446 ELECTRICITY. 
ticipated. It is thus that galvanifm has been occafion- 
ally recommended as the criterion of death, and at other 
times as a powerful and falutary flirnulus in the difeafes 
of the nerves. But, when an idea was in the fil'd: indance 
formed of the eledtric fluid and its properties, was it not 
immediately thought, that, in its adtion on the human 
body, it would fupply a remedy for all the difeafes to 
which it is fubjedt ? In the fame way, after having no¬ 
ticed tire galvanic phenomena, it has been ridiculoufly 
imagined that two pieces of metal, employed in a parti¬ 
cular way, would, as it were by enchantment, recall to 
life thofe who have peri filed by afphyxy, redore fight to 
the blind, re-edablidi, in all cafes of paralyfis, the ufe 
of the limbs; and, in a word, produce more falutary ef- 
fedts than the faculty have been enabled to obtain, from 
tire multitude of chemical, mechanical, and other, reme¬ 
dies, which have been employed for fo many ages. Such 
was the fhort-lived delufion of metallic traElors. 
Dr. Grapengieder, in his late celebrated v/ork on Me¬ 
dical Eledtricity, publiflied at Berlin, recommends gal- 
vanifm in the following cafes : i. In palfies of the extre¬ 
mities, occafioned by the debility or celfation of the ner¬ 
vous adtion, and in thofe even which have been prima¬ 
rily determined by other caufes, fuch as the compreffion 
of the brain, the repercudion of an exanthenratic affec¬ 
tion, or a rheumatic affedtion, when thefe caufes have 
been advantageoudy combated by the ufual means. 2. 
Galvanifm is indicated in cafes of a debility of fight, and 
in the gulta ferena, when thefe complaints are folely 
afcribable to a want of excitability in the optic nerve. 
3. It is calculated for deafnefs arifing from a nervous de¬ 
bility, and for particular buzzings in the ears. In the 
cafe of deafnefs, the caufe is fometimes very difficult to 
afeertain; but is invariably of the •utmoft importance. 
With refpedt to the latter fymptom, when it arifes, as 
frequently happens, from the galvanic application, it is 
not attended by any particular inconvenience, when it 
ceafes with the operation itfelf. But when it continues 
for feveral hours after, it is a bad'omen. In forn.e cafes 
this application produces in the ears a fenfation of found 
finiilar to that of boiling water; to that of the whiffling 
of the winds; of the ringing of bells; or of the loud 
chirping of birds. 4. Galvanifm appears to be calcu¬ 
lated for the treatment of hoarfenefs, and for that of 
aphony arifing from a defedt of nervous adtion. Should 
thefe fymptoms follow an inflammation, or fupervene 
after the fatigue occafioned either by Tinging or by cry¬ 
ing, it will fuffice to make the application of the battery, 
or even of tire fimpl,e apparatus, to the moidened {kin. 
But if they diould appear to be the refult, either of ca¬ 
tarrhal, exanthematous', rheumatic, arthritic, or venereal, 
additions, the preferable mode would be, to apply the 
mod (imple apparatus to the wounds of vedcatories. It 
is true that this apparatus adts lefs forcibly ; but it has 
this advantage, which is effential in the above-cited cafes, 
that the patient will be enabled to bear its adtion much 
longer. This author alfo apprehends that galvanifm may 
likewife be fuccefsfully employed, as a refoiutive, in cer¬ 
tain chronical cafes of fciatica; in the white fwellings of 
the joints'; in tumors of the glands of the neck ; and in 
incipient cafes of meliceris and atheroma. He obferves 
that he derived fome advantage from it, in a cafe of me. 
tTtalis, accompanied by indammation, at the articula¬ 
tions of the elbow and thigh; but that he conliders gal¬ 
vanifm, which is in all cafes a powerful ftimulant of the 
vital forces, to bfe principally a powerful mean to be em¬ 
ployed, as an auxiliary at the lead, in the treatment of 
many of the difeafes of the nervous fydem. Independently 
of its ftimulating adtion, when it is applied over velica- 
tories, it operates as a powerful derivative. 
Valuable, however, as the galvanic influence may ap¬ 
pear to be as an auxiliary to medicine, and J'afe as may be 
its application in judicious hands; yet being unqueftion- 
ably the very fame agent as that which operates in medi¬ 
cal eledtricity, the fame caution, and perhaps a greater, 
becomes neceflary in the ufe of it, feeing that its force 
upon the animal economy is fuppofed to be more power¬ 
ful, and its intendty greater on the vital organs. As it 
is admitted on all hands, that an injudicious treatment 
of the patient by common eledtricity is extremely dange¬ 
rous, fo it follows that the application of the eledtric 
fluid from the Voltaic pile can never be fafe, unlefs di- 
redted by perfons of. fkill and knowledge in medical 
fcience. 
An account is given by Mr. Sprenger, of Jena, of his 
method of adminiftering galvanifm in cafes of deafnefs. 
A fmall ball is applied to the external orifice of the ear, 
and a much larger one is held in the patient’s hand. The 
communication is then formed and interrupted alternate¬ 
ly, by the means of machinery, once In every fecond, 
for about four minutes daily, for a fortnight or more. 
He aflerts, that he has thus reftored the fenfe of hearing 
to forty-five perfons, and to four of them that of fmelf- 
ing alfo. Thofe who were completely deaf experienced 
relief, with fcarcely any exception ; but a partial deaf¬ 
nefs did not appear to receive the fame benefit. 
Several curious experiments on the treatment of dif¬ 
eafes by galvanic eledtricity, have been recently made 
by the members of the fchool of medicine in Paris. The 
following is a brief ftatement of the one which appears 
to be mod interefting. The firft confideration was the 
application of the effedts of the pile of Volta to the ani¬ 
mal economy; and the conclufions which were drawn 
were to this effedt: 1. That, in the employment of the 
above pile, the galvanic influence penetrates and affedts 
the nervous and mufcular organs, more profoundly than 
the common apparatus, the latter being calculated by 
the cuftomary meafure of medical eledtricity. 2. That 
the eifedts of the pile produce powerful contradtions, and 
ftrong fenfations of pricking and burning, in parts which 
are, by their difeafed (late, rendered infenfible to fparks, 
and even to eledtrical fliocks. 3. That the duration of 
this adtion is fuch, as to warrant a hope that an effica¬ 
cious excitement, capable of being fuccefsfully employed 
in the treatment of cafes of paralyfis, may be found in the 
Voltaic pile. 
In the application of this apparatus it was likewife ob- 
ferved, that the effedts produced appeared to be propor¬ 
tionate to the e.xtent of the points of contadl; infomuch 
that the mod powerful excitation enfued, when the com¬ 
motion was effedted by the meeting of the condudtors 
emanating from the galvanic pile, with metallic conduc¬ 
tors fixed on the difeafed part, the contadl being of a 
greater or lefs extent. 
The experiment above alluded to was made under the 
immediate direction of M. Hall?. A patient, the whole 
of whofe mufcles on the left fide of the face were in a 
palfied date, in confequence of a fluxion brought on by 
the adtion of cold, bad been eledtrified feveral times, but 
felt neither fenfation nor contradlion when the fpark was 
diredted to the affedted part. Indeed, he was fcarcely 
fenfible of a flight contradlion in the great zygomatic 
mufcle, when tire application of the eledtricity was made 
by commotion. This individual was fubjedted to the 
galvanic adtion of a pile condriidted with fifty metallic 
plates; and a communication was eflablifhed between 
different points of the difeafed cheek and the two extre¬ 
mities of the pile, by means of metallic chains and ex¬ 
citers. At the indant of contadl, all the mufcles of the 
face became contradted. The patient felt not only a pain, 
but a very difagreeable fenfation of heat. The eye was 
convulfed ; the tears flowed involuntarily ; and a pain 
and. fwelling enfued at the different points which had 
been touched. Occafional applications of the galvanic 
influence for about fix months, effedled a cure. 
Vaffalli-Eandi, in his Report on the Adtion of Galva¬ 
nifm, and on the Application of this Fluid, and of Elec¬ 
tricity, to Medicine, has the following remarks: “ I 
confider galvanifm as a modification of eledtricity ; a mo¬ 
dification which renders this fluid more adtive; as the 
fmall 
