The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly.

Date:: 1848

Credit: The cyclopaedia of practical medicine : comprising treatises on the nature and treatment of diseases, materia medica and therapeutics, medical jurisprudence, etc., etc. / Edited by John Forbes, Alexander Tweedie, John Conolly. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Lamar Soutter Library, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Lamar Soutter Library at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.

772/828 (page 770)

$no ELECTRICITY —ELEPHANTIASIS. meter than one-fourth of an inch. An interval of from one to two-tenths of an inch will, gene- rally speaking, be sufficient. 3. The electrization should be performed daily, and be persevered in for at least a month, if ne- cessary, and a cure must not be despaired of be- cause there is no immediate relief experienced ; for the good ctfects of electricity generally require a long time for being developed. 4. The aura may be applied for from five to ten minutes. The number of shocks passed in one direction should not exceed twelve, nor the number of sparks applied to the same part twenty- four 5. In local affections, the electric fluid should be confined to the diseased part or organ. But in diseases, such as chorea and epilepsy, in which the entire system seems to be engaged, it must be applied generally over the body. Such parts, however, as arc affected with pain, or any unusual sensation, should be particularly dwelt upon. The modus operandi of electricity, in the cure of disease, is considered obscure. It would ap- pear, however, in its ordinary forms to act as a simple stimulant. Upon the nervous system, in- deed, it is by many supposed to exercise a partic- ular influence, of the nature of which we shall be enabled to form some idea, should the hypothe- sis broached in modern times, and which refers the functions of the nerves to currents of electri- city transmitted through them from the brain and spinal chord, turn out to be correct. We shall revert to tiiis subject in the article Galvanism, and shall here merely remark that, assuming the theory alluded to to be sound, it will be proper, in the medicinal administration of electricity, to cause the positive fluid to pass through the body always in the direction of the ramification of the nerves. This precept is particularly insisted upon by some foreign electricians. The spark received from substances resinously electrified differs, in some respects, from that which issues from surfaces vitreousiy charged. It is more (lungent, and has a different shape, being shorter, and not so regular in form. As medicinal agents, however, they appear both to produce similar effects. A contrary opinion has indeed been maintained by some, who have represented resi- nous electricity as a sedative, and vitreous as a stimulant. This theory, which is quite unsupport- ed by facts, is not a modern invention. It origin- ated in 1779, with Bertholon of Montpcilier, who resolved diseases into two classes, those which de- pended on an excess, and those which were the consequence of a deficiency of the electric fluid, and treated the former with resinous, the latter with vitreous electricity. It is not necessary to enter upon any formal refutation of such an ab- surd hypothesis. In it, however, may be recog- nised the germ of the more celebrated but equally unfounded nosological notions put forward two years after by Dr. John Brown, in his Elementa Medicina;. It has been long suspected, and indeed rendered almost certain by a variety of facts, that the elec- trical stale of the atmosphere has an appreciable nfluence upon the animal economy. The lower animals seem aware of an approaching thunder- storm, as would appear from the uneasiness which they manifest, the cries which they utter, and their running about in a state of alarm in search of shelter. Many individuals also of the human species, particularly those labouring under certain chronic complaints, or who possess what may be called a great degree of mobility of the nervous system, experience at such times very peculiar sensations. Observations such as these, and many others of a similar description whicli might be quoted, demonstrate verj- completely that the ani- mal machine is frequently sensibly afli-cted by the electricity of the atmosphere; and there is even nothing improbable in the conjecture which has been often hazarded, that the salubrity or insalu- brity of particular districts and seasons, the exist- ence and the character of epidemic diseases, are in some way connected with, if not immediately de- pendent upon, the same influence. Upon none of the many branches, however, of this interest- ing subject can we be said to possess positive knowledge. Experiments must be multiplied be- fore we can acquire data to reason with any pre- cision upon it. Indeed it is only within a few years that these could have been instituted with any prospect of success. Our means of research are at present sufficiently delicate to enable us to commence such an inquiry with advantage; and it is much to be wished that meteorologists may henceforward register the variations in the electri- cal state of the atmosphere with as much diligence as those which occur to its temperature and pres- sure. T A James Apjohn. [ELECTRO-PUNCTURE. —See Galvan- ism.] ELEPHANTIASIS. There are two different diseases which possess this common name; they are usually distinguished by the epithets Arabian, or of the Arabians, and Grecian, or of the Greeks. We shall treat of them under these terms. Elephantiasis Arabum, (Elephant Leg.) The earliest account we have of this disease is by Rhazes, an Arabian physician, who lived in 850. In the Arabian language this afTection is denominated dal fil, which imports literally mor- bus elephas, elephant disease. The Arabians sometimes contract dal fd inio fiI* alone, literally, elephas, elephant affection. This appellation was applied to the disease by the Arabians, in conse- quence of the huge misshapen ajjpcarance of the aflected limb being supposed to bear some resem- blance to the form of the leg of an elephant. Elephant leg is known in the West Indies by the name of Barbadoes kg ,■ sometimes it is there denominated yam leg, from the supposed resem- blance the aflected extremity has to the fantastic forms which this root occasionally assumes. In Ceylon it is called G'alle leg, and on the peninsula of India it is denominated Cochin leg, from its being indigenous to these places. In the Malabar language it is called anay kaul, a term which, like dal fil, imports elephant leg. GcograpliU-al Distribution. — This disease is in a remarkable degree endemic in the island of Barbadoes, on the south-west coast of Ceylon, in the neighbourhood of Cochin, on the Malabar * Fil alfil, Arabic; ulfeel, Sanscrit; fil, ulfvvall, x\- pliant, Greek; elephas, Latin. (Thomson.)$