ELECTRIZATION BY REFLEX ACTION. 131 



1868, on the use of continuous electric currents in cases of 

 syncope, and in accidents caused by chloroform. 



The authors (of the original paper) had said, " We will not pass 

 in review the other means (other than the continuous current), 

 that have been employed in the treatment of chloroform acci- 

 dents. All, perhaps, with the exception of artificial respiration, 

 have been useless ; and we assert that the interrupted or induction 

 currents, tvhich have heen extolled, cannot he condemned too strongly. 

 The hest means of completehj arresting the action of the heart, ivhen 

 iveahened hy an anaesthetic, is to i^ass over it an induced current. 

 We ought, therefore, to dread the use of an induction apparatus, 

 which will determine the very result that it is desired to avoid." 



After having described the experiments conducted by MM. 

 Legros and Onimus in the presence of the commission, the 

 reporter (M. Liegeois) has arrived at the conclusion that, notwith- 

 standing the interest attaching to these experiments, the commis- 

 sion is bound to observe, that they do not exactly correspond to 

 the title of the paper ; and that they are only strictly applicable, 

 in man, to asphyxia from chloroform, — an accident which, in his 

 view, is less frequently fatal, and is more amenable to treatment, 

 than chloroform syncope. Limited in its application to chloro- 

 form asphyxia, galvanization, as practised by MM. Legros and 

 Onimus, is certainly of incontestable efficacy. But M. Liegeois 

 has also reported another experiment tried before the commission, 

 which demonstrates, that the induced current, applied in an 

 equivalent dose and by the same method, that of Leroy (d'Etiolles), 

 restores from chloroform asphyxia as certainly as the continuous 

 current. "Upon our request," he writes, "to MM. Legros and 

 Onimus, that they would test the influence of an induced current 

 in our presence, a rat was chloroformed under the same bell-glass 

 and in the same manner as the former ones. It was witlidrawn 

 ^^hen the respiration, the sensibility, and the general movements 

 had completely ceased, although the action of the heart still 

 continued. They then passed the current of a Dubois-Kaymond 

 apparatus from the mouth to the anus ; but in order to approach 

 as nearly as possible, with our apparatus, to the slight intensity of 

 the continuous current, we requested the operator to employ the 

 most feeble that the instrument would yield. The current was 

 allowed to pass for a few seconds only, and, almost immediately 

 on its interruption, the respiratory movements returned, the 

 beats of the heart increased, then the sensibility and the voluntary 

 movements were gradually restored : the animal was saved." 



M. Liegeois has repeated this experiment upon a large number 

 of rabbits. M. Duchenne, jun., and myself have repeated it both 



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