ELECTRO-DIAGNOSIS

Electrical devices are finding ever more extensive and varied application in the diagnosis of disease. In diagnosing various conditions, especially of the nasal pa ages, larynx, and the urinary bladder, small electric lamps attached to instruments suitable for the exploration of such parts of the body have proved of great value, while in the location of foreign bodies and of urinary calculi, in the diagnosis of fractures and diseases of bones and of other conditions, the X-rays discovered by Rontgen have created a revolution, and examination with them is becoming more and more a routine in surgical diagnosis. In the diagnosis of conditions due to nervous degenerations two forms of electricity are employed: the galvanic or continuous current, and the faradic or interrupted current, the former stimulating the muscles directly, and the latter the nerves directly and the muscles only through their nerve supply, the diagnosis depending on the excitability of the muscles. Claims have recently been advanced that all pathological conditions can be accurately diagnosed, and in early stages cured, by an electric machine devised by Abramson of San Francisco.