222 LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



or, more correctly, conduction checking or delaying influence, has been now 

 shown by physiological exj^eriment to attach to the positive pole. This is 

 the state of aneledroto^ms. But in mankind only vain endeavours to pro- 

 duce the anelectrotonic condition have been made; and especially the 

 experiments of Fick and myself in this direction have furnished wholly 

 negative results. 



We see into what a chaos of hvi^otheses the dogmas of Eeraak conduct us. 



Not less insecure is the ground of his statements upon the galvcmotonic 

 reflex contractions. These occur, according to him, through the intermedia- 

 tion of the central organ; and during ]ieripheral excitation of a cerebro- 

 spinal or sympathetic nerve. In excitalion of a motor nerve they do not 

 occur in its own muscles, but either in their antagonists (e. g., in the 

 extensors of the forearm when the median nerve is excited), gaJvanotonic 

 antarjonistie contraction; or in corresponding muscles of the opposite side 

 of the body, cri-fsed galvanotonic contraction ; or, lastly, through irritation of 

 two points, on the opposite side of the body, remote from the muscles to be 

 excited (^diphgic reflex contrci'tion). As the most important jioint at which 

 to undertake this irritation with the positive pole, Eemak mentions the 

 aiTriculo-mas;toid fossa, between the ascending ramus of the lower jaw, the 

 auricle, and the mastoid process, at the height of the siiperior cervical 

 ganglion. In a case, for example, of progressive atrophy of the muscles of 

 both upper extremities, Eemak places a jjositive electrode, furnished with 

 a knob at its extremity, on the spot above specified, on the right side, 

 and completes the circuit by a negative electrode with a larger surface of 

 contact, placed on the left margin of the sixth dorsal vertebra. Then, the 

 electrodes remaining stationary, with a current from thii-ty to thirty-six of 

 Siemens' elements, a contraction w-ill occur in the paralysed muscles of the 

 hand on the left side ; or of the same muscles on the right side, when the 

 positive electrode is jilaced in the left mastoid fossa, the negative remain- 

 ing as before. The latter, however, without diminution of the contraction 

 in the hand, can be moved do^^^l to the ]umT)ar region; but the contrac- 

 tion ceases as soon as the negative electrode is moved above the fifth dorsal 

 vertebra, or above a horizontal line j^assing through it.'' 



It w^ould lead us too far, to go more exactly into the details of this wholly 

 unintelligible reflex contraction of Eemak's. He himself admits that no ex- 

 planation of it can be given in the present state of our knowledge ; since he 

 says that the facts stand opposed to the formulae of physics and of physiology, 

 according to w-hich the eflects are more energetic the nearer the electrodes 

 to the parts influenced ; while here the contraction ceases as soon as both 

 electrodes are above the level of the fifth dorsal vertebra. Eemak suspects 

 that he produces simultaneous excitation of two distant sympathetic ganglia, 

 and that the excitation is conveyed from these to the spinal cord, and thence 

 to the motor fibres of the same or of the opposite side. 



Eemak describes the therapeutic effect of this diplegic central excitation 

 as very considerable. The atrophied muscles, which no longer display any 

 reaction to the direct influence of the constant current, not only contract, 

 but swell out, and recover their lost strength. 



Eemak found, moreover, such diplegic contractions in the muscles of the 

 hands in some cases of arthritis nodosa, in its early febrile stage. In these 

 cases the diplegic application produced a diminution of the pain and the 

 articular sw^elliug, increase in the circumference of the muscles, diminished 

 quickness of the pulse, and decrease of temperature. Moreover the produc- 

 tion of contractions was not always necessary. Without them, a gentle, 

 continued action was curative, when there were no profound lesions of the 

 spinal cord, or of the sympathetic ganglia. The internal administration of 



'' [As yot, after the most careful obser- ' called, has never been observed in the 

 vation, and equally careful and very practice and exiierimental researches at 

 necessary endeavour to exclude sources : the National Hospital for tlie Paralysed 

 of error, "rZ/p%?V reflex contraction." fio- and Epileptic. — H. T.'] 



