of the chest, with a rushing of air into the lungs. We may at the same time electrize the intercostals and other muscles used in respiration. It is necessary to understand the process of fatal chloroform narcosis before we can fully consider the treatment. "When the impregnation of the blood takes place with moderate rapidity, the sympathetic system is the ultimum moriens, and death begins at the lungs. When, on the contrary, the circulation becomes very rapidly charged with a large proportion of chloroform, the narcotic effect may fall with such force upon the sympathetic nerves as to extinguish their vitality at once.' Of course it is almost impossible to attempt a resuscitation in the latter case, as a complete paralysis of the heart invariably ensues. In the former we must apply the current to the phrenic, as we do in the other forms of asphyxia. 99 1 A case of opium-poisoning is reported by Dr. S. S. Page in the American Journal of Medical Science for April, 1843, page 301, where the patient took an enormous dose of powdered opium in mistake for cubebs. The stomach was evacuated and revulsive means employed, but the patient remained completely insensible. An electro-magnetic apparatus was used, one pole being placed over the heart, the other over a corresponding point on the right side. The patient opened his eyes, groaned, and moved his arms. After the fourth shock he moved his arms, and did not become insensible again. A case is related by Mr. Corfe in the Lancet, January 27, 1844. A man had taken an ounce and a half of laudanum, and appeared to be quite dead. After the stomach-pump and external irritants had been used in vain, recourse was had to the Leyden jar. The patient recovered. At a meeting of the Manchester Medical Society, Dr. Hardie recounted two cases of chloroform asphyxia in which, after the failure of ordinary means of resuscitation, such as cold affusions, artificial respiration, galvanism of the chest, etc., the recovery was effected by Ziemssen's method of pressing both poles of the battery deeply in at the root of the neck, one over each phrenic nerve. This caused a gasping, inspiratory movement, when the battery was temporarily removed and 1 "Stimulants and Narcotics," p. 328. the chest walls compressed; and so on alternately until restoration. Friedberg's case of asphyxia by chloroform is reported as follows: "A patient, four years old, was put under the influence of chloroform for the removal of an encysted tumor of the left lower eyelid, when suddenly a short, rattling inspiration ensued, after which breathing ceased. For several minutes the patient was rubbed; artificial respiration was also tried, but was ineffectual. Friedberg then faradized the diaphragm by placing one of the electrodes of Du Bois-Reymond upon the phrenic nerve, and applying the other to the lateral wall of the thorax in the seventh intercostal space, pressing it deeply against the diaphragm. This faradization was made alternately on the right and left side, the circuit remaining closed each time for the duration of a deep inspiration. After the current had thus been applied and interrupted ten times, the first weak but plainly spontaneous inspiration occurred, which was soon followed by a second and third, the face reddening and the radial pulse becoming perceptible. After persistence in this treatment, the patient fully recovered in twenty minutes, and the operation went on. In the asphyxia of new-born children, or asphyxia neonatorum, electricity has occasionally been called in; but, as it has been more used by midwives, or German hebammes, than by medical men, the literature of electro-therapeutics contains very little information in regard to the subject. I learn that Dr. Alexander Murray, of New York, has saved three lives of asphyxiated children by the method I will presently recite. He tried faradization of the phrenic nerve in one case, and this child instantly died. The great idea in treatment is to pass the current along the course of nerves and their ramification, the object being to restore the circulation of the blood and respiration by transmitting the current through the pneumogastric. The child should be placed in a firm position, with the head elevated so as to clear the mouth and fauces of mucus. The body should be kept warm (about 99° Fahr.), and the strong faradic current used, one pole applied to the nipple, the other over the seventh intercostal space, moving the latter in a circular manner toward and over the precordial region. The electrodes should be sponge-covered and well moistened. The results arrived at from my own practice and experiments are the following: 1. That it is useless to expect good results if five minutes have elapsed since life appeared extinct. 2. That the current should be applied faithfully and steadily, one pole being placed on the ensiform cartilage, the other on the base of the skull or over the tracks of the great nerves of the neck. 3. That the faradic and interrupted galvanic currents are the best. 4. That the current should be applied some time after respiratory movements have become regular. ELECTRICITY AS A GENERAL CUTANEOUS STIMULANT. We cannot speak too highly of electricity as a remedy, particularly in those cases of extreme prostration associated with anæmia and chlorosis, when the nutritive functions are disturbed, and assimilation of food is imperfect. The vast number of important morbid conditions, though sometimes of little moment to the physician on account of the slight evidence of symptoms, are all capable of being benefited by electricity. Hysteria, nervous asthenia, where cold hands and feet and a phosphatic condition of the urine are present, spinal congestion, and spinal irritation, are included in this list. The faradic current, applied by means of large sponges to the surface, on the plan proposed by Drs. Beard and Rockwell, produces a lasting stimulation of the skin which has decided advantages over rubbing, cold-water baths, and other means generally employed. Of course the application of faradism in this way is not within the province of the occupied physician, but should be performed by a nurse or friend of the patient. An excellent application, in cases of spinal irritation, is to the vertebral column. The faradic current is the one to be used. Faradism may be used to overcome insomnia. CHAPTER X. CONVULSIVE DISEASES. Chorea. Scrivener's Palsy.-Paralysis Agitans.-Epilepsy.-Tetanus.—Asthma.— Torticollis.-Diseases of Women.-Intra-Uterine Galvanic Pessary, etc.-Electricity in Obstetrics.-Diseases of the Eye.-Constipation and Intestinal Obstruction.-Skin-Diseases. Chorea. Notwithstanding the fact that Golding Bird and others have had such brilliant success with electricity, I must say that the conclusions of these gentlemen have not been verified by the several cases I have seen treated, or have treated myself. Electricity, except as a tonic in this disease, has been without virtue in my hands. Meyer recommends that the intermittent galvanic current be applied to the suffering limbs. Ullsberger, whose prize thesis I recently translated, and which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics,' recommends it quite highly. Galvanization of the sympathetic may be resorted to with faradization of the convulsed parts. Ullsberger cites several cases, among which are these: Maurice Benedikt treated, among others, the daughter of a cotter, aged nine years, suffering from tonic spasms, by directing the galvanic current on the ganglia and mastoid process, continuing the séances two weeks and a half. The cure was perfect. He effected several other cures of idiopathic chorea. For example: a scholar, aged twelve years; a girl, the same age; the son of a laborer, aged twelve years; and a boy, aged eight years, suffering from general chorea minor. It required two months for the cure of this last case, which lasted only a year, at the end of which time a relapse occurred, from which, never 1 American Journal of Obstetrics, May and August, 1872. theless, he was radically restored. The son of a shoemaker, nine years old, being affected with choretic movements of the ocular and labial muscles, was cured by the same treatment in eight weeks. A girl of twelve years of age had suffered with infantile eclampsia when she was but nine months old; later, from unilateral chorea. A galvanic application ameliorated her condition. A boy, aged twelve years, who had suffered from tania, was completely relieved, and like success attended a girl of the same age. A boy, aged fourteen, having submitted to the faradic treatment for two months and a half, experienced such a favorable result that he continued exempt from further attacks, and his general health gained appreciably. Giovanni Finco reports the following case: A girl, aged twelve, had suffered a series of nervous symptoms, such as neuralgia of the superior cervical nerves, accompanied with sharp pains in the epigastrium, or hyperæsthesia of the left side of the neck, and of the thorax. These symptoms were complicated afterward with dysphonia and involuntary movement of the neck and arms. They were repeated every day, commencing at half-past ten in the morning, and lasting till nine at night; finally ending in gaping, great prostration, and pallor. All remedies used for a year and a half were unsuccessful, but the induced current produced visible improvement. Therefore it was in future used. The positive pole was put in one hand, and the negative pole was placed on the nape of the neck, the scapula, and the left side of the breast. After five séances, an amelioration was perceived; after two months, a notable improvement. At last, after a continuation of some weeks, not only had the cure become perfect, but the whole physical constitution of the patient had undergone a very advantageous change. Von Holtzbeck has enriched the records of electro-therapeutics by three cases of little girls aged seven and a half, ten and a half, and eleven years. Chorea is met with most frequently in the female sex between the ages of five and nine. This statistical fact was given to us by H. M. Hughes and E. Burton Brown. Of fourteen patients attacked with chorea, five were cured, one improved, three remained unsuccessfully treated, and in five the result was not noted. The daughter of a servant, nine years of age, |