198 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



the patients 1 several tinier produced reflex contractions in the paralysed lower 

 limbs, lohile causing the passage of a strong continuous current, now through the 

 median noio through the crural nerve. The leg iixis extended upon the thigh, the 

 fore-arm upon the arm, and at the same time the hand was opemd. The patient 

 (a woman 30 years of age) pointed out to me that the same thing happened 

 nearly always when she ya^^Tied or experienced any emotion, especially npon 

 awaking in the morning. In none of the other patients could I produce 

 reflex contractions, whatever might be the intensity of the continuous cur- 

 rent or of its passage through the nerve. I remarked nothing but contrac- 

 tion of the muscles governed by the nerve excited. The patients, however, 

 told me that their flexed and contracted limbs often became extended, and 

 that their hands would open when they yawned or sneezed, or under the 

 influence of any movement made with effort. 



Let us admit that the reflex contractions described by Kemak 

 commonly occur under the influence of continuous currents 

 traversing the nerve-trunks, and let us inquire their significance 

 and their value. 



Remak sees in these phenomena the proof of the electro-physio- 

 logical fact that he believes himself to have discovered, — the 

 galvano-tonic contraction produced by the continuous constant 

 current, and which he has made one of the fundamental bases 

 of his method of galvanization. Thus, in his experiments (see 

 Case XIII.) the excitation of sensitive fibres, produced by the 

 continuous current in the crural or sciatic nerve, should have 

 reached the spinal origin of these sensitive fibres in the lumbar 

 regions ; and then, passing along the whole length of the spinal 

 cord to the origin of the brachial plexus of the same side, the 

 current has exerted an elective action upon the motor fibres, 

 which produce extension of the different segments of the upper 

 limb, and principally upon the radial nerve. 



For the clinical practitioner this experiment will not have the 

 signification that has been given to it by Iiemak. Who, indeed, does 

 not know that in the secondary contractions that supervene upon 

 hemiplegia symptomatic of cerebral haemorrhage, the side of tlie 

 spinal cord, which supplies nerves to the paralyzed muscles, acquires 

 an extreme excitability, and that the slightest impression from an 

 external or peripheral cause may produce spasmodic contractions 

 precisely like those which Remak considers as reflex contractions, 

 specially produced by the influence of continuous currents upon 

 certain sensitive nervous zones? Who has not seen in the hemi- 

 plegic paralytic contractions, the fingers, the hand, and the fore- 

 arm, which remain in continuous flexion, sometimes extend them- 

 selves completely during yawning, sneezing, or under the influence 

 of any impression or emotion whatever (see Case XIV.). 



Sometimes the same phenomenon is produced during a voluntary 

 movement of the lower limb; thus, I have then seen in hemi- 

 plegics, with contracted upper limbs, sometimes the hand open 



