82 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



promotes a more equable circulation in the lungs, 

 the blood will be better oxygenated according to 

 principles previously stated, and, therefore, as the 

 state of the stomach depends on these conditions, 

 its function will be accelerated according to the 

 correctness with which they are performed. Gal- 

 vanism will also act upon the stomach in the same 

 manner that it does upon the lungs ; but the effects 

 will here be confined to an improvement in the 

 distribution of the blood, while, in the other 

 case, it tends to improve the properties of this 

 fluid by removing all disabilities to its circula- 

 tion, and to the chemical influence of the in- 

 spired air. 



If I were required to bring forward any proofs 

 in support of the influence of galvanism, 1 would 

 adduce the application of this agent to practice, 

 and the results which followed its action, as 

 stated by WILSON PHILIP himself. He says, 

 " That both the oppressed breathing and the 

 collection of phlegm caused by the division of 

 the eighth pair of nerves, may be prevented by 

 sending a stream of galvanism through the 

 lungs :"* And still further, " When there is a con- 

 siderable tendency to inflammation in habitual 

 asthma, the repeated application of galvanism 

 sometimes increases it so much, that the use of 

 this influence no longer gives relief till the in- 



* Dr WILSON PHILIP on the Vital Functions, p. 315. 



