ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 175 



Descending currents were then used for fifteen days in 

 succession, after which the little patient regained health. 

 A young girl aged seventeen, in hysteric condition, pre- 

 sented very strange symptoms in the larynx, the velum of 

 the palate, and the facial muscles, among others a sort of 

 barking, followed by vehement sniffing and horrible grim- 

 aces. By placing the positive pole in the patient's mouth 

 against the arch of the palate, and the negative pole on 

 the nape of the neck, all these morbid affections were com- 

 pletely subdued. The disposition of the poles in the re- 

 verse order, on the other hand, aggravated them. After 

 sixteen repetitions of electric treatment, the young girl 

 was almost completely cured, retaining only a muscular 

 twitch of little importance, compared with her former ail- 

 ments. Several cases of tetanus also were treated with 

 complete success by similar methods. This terrible dis- 

 ease, the most fearful of all surgical complications, is due to 

 an acute inflammation of the spinal marrow. It is followed 

 by such an alteration of the motor nerves, that all the 

 muscles of the body experience general contraction, and a 

 painful rigidity that by degrees attacks the vitally essential 

 organs. When an attack of this kind reaches the muscles 

 of the chest and heart, death occurs, through asphyxia. 

 In such a case the continuous current restores the motor 

 nerves to their normal state. Two other chronic diseases 

 of the spine, the first being particularly serious progres- 

 sive muscular atrophy and locomotive ataxy often yield 

 to the rational use of electricity, or at least are checked in 

 their progress, the natural issue of which is death. It is 

 worth remarking that these two disorders were discovered 

 and described by Duchenne, in the course of his researches 

 into this method of treatment. Electricity served his pur- 

 poses of diagnosis, as it serves in physiology as a means of 

 study, taking in that science the place of a kind of reac- 

 tive agent, and revealing functional differences that no 



