A treatise on localized electrization : and its applications to pathology and therapeutics / by G.B. Duchenne ; translated from the third edition of the original, by Herbert Tibbits.

Date:
1871
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A treatise on localized electrization : and its applications to pathology and therapeutics / by G.B. Duchenne ; translated from the third edition of the original, by Herbert Tibbits. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    electrization ; and that of contact electricity, galvanization. But this last word has, in general, been employed indifferently in medical practice, to denote the use of either contact or induced electricity. The electro-physiological and electro-therapeutical considerations above laid down will render plain the disastrous effects of such confusion. Since, then, it is necessary to coin a word to express exactly induced electricity and its application, may we not take the word from the name of the discoverer? The name of Galvani has been given to contact electricity; and I would give to induced electricity the name of Faraday. Thus induced electricity itself may be called faradism; and its employment may be called faradization. Such a nomenclature seems to me to be the more happy, since it not only establishes a well-marked distinction between induced and contact electricity, but also does honour to the name of a philosopher to whom medicine is indebted for a discovery far more valuable in therapeutics than that of Galvani. [Mr. J. Netten Eadcliffe has taken objection to the nomenclature adopted by Duchenne in respect of the appUcation of fi-ictional and contact elec- ti'icity to medical purposes. The use of the word electrization , sometimes in a general, sometimes in a special and hmited sense, is, he thinks, apt to confuse. The terms frictional electricity and static electricity are words, moreover, passing into disuse among physicists; while the terms contact electricity and galvanism are almost entirely disused in physical science. Ml'. Eadchffe thinks that it would be an advantage to have a series of terms which, while sectu'ing the object which Duchenne had in view, would not clash with the nomenclature adopted by physicists. He writes, The electricity of chemical action (' contact electricity,' ' galvanism,' so-called) is more correctly and generally designated after the name of the original discoverer, Volta, voltaic electricity. Faraday suggested that frictional elec- tricity should be termed after the illustrious philosopher Franklin, whose name is especially connected with its early experimental study, franldinic electricity, and the name is now being widely adopted by j^hysicists. By applying the method of terminology which Duchenne has so happily used in respect of the induced current, to other forms of electricity, a series of terms is obtained which would be accurate in form as the practice of nomen- clatui-e goes, true to science in fact, free from confusion, and particularly convenient in usage. The series would be (1) furadaic electricity, or fara- dism ; and, as respects the pathological and therapeutical application of the agency, faradization; (2) voltaic electricity, or voltaism ; voltaization; (3) franldinic electricity, ov franklinism; frankUnization.—('The Practitioner,' vol. i. p. 19.—IT. T.] At present, the above nomenclattire ia universally used in practical mcdiciuo, although MM. Bccqiicrel havG main- tained that it was not acceptalile.