ELECTRICITY IN MEDICINE. 
539 
For unstriated muscle the galvanic or constant current is the most 
effectual stimulus, and the muscle responds in its normal vermi¬ 
cular wave. It has been observed that stimulation of the intes¬ 
tinal tract with electrodes at either end produces strong contrac¬ 
tions at the extremities, while the intervening area of intestines 
remains relaxed. 
Cardiac muscle responds only to galvanism, and sections of it 
are governed by the same laws as striated muscle. By stimula¬ 
tion of the veins or sympathetic nerves, we find that a weak cur¬ 
rent to the former weakens the heart-beat, while a strong one 
quickens it, arrests it in diastole, and also arrests the respiratory 
movements during inspiration. Stimulation of the sympathetic, 
generally speaking, quickens the heart-beat. 
The electrical modification of the heart-beat in febrile and 
other affections, however, must be viewed by even the most san¬ 
guine as a grave futurity in medicine. 
Nerves are governed by the same current laws as muscles, the 
metabolism and evolution of heat being less marked. When a 
nerve is stimulated it suffers an increase of irritability at or near 
the negative pole termed “ katelectrotonus, 1 ’ and at the anode a 
diminished irritability or anelectrotonus. The excitability of a 
nerve is lessened by a descending current and increased by an 
ascending one; therefore a nerve, whose excitability is impaired 
by a descending current, has it restored by an ascending. It 
follows from the above that we should place the positive pole of 
the galvanic circuit over the painful region of a neuralgic nerve. 
In labial or muscular paralysis, the stimulating or exalting 
current is required, and the higher up we apply the electrodes the 
greater will be the peripheral results. Hence the origin of the 
snowslide or avalanche theory of nerve currents. 
In the stimulation of special nerves, such as the great auricu¬ 
lar, nervi-epiglotes, sciatic, etc., etc., for vaso-motor influences, ex¬ 
ceptional results have been observed, which I shall not attempt to 
itemize, for they belong more truly to the domain of physiology. 
By the stimulation of sensory nerves, we produce reflexas with 
or without pain. Innutrition, loss of temperature, etc., etc., as in 
muscles, affect the electrical phenomena of nerves. 
