29 
in restoring the due action of the lungs. 
relief, we have reason to believe that, as being more innocent* 
it would be found preferable to the heating, spirituous, and 
soporific medicines, which are so constantly employed in this 
disease. 
As it often happened that a very small galvanic power, 
that of not more than from four to six four-inch double plates, 
relieved the dyspnoea, may we not hope, that a galvanic appa- 
ratus may be constructed, which can be worn by the patient, 
of sufficient power to prevent its recurrence in some of the 
cases, in which the occasional use of the remedy does not pro- 
duce a radical cure ? 
I wished to try, if the impression on the mind, in the em- 
ployment of galvanism, had any share in the relief obtained 
from it. I found, that by scratching the skin with the sharp 
end of a wire, I could produce a sensation so similar to that 
excited by galvanism, that those who had most frequently 
been subjected to this influence were deceived by it. By these 
means, and arranging the trough, pieces of metal, &c. as usual, 
I deceived several who had formerly received relief from gal- 
vanism, and also several who had not yet used it. All of them 
said that they experienced no relief from what I did. With- 
out allowing them to rise, I substituted for this process the 
real application of galvanism, merely by immersing in the 
trough one end of the wire with which I had scratched the 
nape of the neck, the wire at the pit of the stomach having 
been all the time applied as usual by the patient himself. 
Before the application of the galvanism had been continued 
as long as the previous process, they all said they were re- 
lieved. I relate the particulars of the tw’o following experi- 
