104 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



nervous affections of the viscera of the chest or abdomen, — for 

 instance, to gastralgia. It is needless to say that, in these cases, 

 the faradization of the pneumogastric should be practised at 

 different heights. 



The procedure is not always free from danger. I need only 

 recall the important organs that are subject to the pneumogastric, 

 in order to impress upon my brethren the need of great caution in 

 similar researches. The following accident occurred in my prac- 

 tice, and may serve as a warning to others. Whilst moving a 

 rheophore over the lateral and superior parts of the pharynx, with 

 a current of rapid intermission, but moderate intensity, the patient 

 fell suddenly into syncope. When restored, he said that he had 

 experienced a kind of suffocation, and an indefinable sensation. 

 Since then, having faradized the pneumogastric many times at the 

 same height, with one intermission per second, and with a very 

 moderate current, the same accident has not occurred, but the 

 prsecordial sensation has been felt every time. I once saw the 

 necessary caution neglected, in faradiziug the pharynx of a young 

 man, in whom that organ, and the velum palati, were paralyzed 

 consecutively to an angina. A profound syncope was immediately 

 produced by the operation ; and, in this case I have no doubt that 

 the pneumogastric had been irritated by the current. 



Faradization of the pneumogastric at the lower part of the 

 oesophagus may be practised without inconvenience. 



Case 11. — I made this application, in fact, a score of times, upon a woman 

 named Celestine Bonhamy, twenty-three years of age. The metallic oliye, 

 with its insulated stem, was carried to the lower part of the cesophagus, and 

 was bulky enough to be in contact with the internal surface of the canal, so 

 that the pneumogastrics, which, at the cardiac surface, are i3laced close to the 

 wall of the cesophagus, one in front and the other behind, could not escape 

 the action of the electric excitation. The rheophore (a moist sponge in a 

 cylinder) was placed upon the epigastrium. The application was made with 

 a view to modify the state of the digestive tube, which had seemed to be 

 paralysed for a month. The stomach was enormously distended with gas, 

 and the constipation obstinate. When I allowed the current to pass with 

 one intermission a second, the patient felt moderately painful shocks at the 

 level of the olive ; the stem was shaken by an evident movement, and the 

 patient liberated a considerable quantity of flatus. But no appreciable phy- 

 siological phenomenon was produced diu'ing the operation ; even when I had 

 increased the force of the current to the maximum of the apparatus. Once 

 I employed a very rapid current of slight intensity. The pain was very 

 acute, the patient complained of a deep constriction; but this was all. 

 There was no appreciable modification of temperature or circulation. 



I cannot leave this subject without mentioning an. experiment 

 that I made upon a man, after faradization of the pneumogastric. 

 I examined his urine after this excitation (once only, it is true), 

 and discovered the presence of glucose by the usual tests (liquor 

 potassae and Barreswell's solution). There was no glucose in his 



