CHAP, in.] ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. 189 



232. Medical Applications. Electric currents 

 have been successfully employed as an adjunct in 

 restoring persons rescued from drowning ; the contrac- 

 tion of the diaphragm and chest muscles serving to start 

 respiration. Since the discovery of the Leyden jar 

 many attempts have been made to establish an electrical 

 medical treatment. Discontinuous currents, particularly 

 those furnished by small induction-coils and magneto- 

 electric machines, are employed by practitioners to 

 stimulate the nerves in paralysis and other affections. 

 Electric currents should not be used at all except with 

 great care, and under the direction of regularly trained 

 surgeons. 1 



l It is not out of place to enter an earnest caution on this head against the 

 numerous quack doctors who deceive the unwary with magnetic and 

 galvanic "appliances." In many cases these much-advertised shams have 

 done incalculable harm : in the very few cases where some fancied good has 

 accrued the curative agent is probably not magnetism, but flannel ! 



