118 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



faradization will recall sensibility only in the points which are 

 brought into contact with the rheophores. It thence follows that, 

 in order to obtain a cure by electro-puncture, it would be necessary 

 to cover, with a great number of needles, the whole of the portion 

 of surface that had lost its sensibility. It is manifest that such 

 an operation woukl be impracticable, especially if it were to be 

 frequently repeated. In certain slight cases the excitation pro- 

 duced by a very small number of needles may be sufficient to 

 restore the sensibility ; but such cases are only exceptional. 



Electro-puncture is not available for the restoration of tactile 

 sensibility to the hand or to the sole of the foot; because we 

 cannot insert needles into either the fingers or the plantar integu- 

 ment without danger of producing inflammation or whitlow. 



3. Electro-puncture, applied to the treat)iient of paralysis of move- 

 ment, does not appear to produce the results that are obtained 

 hy localized electrization. 



Numerous and incontestable instances of success bear witness to 

 the therapeutic power of electro-puncture in the treatment of 

 muscular paralysis ; and it has done much more than the methods 

 which preceded it. It must, however, yield the palm to localized 

 faradization, by the aid of moist rheophores placed upon the sound 

 skin; a method the importance of which I shall shortly have to 

 establish. 



There are no rules with regard to the manner of applying 

 electro-pimcture in paralysis. In what points of the paralysed 

 limbs should the needles be inserted ? In what number should 

 they be employed ? What degree of power should be employed ? 

 All this is left to the determination of each operator. 



Some practitioners, after the example of Magendie, have en- 

 deavoured to pass the needles into the nerve-trunks which supply 

 the paralysed muscles. But it follows, from my investigations, 

 that the electric excitation of nerve-trunks, in the treatment of 

 paralysis, produces results that are but unsatisfactory. Moreover, 

 if the mode of excitation were excellent, the electrization of 

 nerve-trunks by puncture would almost always be impracticable, 

 for the reasons already stated. 



The method generally adopted is to place, at the superior and 

 inferior parts of the limb, needles that are connected with the 

 poles of a galvanic or faradic instrument. By this method 

 the excitation is produced in a most unequal manner, and affects 

 only a small number of muscles. Those muscles that do not 

 receive the stimulus directly, commonly remain paralysed ; some 



