MEDICAL BATTERIES. 



67 



into a handsome mahogany box, which measures in length 14 inches, in 

 breadth 7^ inches, and in height 10 r inches (fig. 24). The cells containing 



Fig. 24. — Foveaux's portable battery 



the exciting fluid (diluted sulphuric acid), and which are constructed of 

 vulcanite, are attached to an ingeniously devised lifting arrangement. "When 

 the lid of the box is closed, and the battery is out of use, the cells and the 

 contained exciting fluid are depressed beneath the elements, and the latter are 

 no longer immersed. "When the lid of the battery is raised, to place the 

 instrument in use, the cells are elevated and the elements immersed in 

 proportion to the extent to which the lid is thrown back. By this arrange- 

 ment the zinc is withdrawn from the destructive action of the acid when the 

 apparatus is not in use, and the waste of the element may be obviated to the 

 greatest extent. I have used this battery chiefly, as yet, in cases in which 

 the interrupted galvanic current has been reqiiired for diagnostic or thera- 

 peutical purposes. A battery with the elements similarly arranged, but 

 somewhat ditterently packed (an earlier arrangement of M. Foveaux's), was 

 largely used for six weeks at the National Hospital for the Paralysed and 

 Epileptic, and at the end of that time was still effective. As a portable 

 battery, and for diagnostic purposes, Foveaux's battery leaves little or 

 nothing to be desired. It is exquisitely constructed, and fully supplies a long 

 felt need.— i/. T.] 



It has been said already that the calorific and electrolytic 

 action is diminished in the forms of apparatus just described 

 (the columnar battery, Pulvermacher's chain, Duchenne's ribbon 

 battery, Mathieu's battery), but it is not so much diminished that 

 it cannot be used in case of need. In fact, all these instruments 

 may be made entirely to disorganise the skin, causing it to pass 

 through every stage of burning, when their action is limited to 

 tliis organ. They may consequently replace, in a certain degree, 



F 2 



