REQUISITES FOR ELECTRO-MEDICAL INSTRUMENTS. 237 



trivial, but accurate. The physiognomy then loses its stamp of 

 individuality ; the limbs assume vicious attitudes. It is under 

 such circumstances that, in order to re-establish the harmony of 

 the visual traits, or to correct certain deformities of the limbs, 

 I have rendered tense, so to speak, these muscular springs, some- 

 times by acting upon the relaxed muscles, sometimes by opposino- 

 artificial contraction of the antagonists to the contraction caused 

 by disease ; in either case by means of induced currents of extreme 

 rapidity. This new and very important subject will be fully 

 treated in a subsequent portion of the volume. 



(d). Lastly, experience has shown me that the use of currents 

 of rapid intermission is necessary in the treatment of certain 

 forms of muscular atrophy, whether they may be complicated 

 with paralysis or not. When, however, a muscle has in great part 

 undergone fatty, or granular, or grauulo-fatty degeneration, and 

 when there only remain a very small number of its fasciculi or 

 fibres, I have observed that the rapid intermissions have hastened 

 its destruction. 



B. — Conditions in ivhich rapid intermissions are contra-indicated. 



The utility and even the necessity of induction currents of rapid 

 intermission has been perfectly established by the foregoino- con- 

 siderations. Unfortunately, every medal has its reverse ; and the 

 very properties of these rapid currents render their employment 

 dano-erous or difficult in certain cases. 



{a). There is a period at which cases of paralysis of ceiebral 

 origin may be advantageously treated by local faradization ; and 

 it is when tlie primary lesion has disappeared or is diminished. 

 Tlie hsemorrhiigic effusion, for instance, will be absorbed, entirely 

 or in part, after the lapse of six months or a year. There will 

 only be left, in the brain, a cicatrix, or a cyst of small dimensions. 

 The influence of the brain is transmitted freely, or with diminished 

 difficulty, to the muscles; but these no longer react to the in- 

 fluence of voluntary excitation. In such a case, the paralysis may 

 be considered as limited to the muscles ; and then localized fara- 

 dization, as I have shown, will restore their aptitude for motion. 

 But how can we determine exactly the state of the brain ? It is 

 never possible to say at once that there is not, around the cyst, 

 some remnant of inflammatory action, undergoing resolution, but 

 which a spark may rekindle into flame. We know that the 

 occurrence of a cerebral haemorrhage predisposes to a second, in 

 consequence of the pathological conditions which exist in the 

 vascular system or the heart ; conditions which produce either 



