Manual of static electricity in x-ray and therapeutic uses / by S.H. Monell ; illustrated.
- Monell, S. H. (Samuel Howard), -1918
- Date:
- 1897
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Manual of static electricity in x-ray and therapeutic uses / by S.H. Monell ; illustrated. 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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![electrical process about to be described and hence afford, as far as they go, a fair promise of at least occasional benefit from the application of this powerful agent in the treatment of the dis- eases specified. However undesirable it may be to encumber our reports with a detailed history of cases, such a mode of procedure becomes almost indispensable in the present instance; but in order that the length of this communication may not greatly exceed its importance, I shall without further comment proceed to lay before the profession a brief description of the mode in which electricity was applied. In the following cases the form of electricity employed was that elicited by the common electrical machine; being made use of either by taking sparks in the course of the spine, or in the form of shocks passed through the pelvis. In the former case the patient was seated on an insulating stool and a metallic connection made between the prime con- ductor of the machine and the body of the patient. A brass ball furnished with a wire or chain in connection with the earth was then passed upward and downward in the direction of the spine at a distance of about one inch from the surface. The machine being now excited, the patient became charged, and the electricity continued to pass off, accompanied by sparks, to the brass ball, and thence escaping through the medium of the wire or chain to the earth. In this manner a rapid succession of sparks could be main- tained, and which in the present instances was continued until the eruption followed which assumed very much the appearance of lichen urticatus; the time necessary for its production vary- ing in different patients from five to ten minutes. [Here follows a description of Leyden-jar shocks, which we shall omit and proceed at once to the report of cases.] Chorea with Epileptic Convulsions.—Jessie Wick, aged 17, admitted May 14th, 1837, a stout, intelligent, well-developed girl of rather nervous temperament. In general good health](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21067867_0518.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
