FRICTIONAL ELECTRICITY. 



45 



testicle, are usually subjected. The common method of employ- 

 ing the aura is to present a pointed director, connected by a chain 

 with the conductor of the machine, and held by a glass handle, 

 to the part affected. The particles of air in contact with the 

 point are highly electrified, and immediately repelled. The 

 same occurs to those which take their place, and so on in suc- 

 cession, producing a current of highly excited air, which is, as 

 has been just described, directed upon the organ which is to be 

 treated. 



When the point which terminates the director is of baked 

 wood, which, as is well known, is a bad conductor of the elec- 

 tric fluid, the electricity does not issue in a stream as in the 

 former case, but as a succession of sparks, exceedingly minute, 

 which produce in the part of the body upon which they are 

 directed, a sensation perfectly similar to that which attends elec- 

 trization across flannel. This kind of electricity is applicable to 

 cases where the aura is not sufficiently energetic, and, where 

 the sparks proceeding from a ball are found too pungent. 



When it is required to apply electricity to deep-seated parts, 

 such as the interior of the mouth, or the bottom of the external 

 meatus of the ear, a particular form of director has been devised. 

 It consists, as is shown in the accompanying 

 diagrams, Fig. 5 and 6, of a glass tube of 

 about one-tenth of an inch internal diameter, 

 open at one end, and closed at the other by 

 a cork, through which is made to slide a 

 brass wire terminated within by a small ball. 

 To apply this instrument, the open end of 

 the tube is introduced into the cavity, and 

 the internal extremity being brought as near 

 to the affected part as may be deemed advi- 

 sable, sparks, or the aura, are communicated 

 in the usual way. The glass tube, from its 

 non-conducting properties, prevents any late- 

 ral divergence of the electric fluid, and 

 directs it upon the point placed immediately 

 beneath its orifice. 



Fig. 5. 



Fig. 6. 



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