while under the influ- 

 ence of constant currents they contract better than the un- 

 injured muscles. Experiments made some years ago in 

 Robin's laboratory, on the bodies of criminals executed, 

 proved that, after death, muscular contraction can still be 

 produced by Volta's currents, though Faraday's current 

 has no such effect. 



When the motor nerves are in a state of morbid excite- 

 ment, they compel either muscular contractions that are 

 lasting, as tonic spasms, or intermittent ones. The differ- 



