ELECTRICITY

is still in its exes in relation to physiology aad medicine, as indeed probably to most branches of knowledge. Like all powerful aeeals of which little is known, it serves the purpose of tho ignorant impostor in his dealings with the mystery-loving public only too well, but in medicine eee its use as a curativo agent is still very limited. When Galvani found that the legs of a decapitated frog could be made to kick by a galvanic current, he hoped he had grasped the secret of life itself; but subsequent research has forced a far more modest view on the scientific world. We now know that living matter reacts to many stimuli, which include injury, heat, light, chemical irritants, and also electricity. Further, we have learnt that chemical activity is always accompanied by electrical activity, and that living matter presents a continuous series of chemical changes, and therefore of electrical changes also. Each beat of the heart, cach movement of a muscle or transmi ion of a nerve rw and even the falling of light on a green leaf or on the back of the eye, has been shown to be accompanied by the production of an electric current. The direction of these currents has been determined, aoa ros has been ten that the most active ion organ under observation corresponds to the Ler plate of the galvanic cell. The electric currents thus produced are too weak to be felt, and yet only one tenth part of the current produced is permitted to flow through the i used to detect it, so delicate is the instrument The erie of the currents produced during vital activity has not been measured with absolute accuracy, but it is clear that the greater the activity the greater the current; thus fatigue, the action of an as the tics or the approach of death, are all accompanied by marked diminution in the electric activity of the organ under observation. In the medical practice of to-day all these minute electric changos are = ages but will this always be so or will they form a valuable guide to the detection and treatmont of morbid conditions in the future? At present electricity is used to stimulate —— over which the patient has lost control, and to soothe nerves suffering from pins In many ca tS the oe or mF spinal cord, temporary paralysis e muscles supplied occurs, and if these muscles are not exercised thay wants away. To prevent such wasting the muscles should be thrown into action for ten to twenty minutes daily by electrical stim alation, and they should be ma aged also. Such treatment to be effective and safe must be in medical hands, a knowledge of anatomy as well as of electricity being requisite. For neuralgia the pa age of a continuous current along the affected nerve for twenty minutes or so is often tried, but the results are not | cece For hysterical patients and for malingering the sudden application of an electrie - 9 «~s [s. 358]