ELECTROLYSIS. 
349 
amount or quantity of current used ; that is to say, in any 
operation requiring a cauterizing effect a large quantity is re¬ 
quired ; in operations where we simply desire to produce the 
absorbent or electro-catalytic effect, we require tension but 
small quantity. 
“ We will, for the present, dismiss this question of electro¬ 
chemical treatment, and return once more to the consideration 
of the effects of the current as applied with unoxidizable material. 
“ So far we have considered this operation only as performed 
by the use of needles introduced into the tissues. The same 
effect in a lesser degree can be obtained by external applica¬ 
tion of metallic and other rheophores to the skin, mucous mem¬ 
brane, or denuded tissue. And when we use the curient for 
the sake of its lesser effects, it is frequently applied in this 
manner. 
“ One of the greatest difficulties in the technique of electroly¬ 
sis, so called, by the tyro electro-therapeutists, is to avoid doing 
too much. The operator must have a battery provided with a 
Brenner’s, or other equally accurate rheostat, constant and re¬ 
liable, capable of giving every variation of quantity and inten¬ 
sity of current. He must be quite familiar with its action, and 
with the effect each vibration is capable of producing on living 
animal tissue. He must also be able to control the electro¬ 
motive force to the exact point capable of producing the effect 
desired, and no more. For instance, what could be more de¬ 
plorable than that sloughing of the milk duct should take place 
when the effect intended to be produced is merely the absorp¬ 
tion of a stricture, or in operating on a nsevus on the face of a 
young lady, that an eschar should be caused when we merely 
aim at coagulation of the morbid growth ? And yet the slight¬ 
est overstepping of a scarcely defined boundary will cause just 
such a result. Better by far to do too little than too much. It 
is impossible to state with precision the exact quantity and in¬ 
tensity of current to be used, as that depends upon the size of 
the growth, the density, and the amount of the watery and 
saline ingredients contained. This must be learned entirely by 
