240 LOCALIZED ELECTEIZATION. 



I have shown in the second chapter that when ek^ctric excitation 

 is localized in organs or tissues situated beneatli tlie skin, the 

 recomposition of the current occurs at a greater depth, the greater 

 the degree of its tension. It ibllows that a current, the tension 

 of which is too feeble, will not penetrate to the muscles if the 

 subcutaneous areolar tissue 0]3poses to it too great a thickness, 

 either from the deposition of fat or from serous infiltration. In- 

 deed, the instances in which the thickness of the areolar tissue 

 opposes a great resistance to electric currents are not rare, espe- 

 cially in the lower limbs. It has even happened to me that the 

 tension of my most powerful faradic apparatus has been insufficient 

 to overcome this resistance, and that I have been compelled to 

 call to my aid the more penetrating tension of a Leyden jar. It 

 is on account of such cases that a faradic apparatus cannot be too 

 powerl'ul. It must be remembered that, whatever be the degree 

 of tension, the apparatus may always be used without too much 

 pain, if only care be taken that the intermissions are sufficiently 

 distant. 



There are also pathological conditions against which the 

 apparatus cannot be too powerful. Among the forms of paralysis 

 caused by injury to the nerves there are some which deprive the 

 muscles of all their properties, so that they have completely lost 

 both contractility and sensibility. The skin, and even the bones, 

 are equally rendered insensitive, and the paralysed limb becomes 

 shrivelled and as if death-stricken. In such cases, of which I have 

 seen many, and which I have made the subjects of special investi- 

 gation, it has been necessary to have recourse to an apparatus of 

 enormous intensity, and I have even had to regret the want of one 

 still more powerful. It was only after I had recalled some life to 

 the limbs that I was able to diminish the intensity of the current, 

 and that an apparatus of medium power became sufficient. Other 

 muscular affections also, of a different kind, of which there will be 

 due notice in the course of the volume, require the use of very 

 powerful instruments. 



Hysterical anaesthesia of the skin may be cured, in general, 

 with an apparatus of ordinary power, provided that the inter- 

 missions are extremely rapid. But I have met with a certain 

 number of such instances, and also with cases of cutaneous anaes- 

 thesia of a different kind, which have resisted currents of medium 

 intensity, and have only yielded to an apparatus which acted in 

 the most energetic way upon the sensibility of the skin. 



