260 STUDIES IN ELECTRO-PHYSIOLOGY: 



ON DISEASE IN GENERAL. 



In connection with electro-diagnosis I have postulated, 

 both verbally and in print, that any physical change in the 

 body must be attended by a neuro- electrical change, which 

 can only be galvanometrically detected ; and that the 

 process of restoring the one to normality tends, automatic- 

 ally, in the great majority of disorders, to restore the 

 other to normality. 



Disease is a deviation from the state of health, implying 

 some alteration in the functions, properties, or structure of 

 some organ or tissue, and may be generally described as 

 an abnormal performance of the processes constituting 

 life. That being so, it would be illogical to imagine that 

 one of the most delicate and most necessary of those 

 processes, i.e., the maintenance and regulation of the 

 neuro- electrical system, could proceed without deviation in 

 any diseased area. 



GALVANOMETRIC TESTS OF OTHER DISEASES. 



NEURASTHENIA. 



To my mind a knowledge of the electro-pathology of 

 this disease is of vital importance to humanity, as, so far, 

 it is imperfectly understood and, therefore, imperfectly 

 dealt with. Neurasthenia, of course, means nervous 

 weakness, but viewed from an electro-pathological stand- 

 point it has a characteristic which differentiates it from 

 any other irregularity of the nervous system with which I 

 am acquainted, and which I believe to be peculiar to a new 

 disease. It certainly has one feature in common with 

 nervous weakness, and that is a deficiency of nerve- 

 energy ; but while asthenia exhibits a low hand-to-hand 

 deflection, it is constant, whereas the neurasthenic deflec- 

 tion is so variable as to sign of current that the light is 

 never at rest. It may be anything from 5 to 90 mm. or 

 so, but will be both positive and negative, moving slowly 

 and erratically backwards and forwards, from one side of 



