The medical application of electro-magnetism / by Samuel B. Smith.
- Smith, Samuel B., approximately 1794-
- Date:
- 1853 [©1850]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The medical application of electro-magnetism / by Samuel B. Smith. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![CHOLERA. The following is taken f,om the London Magnet, July 2, 1849. One of the Tooling cliildien was seized with the Cholera in the Royal Free Hospital. Tlie patient was a girl about eight years old, tinder Dr. Peacock's charge. In about four hours she became com- pletely collapsed, the power of deglutition had ceased, and consequent- ly all internal remedies were useless. Dr. Peacock applied one pole of the gal/anic machine over the heart, and the other over the region of the stomach, or rather of the solar plexus (a sort of grand centra] terminus of the nerves, supplying all the viscera). In half an hour the child began to rally, some strong beef tea was got into her stomach in less than ten minutes, and ultimately the resurrection of the child was complete. Smee, alluding to the above case, writes as follows :— I liavo heard, (says he) that Electricity has been advantageously employed at the Free Hospital, to rally a patient in the collapsed stage of Cholera,—a fact which I mention here, as this disease involves, to a great extent, the functions of the alimentary canal.—Elem. Electro- biol. p. 155. The folloAving case of Cholera, I take from a letter written to me by an Agent at Woodstock, Conn., dated Oct. 16, 1849, The case was that of a young man who went out in the morning;' to, cut hay, his health apparently as well as usual. At ten o'clock, he was suddenly taken sick with vomiting and purging. He Avas then carried to the house where the usual cholera remedies were adminis- tered, but to no purpose. At twelve o'clock, he t jcame senseless, cold and rigid. At this crisis, the Torpedo Magnetic Machine, which hap- pened to be in the neighborhood, v.'as procured, and applied to the patient. After using the machine about one hour, warmth began to be felt under the patient's arms and across the chest. The heArt again commenced beating, and by continuing the application of the ma- chine about half an hour longer, the patient was aroused, free from pain, and in a profuse perspiration. The next day lie was so weH restored that he was able to resume his usual labor. BARRENNESS—IMPOTENCE. The same reason, (says Smee) for which Electricity is valuaHe in Amenorrhoea, might lead us to expect that it would tend to rectify the state of barrenness in the female ; for, by causing it to act directly upon the uterus, it is calculated to increase the supply of blood, and thus remedy the deficit.—Elem. Electro-biol., p. 152. In Barrenness, the right conductor to be applied to the lumbar ver- tebrae, the lower part of the spine, and the left to be introduced into the vagina so as to touch the os uteri, the mouth of the womb. This conductor may be made of a piece of silver or copper wire of proper thickness, covered with cotton thread and varnished wkh seal-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21078373_0076.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
