Lesson xxi.] ELECTKICITY. 131 



It is natural to imagine, that a power of such ef- 

 ficacy as that of Electricity, might be applied with 

 advantage to medicinal purposes; especially since 

 it has been found invariably to increase the sensible 

 perspiration, to quicken the circulation of the 

 blood, and to promote the glandular secretion : ac- 

 cordingly, many instances occur in the history of 

 this science, in which it has been applied with con- 

 siderable advantage and success. In most disor- 

 ders in which it has been used with perseverance, 

 it has given at least a temporary and partial relief, 

 and in many it has effected a total cure. Electrical 

 shocks, properly applied, have frequently cured the 

 ague, tooth-ach, head-ach, rheumatism, pain in the 

 stomach, sore throat, and sometimes the gout ; 

 deafness of several years' continuance has been re- 

 moved; and in one case, a person who had been 

 deaf from his birth, was cured by Electricity : it 

 has cured chilblains, and removed hard swellings 

 in various parts of the body j it has been success- 

 fully applied in bad spasmodic and paralytic cas^s f 

 it has cured the St. Vitus's dance; and it has in 

 one ease, if not more, restored* sight to the blind. 

 Since the science of Ereolricrty has been applied 

 to the desirable purpose of restoring health to the 

 sick, the emaciated, and infirm, often with con- 

 siderable success, even by gentlemen who are not 

 physicians, and consequently cannot be supposed 

 to distinguish always between cases where it may, 

 and where it may not, be advantageously applied; 

 it is much to be lamented, that medical gentlemen 

 of skill and judgment do not, more generally than 



they 



