36 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



pain as possible ; as in children, and in cerebral paralysis, when it 

 is necessary to avoid reaction of the nervous centres. 



The current of the first helix, the tension of which is feeble, 

 succeeds perfectly in cases where it is desired to excite acutely the 

 sensibility and the contractility of small and superficial muscles, 

 without going beyond their limits ; as in paralysis with muscular 

 insensibility, or local atrophy. In paralysis of the seventh pair, 

 for instance, when the electric contractility is more or less weakened, 

 it is indicated to excite acutely the muscles that are paralysed. 

 These are of small thickness, and it is necessary to select for them 

 the current of least tension (that of the first helix) when it is not 

 wished to carry the excitation too deeply. 



The singular property possessed by the current of the first helix, 

 of exciting acutely the sensibility of the bladder and rectum, is 

 valuable in cases where these organs are the subjects of simple 

 ancesthesia, or when, at the same time, their contractility is lost 

 or diminished. I shall describe hereafter a case of anaesthesia 

 of the bladder, which by itself constitutes a serious affection, since 

 the patient, feeling no desiiife to micturate, allows the organ to 

 become distended, and is unconscious of its fulness until this is 

 manifested by dribbling. By such distension, the bladder becomes 

 paralysed secondarily. In such a case it is plain that the current 

 of the first helix would be indicated ; but in a case of muscular 

 paralysis of the bladder, where one feared any over-excitation of 

 the sensibility, the current of the second helix, which acts power- 

 fully on the contractility and feebly on the sensibility of the organ, 

 ought to be preferred. The same considerations are applicable to 

 paralysis of the sensibility or of the contractility of the rectum.^" 



Different denominations of the various Jcincls of elestricitij. 



It follows, from what has been said, that each of the sources of 

 electricity, of which I have described the physiological and thera- 

 peutical properties, responds to special indications. It is, there- 

 fore, necessary to introduce a nomenclature to express clearly the 

 employment of each. 



The word electrization should be used only in a general sense. 



The application of frictional electricity may be called static 



1° In the face of the facts set forth in is to omit from consideration evidence 



the preceding pages, to maintain before obtained by electro-physiological experi- 



an Academy of Sciences, in the present nients and by a long course of clinical 



day, that the extra current and the observation, or is a proof of such igno- 



current of tlie first order, independently ranee as to imply absolute incompetence 



of their tension, have no elective proper- to deal with any electro-physiological or 



ties with regard to this or that function, therapeutical question. 



