118 REPORT—18638. 
sults), is the ‘“Faradization” form of electricity, (not applied to the heart, but) 
solely to or through the respiratory muscles, diaphragm, phrenic nerve, &c., so as 
to assist or originate, apparently, the only true form of artificial respiration so 
desirable. This form of electricity cures hemiplegia, by renewing the vital activity 
of muscles paralyzed for a time by a clot in the brain; but the ordinary electricity 
is directed Mack along the nerve to the brain, already disordered, and does mis- 
chief, and near the eye, for instance, may cause total blindness. So that, where 
we have already the brain under chloroform, the “ Faradization ” plan acts better 
by stimulating merely the diaphragm and other respiratory muscles; the mode 
of application found best in animals being an intermittent but gentle current 
passed through the phrenic nerve (where the omohyoid muscle im the neck lies 
at the outer edge of the sterno-mastoid) by means of the wetted sponge (not the 
dry sponge),—the other pole or sponge also, as in this lady’s case, wetted, applied 
somewhere about the floating ribs nearest to the diaphragm, or, still better, one or 
two acupuncture needles stuck at once into the latter muscle, so as to excite alter- 
nate action of the current from the neck to the respiratory muscles, and imitate 
normal respiration, In animals, this plan succeeds in a manner almost marvellous 
in restoring life where suspended animation exists. 
The patient, in the present case, was a poor married lady, otherwise in fair 
health, admitted to one of our private hospitals or “ homes,” who was operated 
on by one of the plastic operations on the female organs, so successful of late, 
thanks, too, in a great measure, to the calming influence of chloroform. Near 
the end of the operation, the author (Dr. Kidd), who watched the respiration and 
pulse all through its performance, was alarmed by both stopping, then going on 
again, but finally stopping, with all the usual signs of death by chloroform; the 
woman, in fact, lay in a state that it might be said death had obviously set in: 
she was cold, pulseless, without motion or breathing, her face like stone. The 
utmost alarm was instantly felt. The so-called “ready method” of Marshall Hall, 
as also the Silvester method of artificial respiration, were persistently had recourse 
to; still there was no pulse, no breathing, no animation. The lifeless or all but 
lifeless body, in a word, lay, as many of the animals poisoned by chloroform are 
seen to lie, till roused up by electricity. The author of the paper sent at once 
for the magneto-electric battery. Some confusiom arose at first in its appli- 
cation, as the handles or poles were not insulated, and the author himeel? was 
receiving the shocks, till a German physician, standing by, happily caught the 
metallic handles with his coat-tails (non-conductors). This ital incident is 
mentioned to show how totally unprepared for such accidents our London hos- 
pitals are. All the persons standing by, too, were erroneously solicitous that the 
electricity should be applied at once to the heart ; but the directions of the 
author were not to the heart at all, but to the phrenic nerve and diaphragm, as 
already described. The poor patient had now been lying some quarter of an hour 
pulseless, cold, and without breath, indeed Bai “dead.” Off and on, 
alternately, the moist poles were now applied about twelve times each minute, so 
as to imitate in somewise the stimulus af ordinary contractions of the diaphragm ; 
and soon, to the delight of the operator and all around, a deep sighing inspiration 
was noticed at each Thcak of the circle (this was a great relief ), increasing in full- 
ness till it was evident good respiration was established. No pulse, however, was 
yet perceptible, and cardiac action was still watched for with much eagerness. Mi- 
nutes on minutes passed away as hours: the patient moaned at the excitement of 
the phrenic and a pin stuck into the diaphragm (the author's scarf-pin, as no other 
was to be had); but still it was thought desirable to continue the application of 
the electricity: there was soon a flicker of the pulse, but not till the expiration of 
two hours was the pulse quite reestablished. It is worth being added, that the 
woman quite recovered, and had no recollection whatever of the four hours her 
life was in the balance and under the surgical operation. The case, as already 
stated, is chiefly remarkable as fully bearing out the efficacy of this form of elec- 
tricity, and applied only in this manner, as previously tried in hundreds of experi- 
ments on the lower animals. It has now been tried in four cases on the human 
subject. It places a serious responsibility on our London and other hospitals where 
the author’s views haye not yet been examined, and where deaths are ocewrring 
