CUTANEOUS ELECTRIZATION. 89 



arliilt, it is possible, with the help of a compass, to ascertain exactly 

 the points). 



Since Dr. Zierassen has made himself acquainted with my reply 

 to M. liemak, he should have understood, it seems to me, after the 

 detailed explanations into which I entered, and which have been 

 reproduced above: — 



(1). That my manner of practising direct muscular excitation is 

 not that which he has described as being mine. It is true, indeed, 

 that I sometimes place my rheophores over the points of immersion 

 or emergence of muscular nerves, in order to produce the con- 

 traction en masse of each muscle ; but, again, I sometimes avoid 

 these points of immersion, in order to obtain isolated action of the 

 fasciculi, which often, indeed, are really independent muscles. 



(2). That it is, consequently, not sufficient to mark, as he has 

 done, the points of immersion of the muscular nerves ; but that it 

 is also necessary, as I have given an example in p. 86, to point 

 out the spots on which the rheophores should be placed when it 

 is desired to throw only single portions or fasciculi into action. 

 (These points are not always easy to find ; and, as Remak says, 

 I have sometimes had to seek them empirically.) 



(3). That the figures, on which the points of emergence and of 

 immersion of the nerve are marked by a sign, are certainly 

 useful ; but that they are not sufficient for practical purposes. It 

 is necessary, in fact, and I cite, as an example, the faradization of 

 the extensor communis digitorum or of its fasciculi, to choose a 

 fixed marked point, and to make known the average distances 

 between the marked point and the point of election. 



Part the Third, 



cutaneous electrization. 



Cutaneous electrization may be practised by means of either 

 static or dynamic electricity. 



§ I. — Electrization of the sldn hy static electricity. 



In order to limit static electricity to the skin, it is necessary to 

 use only a feeble degree of tension. Indeed, cutaneous excitation, 

 by that form of electricity, does not exceed certain degrees of 

 tension without penetrating more or less deeply to subcutane- 

 ous organs and producing shock. For this reason, the therapeutic 

 action of cutaneous static electrization, which must be very weak 

 in order to be confined to the skin, is seldom indicated and almost 

 always insufficient, as I have shown already in Chapter I. 



