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.
530/662 page 504
![The above table includes a sufficient number of cases to en- able the reader to draw his own deductions from the results of treatment. It must be borne in mind that in many of the cases remedies were given during the application of electricity, and thus the reports of such cases lose a certain amount of their value. But in the majority of instances these remedies were but occasional mild purgatives, and it must not be forgotten that, in very many of the cases here related, every variety of treatment had been tried before the patients were admitted into the electrical room of the hospital. Some few of the cases (Nos. XXV., XXL, XXXII.) may perhaps be regarded as scarcely instances of chorea, but as they are cases of involuntary muscular movement I have not hesi- tated to admit them. The first six cases on the list have been previously reported by Dr. Addison, and they afford valuable evidence of the utility of electricity as a remedy in chorea. In every case admitted into the electrical room I have con- fined the treatment to sparks on the spine every alternate day for about five minutes each time, or until the papular eruption appears. I have very frequently found the disease to be some- what increased at first from the alarm of the patient, but this rapidly subsides, and in general merely with an occasional pur- gative the cases have rapidly progressed toward cure. It is, indeed, notorious that remedies of this class, mild purgatives, often produce a considerable alleviation of the paroxysm of chorea and occasionally are sufficient to cure the disease with- out other remedies. Still this is not the constant result. The following are some of the most interesting cases in the table: Case I.—Chorea Following Rheumatism.—Harriet Witham, deed, occupy a place by itself. If we except these cases, the results of the other twenty-seven are: twenty-two cured; five relieved. Here we have therefore great confirmatory evidence of the results offered by Dr. Addison. Its value would have been greatly enhanced by a fuller account of the time during which electricity was employed, of which there is no mention in the table. [In all the cases reported in full, the time is, however, accurately given.—Author.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21067867_0530.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
