. Modern medicine and bacteriological review. s muscularcontraction without producing coinci-dentally any skin sensation, or indeedany sensation other than that occasionedby the contraction of the muscles. Cur-rents with very rapid alternation may beapplied in such a manner as to producestrong excitation of the optic nerve with-out exciting any sensation whatever inthe nerves of the skin. We have demonstrated, in hundreds ofcases, the peculiar value of this currentin the relief of pain. When the galvanicand faradic currents utterly fail, this cur-rent almost invariably succeeds, except incases
. Modern medicine and bacteriological review. s muscularcontraction without producing coinci-dentally any skin sensation, or indeedany sensation other than that occasionedby the contraction of the muscles. Cur-rents with very rapid alternation may beapplied in such a manner as to producestrong excitation of the optic nerve with-out exciting any sensation whatever inthe nerves of the skin. We have demonstrated, in hundreds ofcases, the peculiar value of this currentin the relief of pain. When the galvanicand faradic currents utterly fail, this cur-rent almost invariably succeeds, except incases in which the pain is due to somemechanical cause or structural the alternating character of the cur- 124 EDITORIAL. rent is valuable, is clearly demonstratedin the following physiological facts de-duced by Baron de Wattville : Whenthe electrode on the nerve is alternately This influence of the sinusoidal currentis particularly marked in its productionof powerful muscular contractions with-out pain or any skin sensation. For this. Fig. 2. Ordinary Magneto-electric Current. anode to cathode, and purpose, slow alternations, and a ma-chine producing a current of consider-able quantity, is needed. After severalyears experimentation, we have produceda machine which gives us a most excel- changed from from cathode to anode, a series of clos-ure excitations are given, which fall alter-nately in the polar (when the electrode be-comes cathodic) and the peripolar (whenthe electrode becomes anodic) region re-spectively. Now, in every case the ex-cited region had just before been underanodic influence, and physiology teachesus, as we shall presently demonstrate onthe human nerve, that the instant thepolarizing current ceases to flow, theanodic region passes into a state of in-creased excitability. This augmentationis the more marked the longer the anodicinfluence has lasted. We see, therefore,how it is that voltaic alternatives actmore powerfully than simple closures ofthe circ
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectmedicine, bookyear189
