Miscellanies. 397 
destroyed when at my next visit I found my patient, although in a 
free perspiration, still highly charged with the electrical excitement. 
And now if it is difficult to believe that this is a product of the an- 
imal system, it is hoped that the sceptics will tell us from whence it 
came.* 
In addition to the ordinary appurtenances of a parlor, it may be 
proper to add, that the lady’s apartment contained a beautiful cab- 
inet of shells, minerals, and foreign curiosities. 
This lady is the wife of a very respectable yentleman of this place ; 
she is aged about thirty, of a delicate constitution, nervous temper- 
ament, sedentary habits, usually engaged with her books or needle- 
work, and generally enjoying a fine flow of spirits. 
She has, however, never been in sound health, but has seldom 
been confined to her bed by sickness even for a day. 
During the past two years she has suffered several attacks of acute 
rheumatism, of only a few days’ continuance, but during the au- 
tumn, and the part of winter preceding ber electrical development, 
she suffered much from unseated neuralgia in the various parts of 
her system, and was particularly affected in the cutis vera, in tsola- 
ted patches; the sensation produced being precisely like that caused 
by the application of water heated to the point a little short of pro- 
ducing vesication; in no instance, however, did it produce an appa- 
rent hyperemia, but about the last of December a retrocession 
took place of this peculiar irritation, to the mucous membranes 
of the fauces, cesophagus, and stomach, there producing a very ap- 
parent hyperemia, and attended, during the exacerbations, with 
burning sensations that were torturing indeed; and it was for the 
relief of these symptoms that medical means were used, but it was 
found no easy matter to overcome this train of morbid action. 
It was nearly immaterial what medicines were used; no perma- 
nent relief was obtained, and -no advantage resulted from the use of 
the alkalies, or their varied combinations. In a few instances, a 
dose of the acetate of morphine was given to secure a night’s rest, 
but she seldom made use of an anodyne. 
The effervescing soda draught being very acceptable was freely 
given—from which, in addition to a rigid system of dietetics, the 
* It appears to be Dr. Hosford’s opinion, that the electricity was not caused by 
the aurora that was coincident with its first appearance, but thal it was, in some 
way, an appendage of the animal system.—Ed. 
Vou. XX XII.—No. 2. ol 
