MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 13 



satisfied with these results, he wished to obtain proofs of the 

 farther action of Galvanism on the actions of the blood-vessels. 

 Having abraded the skin of the wrist, attended with the 

 effusion of a small quantity of blood, at the part where the 

 radial artery is extremely superficial, he laid on the wound a 

 coating of zinc, touching it also with a silver coin. As long 

 as the contact continued, he felt a tension which extended 

 to the ends of his fingers, together with a shooting and 

 tremulous sensation in the whole extent of the palm of the 

 hand ; this painful sensation became manifestly more in- 

 tense, whenever the edge of the coin was brought in contact 

 with the zinc, and the irritation likewise augmented the dis- 

 charge of blood. The coagulation of the blood, however, 

 intercepted the action and diminished the eifect; Humboldt 

 now took a scalpel, and having made a slight incision in the 

 part, the Galvanic process, which he continued for several days 

 successively, produced a very decided inflammation. 



During this period, when so much attention was directed to 

 physiological researches, attempts were likewise made to apply 

 Galvanism to medicine. Creve proposed its application to 

 distinguish real from apparent death or asphyxia : when the 

 muscular fibres contract, ft is a proof that irritation is not 

 entirely destroyed, and under such circumstances, it would 

 be utterly impossible to decide that the individual was really 

 dead; but Humboldt, who experimented on the same subject, 

 was inclined to believe that Galvanism, in these instances, 

 might induce error, since the practitioner might decide that 

 death had really taken place, in a case where, probably, there 

 was but a more or less temporary want of irritability. 



Many experiments were made at this time at the Ecole de 

 Medicine, relative to the treatment of disease by Galvanism ; 

 the commission who drew up the account of these experiments 

 came to the conclusion that, " the effects of Galvanism were 

 more apparent and more powerful in the nerves and muscular 

 system than ordinary electrical machines ; that it gives rise to 

 violent contractions, painful sensations of pricking and burning 

 in those parts which a state of disease renders insensible to 



