Elements of Galvanism, in Theory and Practice (Volume 2); With a Comprehensive View of Its History, From the First Experiments of Galvani to the ... the Galvanic Apparatus, and Plain Systema - Tapa blanda

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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1804. Excerpt: ... CHAP. XXXVI. The application of galvanism to medicine--Itt effi'Sls in paralytic qffections--In cases of deafness--The cases in which it is most beneficial--Whether it is useful in amaurosis, or in gutta serena--Observations in spasmodic qffections--How far rigidity, and want of motion may be aided by this principle--Its good effebls in indolent tumors--Cases of mental derangement considered--Its use in cases of suspended animation, tvliether from drowning or hanging. HAVING attempted to prove the importance of the principle of galvanism, as it influences the animal economy, I shall now proceed to consider the particular cases of derangement in which the employment of this principle has been deemed beneficial. I have already given an extensive account of the theory of Galvani, relatively to the existence of the two states of electricity in the muscular and nervous systems; and have also detailed his conjectures on the cause of violent rheumatic affections and of nervous sciatica. According to him, these diseases arise from extravasated humours, mours, which form an arc between the electricity of the nerves and that of the muscles. The influence of this principle is, I presume, merely to be attributed to its stimulating power. I do not think that, by any mechanical means, we can produce any increase or diminution of the principle of galvanism in any part of the animal frame. I have already stated, that animal substances rank, in their conducting powers, next to metals; and that, in the gradation of these powers, they contain the principle of galvanism as one of their component parts. No change in these substances can therefore take place, without their capacities for electricity being changed also. In the present state of our knowledge of the principle of ...