Magneto-electricity, or, Electro-magnetism, medically applied for the cure of disease : designed to accompany Kinne's magneto-electric and electro-magnetic machine, containing instructions for its use, and reference to cases of practice / by William W. Kinne.
- Kinne, William W.
- Date:
- 1852
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Magneto-electricity, or, Electro-magnetism, medically applied for the cure of disease : designed to accompany Kinne's magneto-electric and electro-magnetic machine, containing instructions for its use, and reference to cases of practice / by William W. Kinne. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
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![an hour, if the individual received no other severe injury at the time of falling into the water. The length of time during which an individual may be resuscitated after falling into the water will, in a measure, depend on the degree of strength and vigor he possessed before submersion, and any injury or violence he may have received at the time of falling, and un- der favorable circumstances we should not neglect to make an effort as long as an hour and a half; but at this late period we should not feel satisfied perhaps short of making a slight inci- sion on the nape of the neck lengthwise, and one or more over the pit of the stomach, the heart and the diaphragm, and pass the current under a strong power through these openings in the skin. Although the emergency of such cases warrant the above practice, yet the author believes it would very seldom be found necessary to break the skin in order to pass the current more effectively, but at the same time would never abandon a case as hopeless, until this measure had been resorted to. Mode of Application.—In all ordinary cases of recent drowning, it will be found sufficient to apply the current from the nape of the neck to and over the stomach, heart and dia- phragm, under a moderate power to begin, and increase until you see signs of returning life with respiration and circulation commenced, and then put it at a comfortable degree of strength only, and better still at this period, if passed through the hands of two persons, each one taking a pole from the machine in one hand, and one of them putting his other hand on the nape of the patient's neck, and the other passing his unoccupied hand around and over all the seats of vitality ; no measures should be neglected that arc calculated to keep the patient warm and dry, such as covering him over with hot flannels. It may be well also to bear in mind, that a person that has been lying in cold water, would require a much stronger cur- rent to make them feel it to the same extent, than they would at the common temperature of the body. After the patient was revived enough to swallow, some warm water and brandy with a paregoric *ss, or some cordial will be all that is re- quired, besides entire rest and quiet. We would also say that the current should not be passed through the incisions as above mentioned, after the first signs of returning life are manifested as it is quite painful. [See cases thus treated in Lond. Lan. vol. 7, p. 469 ; Braith. Ret. part 2, p. 109 : part 5, pp 63, 64* part 7, p. 31.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21134753_0024.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
