30 DISEASES RELIEVED 



CHAPTER III. 



OF THE DISEASES IN WHICH MEDICAL ELECTRI- 

 CITY MAY BE APPLIED WITH HOPES OF SUCCESS. 



" THE uses of Electricity," observes Dr. Pereira,* " are partly 

 rational, partly empirical. When the indications are to excite a 

 nerve of sensation or of motion, or to produce a temporary con- 

 traction of the musles, or to promote transpiration and secretion, 

 its employment may be regarded as rational. But it is used 

 sometimes beneficially, in several diseases in which these indica- 

 tions are by no means obvious. In such its methodus operandi is 

 unknown, and its use may be regarded as empirical." 



We will proceed then to speak seriatim of the diseases in which 

 the application of Electricity has been attended with success. 

 The therapeutic uses of Electricity in any of its forms may be 

 classified in the following manner : 



1. To STIMULATE THE NERVES OF SENSATION. 



In cases of Nervous Deafness, the application of electricity 

 frequently affords relief; and from the experience of Mr. Carpue,f 

 about one out of five patients are permanently cured. If fric- 

 tional electricity be employed, sparks are to be thrown on, (by 

 means of the director described in the succeeding chapter, page 

 39) or drawn from the mastoid process, the parts around the 

 meatus auditorius externus, or the bottom of the meatus. If 

 preference be given to voltaic electricity or electro-magnetism, 

 one pole of the battery or director of the coil is introduced into 

 one ear, and the other into the opposite ear ; the circuit is then 

 to be rapidly broken and completed a number of times. 



Amaurosis. (Dimness of Sight.) In this disease, the aura and 

 sometimes slight sparks and shocks have been tried. It would 

 appear that the prospects of success depend principally, if not 

 entirely, upon the time the disease has existed. Mr. Hey pub- 



* Elements of Materia Medica, vol. i. 



t Carpue's Medical Electricity. Lond. 1803. 



