Next, change to A D current. If the disease be located in the hips or lower limbs, put the feet in warm water with the tin electrode N. P., or place the sponge-roll N. P. at the soles of the feet, and treat with P.

P. upon and a little above the affected parts; using such force of current as the patient can bear. The pain will commonly subside under treatment. If the disease be as low as the ankles or feet, use the _long cord_ with N. P.

If the shoulders, arms or hands be affected, treat them on the same principles as are prescribed for the _lower_ limbs; using the _long cord_ with N. P. when the disease is below the elbows.

When the disease is in the hands or feet, or near to them, if the shoulders or hips be not involved, it is often necessary, after three or four treatments as above described, to _reverse the poles_ for a few moments, giving an ascending current; but still using the _long cord_ with N. P.

If the disease be located anywhere in the trunk, neck or head, treat the affected part with P. P., placing N. P. on some adjacent part of the spine, and usually at a point somewhat _lower down_ than the disease.

For acute inflammatory rheumatism, treat once a day. The length of time for each treatment must depend on the location and extent of the affected part or parts. In this matter, the pract.i.tioner must decide for himself, or infer from the time prescribed in the treatment of other inflammatory affections.

RHEUMATISM. (_Chronic._)

Use the A D current _always_ in rheumatic affections. If there be no visible inflammation or swelling in the diseased parts, approach such parts in the same manner as in acute inflammatory rheumatism, except with _reversed poles_. The parts affected require to come under the N.

P. rather than the P. P., and to be treated with considerable force.

There are _apparently_ exceptional cases, referred to on page 83, which see.

Where joints are being dislocated, treat the parts with N. P., quite mild force, so long as it can be done without exciting acute inflammation. If this should arise, it must be repressed with P. P.

Treat chronic rheumatism about three times a week.

DROPSY.

Use the A D current, moderate force. Give _general tonic treatment_; then place P. P. with the feet, in a vessel of warm water, or place the sponge-roll P. P. at the soles of the feet, and treat the affected parts a few minutes with N. P., to quicken the absorbents. If the disease be in the feet or lower limbs, use _long cord_ with P. P. while treating them. Next place N. P. upon the lower part of the bladder, or, what is better, immediately below the pubic articulation, and treat over the kidneys three to five minutes with P. P. Repeat the treatments about three times a week.

NEURALGIA.

If the disease be general in the system, moving from place to place, or causing transient acute pains here and there, give general tonic treatment, three times a week, for several weeks--perhaps a month or two, provided the case be an old one. This will invigorate the nervous system and equalize the electric action. _Relief_ will be afforded soon; but for the sake of _cure_, the treatment of an old case should be continued as here directed. If the disease be _local_, use the B D current, with as much force as the patient can bear without irritating painfulness. Treat the affected part, or parts, with P. P., placing N.

P., _long cord_, upon some approximate healthy part, at a point a little lower down than the part in pain. The spine, when convenient, is commonly the best point for it. In treating the painful part, pa.s.s the electrode more or less also over the nerves adjacent to the one princ.i.p.ally affected. Treat five to eight minutes daily.

SCIATICA.

This is neuralgia in an ischiatic nerve, commonly the _great_ ischiatic.

Use the B D current, strong as the patient can well bear. Place the foot in warm water with N. P., or place the sponge-roll N. P. at the sole of the foot, (the former is the best,) and treat with P. P. over the painful part, and also, more or less, over adjacent parts. It is also well, in order to prevent too much exhaustion of the limb, to _reverse the poles_ every third or fourth time; but in so doing, use the _long cord_ with N. P.

PARALYSIS.

Take the B D current, medium force. If the paralysis be in a lower limb, place P. P., _long cord_, upon the lower lumbar vertebrae, so as to reach the hypogastric plexus, and treat with the metallic brush, N. P., five to eight minutes, over all the affected parts. Then close the sitting with _reversed poles_, about one to two minutes, having P. P., _long cord_, at the foot, and manipulating over the parts affected, and especially over the lumbar vertebrae, with N. P. This is to prevent depletion by _running off_ the electro-vital fluid too much, and to force the electric current through the nerves in an upward and inward tonic-giving direction. If the disease be in an arm or hand, treat it in a manner a.n.a.logous to the above; extending the treatment from back of neck to the affected parts.

In case of _hemiplegia_ or _paraplegia_, run the current from the healthy _side_ of the spine, (in hemiplegia,) or from a healthy _part_ of the spine, (in paraplegia,) to and through the paralyzed parts, by placing P. P., _long cord_, on spine, and manipulating with N. P., metallic brush commonly, upon the parts paralyzed. Close the treatment with reversed poles for a moment or two, as in the preceding cases.

_Old_ paralysis requires considerable _time_ to cure it. Treat about three times a week, occasionally omitting a week.

ERYSIPELAS.

Take the A. D. current, medium force, in all forms of the diseases.

1. When acute, and characterized by high inflammation, with bright, smooth swelling, and spreading gradually and sometimes rapidly to surrounding parts; or when small vesicles appear on the inflamed parts, which dry up in little branlike scales and fall off.

If it be located anywhere upon the face, place N. P., _long cord_, upon back of neck, and treat the parts affected with P. P. Treat about three to five minutes at a time, three or four times daily.

If it be located in the arm or hand, place the extremity in tepid water with N. P., _long cord_, and treat upon or just above the diseased part with P. P.

If it be in any part of the trunk, (which, in this form, is not so common,) place N. P., _long cord_, upon some point of the spine as near the diseased part as may be, but a little lower down, and treat the part affected with P. P.

In each of these cases, treat briefly, but frequently, as directed above.

2. When small, blister-like, serous vesicles--_phlyctaena_--appear, and the inflammation terminates in gangrene; or when there is such an infiltration of serum as to produce an dematous condition, place P. P., _long cord_, upon some convenient healthy part, (the spinal cord, or other nerve centre which gives nervous service to the part affected, is best,) and treat the lesion with N. P., _light force_, five to eight minutes daily.

ERUPTIVE CUTANEOUS DISEASES.

Take A D current, pretty _vigorous_ force in _acute_ cases; _mild_ in _chronic_ affections. If the eruption be inflamed and acute, use _long cord_ with N. P.; if sluggish and chronic, use _long cord_ with P. P.

Move the two electrodes parallel to each other, upon the patient, about two or three inches apart; and pa.s.s them over all the affected surface.

Repeat the treatment daily in acute affections, and three times a week in chronic cases.

COMMON CRAMP.

Although either the positive or the negative pole, applied to the healthy muscle, may produce spasmodic contraction, yet the negative pole contracts much more powerfully than the positive--a fact which shows an electrically _plus_ condition in the nerves and muscles involved. Yet we know that cramps are more apt to attend a _low_ condition of general vitality in the system than the opposite. From several considerations, which can not be detailed here, I am led to think that cramps are produced, generally, at least, by a temporary or spasmodic _reaction_ of the electro-vital force from an improperly negative to an excessively positive state in the parts affected.

My practice is, when the spasm is on, to treat the parts in cramp by momentary touches rapidly repeated, with the P. P. of the B D or A D current, good medium force, placing N. P. at the back of neck, if the disturbance be in an arm; or at the coccyx, if it be in a leg or in the abdomen or chest.

In treating parts subject to cramp while the spasm is _not_ on, give them, along with other parts of the system, _general tonic treatment_, as directed on page 95. This elevates and equalizes the electro-vital action, and relieves the difficulty.

TRISMUS. (_Lockjaw._)

For traumatic trismus, use the B D current, of vigorous force. Let the wound be kept open and clear, except that soothing emollients may be applied. Place N. P. at the coccyx, or near it on the spine; and then treat, by firm but momentary touches of the P. P., over the lower maxillary--_pterygoid_--muscles and nerves; indeed, over the _entire_ lower jaw and its articulations. Treat five to ten minutes, if necessary, or until the jaws relax.

TETa.n.u.s.

This is substantially the same thing as _trismus_, except that it extends to other parts, and often to nearly all the muscles of the organism. Under ordinary treatment, it is almost invariably fatal. I am not aware that it has been sufficiently submitted to _our_ electrical system to determine satisfactorily the question of its amenability to it. Yet I see no reason to doubt that, in the most of cases, when taken within reasonable time, it may be cured.

Use the B D current, in pretty strong force. Place the N. P., _long cord_, at the feet, and treat with P. P. from the medulla oblongata, or from the upper cervical vertebra, all along down the spine, for several minutes--say, three to five minutes. Then pa.s.s with P. P. over the whole trunk and limbs. Continue to treat until relaxation takes place, or all hope of relief departs.

CANCERS.

Cancers take on a variety of forms, distinguished by different names; but since they all require substantially the same electrical treatment, it is unnecessary here to describe them.

Begin with the A B current in pretty full volume. [The _volume_ of the current is increased by increasing the quant.i.ty of battery fluid.] Use this for several weeks, and then change to the A D current. Treat daily. The time for each treatment must be determined by the judgment of the pract.i.tioner; varying it according to the peculiar character and location of the disease.