ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 195 
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 
