The hydro-electric methods in medicine : with chapters on current from the main, cure-gymnastics, etc / by W.A. Hedley.

  • Hedley, W. S. (William Snowdon)
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The hydro-electric methods in medicine : with chapters on current from the main, cure-gymnastics, etc / by W.A. Hedley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    that the electric bath is especially designed to avoid, except in the modified way, to be hereafter detailed, which is carried out by concentrating and directing the lines of current-flow through the water. In the di-polar form both electrodes are in the water; that is, the current is led off from the battery or coil, and neither pole is applied to the patient’s body direct, but only through the medium of the water. This is the electric bath, strictly so-called. Its painless and widely-distributed cur- rent has certain unique advantages which, in some cases, make it an admirable method of administra- tion, and an almost indispensable weapon in the equipment of the electrical physician. That it is wasteful of current will be afterwards shown. But this is not a matter of serious moment, with plenty of electrical power available, and knowledge and apparatus to efficiently control it. It is obvious that in the mono-polar form the whole of the current must enter the patient’s body. In the di-polar the conditions are much more com- plex, and we shall see by our subsequent investiga- tions that the proportion of current the body receives is very difficult to arrive at. Either the mono-polar or di-polar bath will be <e galvanic,’ or “ faradic,” or “ galvano-faradic,” as the continuous alternating or combined current may be used. It is the province of the electro- therapeutist to decide upon this according to the nature of the case. The general principles that guide him in ordinary electrical treatment will also serve to guide him here, knowing, as he does, the