An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . first apparatus con-structed for this purpose consisted of a pile of silver coins andzinc discs, each pair being separated from its neighbours by apiece of card soaked in water; on simultaneously touching thetwo ends of the pile a distinct shock was experienced. Voltasoon followed the construction of the Pile by the experimentknown as the Couionne de tasses, in which a number ofsmall glasses were filled with some saline solution, and placedside by side; a number of pairs of strips of zinc and copper,or zinc and silver, were joined toge
An essay on the history of electrotherapy and diagnosis; . first apparatus con-structed for this purpose consisted of a pile of silver coins andzinc discs, each pair being separated from its neighbours by apiece of card soaked in water; on simultaneously touching thetwo ends of the pile a distinct shock was experienced. Voltasoon followed the construction of the Pile by the experimentknown as the Couionne de tasses, in which a number ofsmall glasses were filled with some saline solution, and placedside by side; a number of pairs of strips of zinc and copper,or zinc and silver, were joined together by wires, and placed 36 .AN ESSAY ON THE in the glasses in such a way that the zinc of one couple was inone glass, while the corresponding copper dipped into itsneighbour. A number of these zinc-copper combinationsbeing arranged as described, a system was produced whichpossessed properties identical with those of the Voltaic Pile. Voltas own experiments with his primitive electric battervwere exclusively confined to the animal body ; but as soon as. Volta. his work was published a number of other investigatorsinterested themselves in the new phenomena. Volta himselfhad concluded that since his pile was capable of giving ashock, it was a source of electricity. Nicholson and Carlislenot only incontestably proved the presence of electricity, butdemonstrated the different electrical conditions of the twoends of the pile. About the same time (1803), Cruikshankmodified the Couronne de tosses by placing the pairs of HISTORY OF ELECTROTHERAPY 37 plates in a trough and suitably connecting them. SirHumphrey Davy demonstrated that pure water was uselessas the liquid part of the system, as was also pure sulphuricacid—observations which have only received their full ex-planation in our own time, when it is known that the essential
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublisherlondo, bookyear1922
