78 
ELECTRICITY FOR RHEUMATISM. 
Sufferer, New York .—To what extent 
and with what success is electricity 
used in the treatment of disease, especially 
rheumatism? What is there in electricity 
that cures disease? In the absence of our 
family physician, a physician from an¬ 
other village was called to treat a member 
of my family for sciatic rheumatism. He 
was a stranger to us. He informed us 
that he had a. machine at his office with 
which he treated people for rheumatism 
with electricity and had never failed of a 
cure, and that as soon as the patient was 
able to ride she should come and take the 
treatment. The medicine which he left 
seemed to improve her condition, and he 
was called again, each time saying that as 
soon as she was able to take the treatment 
she would be entirely relieved from the 
pain. At his fourth visit he proposed that 
she go to his house and stay a few days, 
which he said need not exceed five days, 
where he could use the electricity and care 
for her. She was made as comfortable as 
possible and taken to his house. She re¬ 
mained 18 days, taking 17 treatments. At 
first a treatment did not entirely relieve 
the pain, but her condition improved and 
toward the last a treatment would relieve 
the pain for six or eight hours. Remem¬ 
ber, she was taking medicine all the time. 
Now, at 26th day, she is still suffering 
pain and is quite lame. Was there any 
further benefit than that the electricity so 
paralyzed the parts that she was insensible 
to pain until they regained their normal 
condition? 
It is pure quackery to guarantee a 
cure of rheumatism, neuralgia, paralysis, 
or any other disease by means of elec¬ 
tricity or any other remedy. Electricity 
is a useful agent in the treatment of 
various diseases of the nerves and mus¬ 
cles, but it is not a panacea or a specific, 
and, like every other remedy, must be 
used with discretion and judgment and 
in suitable cases. When used indiscrim¬ 
inately it is as likely to do harm as good, 
rather more likely, in fact, since its use 
delays the application of other remedies 
which might be indicated in the individ¬ 
ual case. No one can answer, except in 
a very general way, your inquiry as to 
what there is in electricity that would 
cure disease, for we must know first 
what electricity is. 
k THOMAS L. STEDMAN, 
Editor Medical Record. 
The case you cite is not rheumatism, 
which means “muscular pain” but neuri¬ 
tis of -the sciatic nerves, or sciatica as it 
is called, which means a sub-acute in¬ 
flammation of the substance of the 
nerve, or if you please, the nerve tissue. 
It is a frequent ailment, and hits the 
rich or the poor, the robust and the 
delicate. Naturally every kind of treat¬ 
ment is tried, and in spite of it most 
every one gets well in a longer or short¬ 
er time. There are two varieties of 
treatment—curative and stimulative. 
Electricity carries under the latter head, 
and is like all stimulatives occasionally 
doing remarkable work for good, but 
as a rule is not to be depended upon, 
and can always be looked upon as a 
gamble, because it is only one remedy 
for the thousands of ailments to which 
it is applied. The men who use it have 
a show of machinery and queer noises 
which make a great impression on the 
kind of people the lamented and great 
showmen Mr. Barnum used to delight 
in fooling, as he termed it with “woolly 
horses and unicorns which sweat blood.” 
There is a cause for every ailment and 
sciatica is caused by many different 
things, viz.: a chill, strain, from poor 
digestion, the effect of powerful medi¬ 
cine, whiskey drinking, etc., and curative 
medicine strives to eradicate from the 
system the disturbing cause, and in a 
long lasting or chronic case of sciatica 
something of this sort must be done. 
Sometimes the disturbing cause may 
have done lasting damage, and disap¬ 
peared like the hoof of a horse after it 
has broken its owner’s leg with a kick. 
As a rule rest of mind and body and 
good food are necessary for recovery 
from any kind of ailment, and I would 
advise our friend to go to bed and give 
that leg all the rest it wants. Put a 
generous poultice of antiphlogistine up 
and down the tract of pain and change 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
it as ofiten the ^‘directions” advise. If 
circumstances prevent her taking the 
necessary time in bed, let her put the 
antiphlogistine on every night, fresh 
and hot, and when taking it off in the 
morning bathe the leg in hot alcohol so 
as not to take cold in it. Rest is better 
than electricity for such a case. In fact 
forced rest, absolute quiet, is often neces¬ 
sary for recovery from sciatica. 
T„ M. DILLINGHAM, M.D. 
Sciatica and rheumatism are separate 
and distinct affections, the former being 
but a neuritis of the sciatic nerve. Elec¬ 
tricity—the interrupted current and the 
application of vibratory apparatus—may 
at times produce a temporary ameliora¬ 
tion of the pain; but as a curative agent 
it has distinctly failed to vindicate the 
enthusiastic claims of the earlier votaries 
of electricity as a cure for rheumatism, 
neuritis, neuralgia (and almost every 
other ill.) After years of patient trial 
electricity has not made good and is now 
practically abandoned as an important 
therapeutic agent by those who know; 
but is still exploited (as a money getter) 
by the half-informed and unscrupulous, 
who are willing to turn the despair of 
suffering humanity into a source of 
profit. Plainly stated, electricity does not 
cure rheumatism. Furthermore, its use 
by even those who are masters of the 
subject is productive of much harm—in 
some cases of permanent injury. You 
can safely warn your readers to let it 
severely alone. Sciatica is a very painful 
trouble, and the treatment is not always 
satisfactory even by the best physicians. 
Homeopathic medication has accom¬ 
plished more toward a cure than has 
old school medicine, and this is a con¬ 
fession from a graduate of the old 
school. JOHN F. KEENAN, M.D. 
There is really no such thing as “sci¬ 
atic rheumatism”; the forms of rheuma¬ 
tism being ordinarily divided into acute, 
sub-acute and chronic (articular and 
muscular.) The affection from which 
the patient in question suffers is proba¬ 
bly a form of neuralgia, and in this case 
involving the sciatic nerve, is called sci¬ 
atica. The form of electricity I would 
recommend for the case as stated would 
be the violet ray. The so-called physi¬ 
cian who guarantees a positive cure with 
any form of electricity should be re¬ 
garded with distrust. 
D. ST. JOHN, M.D. 
Electricity in medicine is a very big 
subject. It is difficult to cover it with 
brief and positive statements. Most ex¬ 
travagant claims have been made for it 
in almost all departments of medicine. 
It has been exploited in countless varia¬ 
tions by irregular and I regret to say, 
by many regular physicians, often with 
sincere but ill-founded enthusiasm, often 
only as an instrument of commercialism. 
It is one of the commonest and most 
easily played of the charlatan’s cards. 
In certain fields of medicine electricity 
is indispensable, in others it is a valua¬ 
ble adjunct and sometimes the mental 
effect of its use is beneficial and legiti¬ 
mately sought. The name “rheumatism” 
is applied, by the laity, to many widely 
differing conditions. Even “sciatic 
rheumatism” does not sufficiently ex¬ 
actly define the trouble from which the 
patient in this case is suffering. She 
may have a chronic arthritis of the hip, 
spine or other joints. She may have a 
new growth in the spine or pelvis, and 
there are many other possibilities. This 
is the question of diagnosis, which is the 
prerequisite of intelligent treatment. I 
should have said that it may be a true 
sciatica, or neuralgia of the sciatic nerve, 
but even this is not a finality, since its 
cause must be sought further back in 
some local or constitutional disturbance. 
In chronic disorders each new treatment, 
every change of doctor, is likely to be 
followed by a period of improvement. 
It is the old story of the mental effect. 
Moreover most chronic diseases are sub¬ 
ject to remission or periods of in*pc»ve- 
ment which may coincide with new treat¬ 
ment, which therefore gets the credit. 
The chances are a thousand to one 
that the irregular practitioner, for no 
regular one would do such a thing, who 
offers his services, promising to cure 
some chronic disorder, will fail to fulfil 
his promises after exploiting his patient 
to the limit of his endurance. The fam¬ 
ily physician is usually a man to be 
trusted. It is, however, always proper 
and advisable that where the family phy¬ 
sician fails to give relief he should be 
asked to recommend the highest medical 
authority obtainable for consultation, ad¬ 
vice and special treatment if necessary. 
There is a possibility, though I think a 
remote one, that this patient might get 
relief, if not cure, from the use of elec¬ 
tricity, but in the hands of a physician 
whose sincerity and honesty are not 
above suspicion the risks are prohibitive. 
You ask “What is there in electricity 
that would cure disease?” I wish that 
I, or anyone else, could answer that 
question. You say that “at various places 
country physicians are using an electric 
device and guaranteeing a cure for 
rheumatism.” No sincere and educated 
physician ever guarantees a cure. No 
one can guarantee a cure for rheuma¬ 
tism. My advice in this, as in all other 
similar cases, is that having selected the 
family physician for his character as a 
man to be absolutely trusted, if some 
new treatment is suggested ask the fam¬ 
ily physician what he thinks about it. 
If improvement does not follow the con¬ 
scientious efforts of the family physician 
ask him to recommend the highest ex¬ 
pert advice that the circumstances will 
allow. If, unfortu-nately, there rs good 
reason to doubt the ability or the con¬ 
scientiousness of the family physician, 
then every effort must be made to get 
the best medical advice, remembering 
that the best physicians do not offer their 
services nor promise cures; that high 
standing among his professional associ¬ 
ates is the best guarantee of a man’s 
ability, and that irregular practitioners 
practically never have knowledge of 
curative measures unknown to the regu¬ 
lar profession. These poor sufferers 
from chronic rheumatism number thou¬ 
sands, and the search for some means of 
relief to their sufferings is being actively 
prosecuted by medical investigation and 
practitioners. w. c. deming, m.d. 
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December here was the coldest, 15 below 
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fine ice crop, good snotv mulch. Hard on 
peaches, good on strawberries. a. j. m. 
Iowa. 
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