C 481 3 
L 1 X. An Account of the EffeEts of EleBri- 
city in paralytic Cafes . In a Letter to 
John Pringle, M. D. F. R. S. from Ben- 
jamin Franklin, Efq\ F. R- S. 
S I R, 
Read Jan. 12, rpHE following is what I can at pre- 
17581 fent recoiled, relating to the ef- 
fects of eledricity in paralytic cafes, which have 
fallen under my obfervation. 
Some years fince, when the news-papers made 
mention of great cures performed in Italy or Ger- 
many, by means of eledricity, a number of para- 
lytics were brought to me from different parts of 
Penfylvania, and the neighbouring provinces, to be 
eledrifed ; which I did for them at their requeft. 
My method was, to place the patient firft in a chair, 
on an eledric {tool, and draw a number of large 
ftrong fparks from all parts of the affeded limb or fide. 
Then I fully charged two fix-gallon glafs jars, each of 
which had about three fquare feet of furface coated ; 
and I fent the united fhock of thefe thro’ the affeded 
limb or limbs ; repeating the ftroke commonly three 
times each day. The firft thing obferved was an 
immediate greater fenfible warmth in the lame limbs, 
that had received the ftroke, than in the others : 
and the next morning the patients ufually related, 
that they had in the night felt a pricking fenfation in 
the flefh of the paralytic limbs ; and would fome- 
times fhew a number of fmall red fpots, w hich they 
Vol. 50. Qqq fu P- 
