STATIC ELECTRICITY. 7 



It is universally known that the discharges of static electricity- 

 are very small in quantity ; and that for this reason their calorific 

 and electrolytic effects are feeble. 



Finally, the exciting action of the negative pole is greater than 

 that of the positive, as is also observed in galvanic electricity.* 



The organic phenomena just described appear to me to establish : 

 (1) that the discharge of a Leyden jar produces at first, locally, a 

 profound torpor, by suspending, for a time, the capillary circula- 

 tion, and by diminishing the calorification in the tissues upon 

 which it acts ; (2) that the excitement produced by this method 

 of electrization is only a kind of reaction, as shewn by the erythe- 

 matous redness, and by the augmentation of temperature in the 

 parts formerly bleached ; (3) that the reaction is established with 

 different degrees of facility. 



§ II. — TJieraj^eutical Properties. 



The electro-positive bath, formerly used as a general excitant of 

 the surface of the body, is now commonly abandoned, its therapeu- 

 tical being as little discoverable as its physiological action. 



It is not the same, it is said, with the electro-negative bath, 

 which is ranked by the Italian school among their most valuable 

 hyposthenisants. According to Giacomini, the patient subjected 

 to this bath is de-electrized, is consequently deprived of a greater 

 or less quantity of a stimulant analogous to heat, and undergoes a 

 real hyposthenisant effect. Erysipelatous tissues may be seen to 

 become blanched under its influence ; and chronic inflammations 

 undergo an unquestionable improvement. Headaches, and neu- 

 ralgic pains, have been instantly relieved by this kind of electric 

 flux, as by the application of ice, which abstracts heat, and perhaps, 

 at the same time, electricity also. Such are the virtues attributed 

 to the electro-negative bath. 



This notion of an electric flux may impress the imagination ; 

 but it is difficult to believe that the hyposthenic effect is less 

 doubtful than the excitant property once attributed to the positive 

 bath. It would, however, be wrong to condemn a therapeutic 

 agent solely on the ground of the nullity of its physiological action, 

 especially when it is supported by an authority so great as that of 

 Giacomini. It is therefore necessary to determine by fresh trials 

 what is the actual value of the electro-negative bath. 



■* This important fact was discovered ] sioJogiqttes produits par I' electricity U-ans- 

 by M. Cliauveau, the Director of the | mise dans I'organisme animal a l'(ftat de 

 anatomical and physiological courses at I courant instantan^, et a I'e'tat de courant 

 the Imperial Veterinary School at I^yons. continu.' 

 ISee his memoir : ' Theorie des effets phy- 



