58 ELECTRO-PUNCTURATION. 



example, a plate of silver is soldered T>y its edge to a plate of 

 zinc, and worn in the mouth, the saliva serving to excite the 

 apparatus, and to produce a voltaic circuit. In another contri- 

 vance, a plate of zinc is connected by its face to a plate of silver; 

 and a series of these compound plates are connected together by 

 wire, so as to move on each other like hinges. These are worn 

 next the skin for the relief of rheumatism, the perspiration 

 serving to excite the plates. Silver and zinc spangles have 

 likewise been employed, instead of the plates just mentioned. 



ELECTRO-PUNCTURATION, 



As it is usually denominated, is performed by inserting, in the 

 ordinary manner, two or more needles into the part or organ 

 affected, and then touching these with the wires from the poles 

 of a feeble galvanic battery, the contact being occasionally 

 suspended and renewed, so as to produce a succession of shocks. 

 It has been chiefly employed by Cloquet, at the Hospital of St. 

 Louis ; and from the reports of his friends, Pelletan and Dantes, 

 and from the treatise of the Chevalier Sarlandier, it would 

 appear to be a most powerful means of combating morbid 

 action. The diseases in which it has been successful have been 

 enumerated in a preceding chapter (page 36.) 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC COILS. 



There yet remain for description in this chapter, the most 

 recently invented and the most convenient instruments for the 

 application of Galvanism, usually called Electro-Magnetic Coils. 

 The limits to which we are compelled to confine ourselves, 

 preclude us from entering minutely into the experiments and 

 phenomena which led to their construction, and we shall therefore 

 content ourselves with simply enumerating the principles on 

 which their action depends, leaving the reader who may need 



