ELECTRIZATION BY REFLEX ACTION. 129 



faradization of the cord by reflex action has power to re-excite 

 respiration that has been suspended for some minutes ; and that 

 it will also re-establish and develop the contractions of the heart, 

 when they are only appreciable by the feeble and very slow. oscil- 

 lations of a long needle thrust into the organ, although the 

 current employed has been very feeble, and insufficient to produce 

 reflex contractions in the limbs. 



II. Therapeutic action. 



Faradization by reflex action of the spinal cord, and of the 

 medulla oblongata is indicated in asphyxia ; and experimentalists 

 have thought that the best method of using it for this condition 

 is by placing one of the rheophores in the mouth, and the other in 

 the anus. 



A. — History. This method of general electrization by reflex 

 action was, as I have already stated, advised in 1825 by Leroy 

 (d'Etiolles), who used the galvanic current in cases of asphyxia. 

 It w^as again brought into notice, for the same purpose, by 

 MM. Legros and Onimus, with the difference that they employed 

 a battery of constant current, while Leroy had only the inconstant 

 battery of Wollaston. 



B. — Mij own first experiments. In 1851, 1 made my first experi- 

 ments upon the horse, with regard to the therapeutic action of 

 Leroy's method, modified by the substitution of the induced for the 

 galvanic current. 



An analysis of the physiological effects of this kind of faradiza- 

 tion soon assured me, that it was the most certain method to 

 excite the general reflex action of the cord ; that the reflex con- 

 tractions produced were very energetic; that with rapid inter- 

 missions they became -tetaniform ; and that with a very intense 

 current, they might rapidly produce asphyxia by contraction of 

 the muscles of the trunk, so that the method could not be used 

 in any strong dose without danger. 



But, as I found that in weak doses it neither arrested the 

 respiration nor. the circulation, although it still produced reflex 

 contractions of the limbs, I did not hesitate to apply it imme- 

 diately to the human subject. It will be remembered that I 

 experimented upon the hysterical patient whose case has been 

 already mentioned. I repeated, under analogous circumstances, 

 the same experiment upon others ; and I proceed to describe what 

 were the principal phenomena that I observed. 



Having commenced with a current of slight intensity, or too 

 weak to produce reflex contractions in the limbs, the patients 

 complained of no sensations, but such as were occasioned by a 



K 



