140 
Facts and Observations, 
ELECTRO-ANESTHESIA. 
The application of the electric current for the production 
of loss of sensation, during the extraction of teeth, was not 
long since advocated. It was subsequently applied to render 
other parts of the body insensible to pain; but in this 
respect it proved unsuccessful, the powerful agent, elec¬ 
tricity, merely diverting the nervous energy for a time. Since 
then Dr. Richardson has carried out a series of experiments 
on the subject, which promise success. He has designated 
the force “voltaic narcotism;” voltaic electricity being the 
means by which narcotics are introduced into the parts to be 
operated on. His plan consists in employing a narcotic solu¬ 
tion, composed of equal parts of chloroform and tincture of 
aconite. A piece of sponge being saturated with this, is ap¬ 
plied to the part in conjunction with the positive pole of a 
galvanic battery, the current being directed by means of a 
piece of thin copper. Another plate of copper, with a layer 
of moistened sponge, is connected with the negative pole, 
and thus the circuit is rendered complete. In twelve minutes 
the insensibility between the plates w ; as so great, that Dr. 
Halford amputated the leg of a dog without any expression 
of pain, and subsequently he divided the tendo Achillis of the 
other leg without any suffering on the part of the animal. 
The length of time required to effect insensibility appears at 
present to militate against its general adoption. 
Since writing the above, the following has appeared in the 
Lancet: 
“The experiments of Dr. Richardson, as to the possibility 
of producing anaesthesia by the action of anaesthetic agents 
locally diffused through the part by the agency of a voltaic 
current, have been continued during the week at the Gros- 
venor-place School of Medicine, in the presence of competent 
observers. The follow ing is a summary of what has been 
done : 
“ Eighteen operations have been performed in the last four¬ 
teen days—twice on the human subject—with considerable 
success. The femoral was tied, in a dog, without a wince or 
expression of pain of any kind. In one dog, the leg was 
amputated, no pain being manifested, except in dividing the 
bone. The tendo Achillis has been twice divided, in dogs, 
w ithout pain. The eye of a rabbit has been made insensible, 
