[ 559 3 
whom the eleCtrical operations have had greater good 
effeCt than I have ever elfe been able to obferve. Eli- 
zabeth Stokes, aged twenty-three, a very lufty and/ 
healthy woman, was, in the beginning of January lath, 
feized with a rheumatic kind of pain in her right arm, 
particularly about the wrift ; and in two or three 
days time afterwards, the finger and thumb of that 
hand contracted up fo clofe, that they could not be 
opened with any force the girl herfelf could ufe to 
them. In this manner fhe continued till January ir, 
when fhe came to our infirmary : her hand and fin- 
gers then feemed to be greatly fwelled,but clofe drawn 
together ; her arm was pained from the contraction 
of her hand; and from a creeping pain fhe felt about 
her wrift and elbow, fhe was apprehenfive thole 
joints were about to be drawn up as the hand. She 
had at this time loft all kind of fenfation in the hand 
itfelf, which felt cold to the touch, and looked livid. 
In every other refpeCt fhe was in perfect health* 
Imagining the contraction a confequence of the 
rheumatic pain, I advifed her to the ufe of gum- 
guaiac. twice a day, with a julep of fpir. mindereri, 
&c. as in our own Pharmacopeia, and to rub the part 
affeCted well, thrice a day, with a fiefh-brufh, and 
afterwards with linimentum faponaceum. This 
fhe continued five days Without the leaft obfervable 
alteration; when finding her no better, I directed 
our apothecary, Mr. Winnal, to draw the eleCtrical 
fparks fropi the contracted hand, and to communi- 
cate the fhock alfo, by means of the wire-chain tied 
about her wrift from the fufpended ph ah This he 
undertook to do on Friday the 23d, and for the firft 
half hour the girl did not feem at ail fenfible of the 
4 B 2 eleCtrical 
