ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 173 
ed currents is not true as to currents from the battery. 
Far from being always a stimulant, the latter may become 
in certain cases, as Hiffelsheim maintained, a sedative and 
calming agent. This control over circulation, joined with 
the electrolytic power of the galvanic current, allows its 
employment in the treatment of various kinds of conges- © 
tions. A congested state of the lymphatic ganglia, the 
parotid glands, etc., may be relieved by this means, the 
current acting in such cases both on the contractility of 
the vessels and the composition of the humors. 
In cases of paralysis, more than any others, electricity 
displays all its healing power. Paralysis occurs whenever 
the motor nerves are separated from the nervous centres by 
any injuring cause, or by any modification of texture im- 
pairing their sensitiveness. With a destroyed nerve, pa- 
ralysis is incurable, but, in case of its disease only, its func- 
tions can almost always be restored by electric treatment. 
As there is always some degree of muscular atrophy in the 
case, electricity is directed upon the nerves and the muscles 
at once, and the battery and the induction current are usually 
employed together. Asa rule, the first modifies the gen- 
eral nutrition, and restores nervous excitability, while the 
last stimulates the contractile power of the muscular fibres. 
The difference of action between the two kinds of currents 
is clear in certain paralyses in which the muscles show no 
contraction under induction currents, while under the influ- 
ence of constant currents they contract better than the un- 
injured muscles. Experiments made some years ago in 
Robin’s laboratory, on the bodies of criminals executed, 
proved that, after death, muscular contraction can still be 
produced by Volta’s currents, though Faraday’s current 
has no such effect. 
When the motor nerves are in a state of morbid excite- 
ment, they compel either muscular contractions that are 
lasting, as tonic spasms, or intermittent ones. The differ- 
