An international system of electro-therapeutics / ... By Horatio R. Bigelow ... and thirty-eight associate editors.
- Bigelow, Horatio R. (Horatio Ripley)
- Date:
- 1894
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: An international system of electro-therapeutics / ... By Horatio R. Bigelow ... and thirty-eight associate editors. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.
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![dilated painlessly from almost nothing to a No. 20 French. The patient was a hack- driver, and, according to his own history, given that evening before twenty or more phy- sicians, he had never had a moment's pain or inconvenience, and had attended to his duties right straight along. I have on the table before me a letter from an eminent physician of Maryland, who came to me, while in Philadelphia, for a stricture which proved to be two inches and one-quarter long. He is 67 years old, and it took me seven seances, with a No. 11 French, tunneled electrode, threaded on a filiform bougie, to get through. This was the largest instrument that could be introduced at the time of my first seeing him. It took him three minutes and a quarter at that time to micturate. In reply to a letter from me he says :— October 1, 1888. Dear Doctor : Tour favor of was received, and I was glad to hear from you. I have been thinking of writing to you for several months, but have been so on the go that I neglected it. I have been gone most of the time since early summer, and arrived home a few weeks a-o from an extended tour through Canada, the White Mountains, etc. I think (thanks to your skillful treatment) I am perfectly well of the stricture. Have not used the battery for four months ; but pass No. 30 electrode every six weeks, without the slightest trouble, and without meeting with the least resistance anywhere in the urethral canal. If I did not know from previous experience, I could not tell in what part of the canal the strict- ure had been located. The stream is round and full; all irritability of the bladder is gone; and, what is best of all, I have not had an attack of gout since the first stance, which is now over fifteen mouths ; having never had over four months to elapse without an attack, previous to the electrolysis, for the last three years. Of course, I cannot say positively that the removal of the stricture, which was hard and dense, and had existed since 1860, is the reason that I have been exempt from the gout; but I firmly believe it. My feet are not now tender at all, and I can wear shoes as tight as I could in boyish days. I have not been traveling for my health at all, but for pleasure and the gratification of my better half. I never used more than seven cells; and, after twice using seven, never went beyond five. The last time I introduced the No. 30 electrode, which was a week ago, nine weeks had elapsed since its previous introduction, owing to being away ; but I did not encounter the slightest trouble, pain, or inconvenience on its introduction, and did it as quickly as you could introduce an ordinary catheter into a perfectly normal urethra. Of course, I mean I did it without using the battery at all. When you consider how d'?nse and hard and long- standing the stricture was (over twenty-six years), and how the smallest electrode could not be passed, and even found it difficult to pass a filiform bougie, I think the results have been simply marvelous. And, no matter what is said or who disputes the efficacy of elec- trolysis iu urethral strictures, I will swear by it every time ; for facts are stubborn things that cannot be ignored, and have been proved beyond the shadow of a doubt, under my own ob- servation, and iu my own person. I am satisfied that, to accomplish the best results from electrolysis iu urethral stricture, the seances ought not to be very close together. I should say two weeks, unless circumstances were such that the patient could not be gotten at at pleasure. It will be seen that I withhold the gentleman's name, but the case can be vouched for by Professor Shoemaker, of Philadelphia. W. C. Wile, M.D. Tlie following letter from Dr. J. B. Greene, of Mishawaka, will also prove that after a cure by electrolysis no relapse took place, and that the urethra was restored to a normal state, which was ascertained at the post-mortem : — Mishawaka, Ind., March 17, 1890. My Dear Doctor : I write you for the purpose of informing you of the permanency of cure of urethral stricture by electrolysis. In 18841 treated Mr. Henry C, of thi6 country, for an old or rather a series of old urethral (gonorrhoea]) strictures. The first bulb passed was No. 12 French ; when I discharged him (within the next three months) a No. 19 French steel would easily enter the bladder. I heard no more of any urethral difficulty, and attended him during his last illness, in October and November, 1889. He died in November. After](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21033705_1034.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
