The Electric Bath

of the physiological effects of electricity in general. It was my purpose when I undertook to write these pages, to offer to the profession a book confined to one

, I refer those interested to the many excellent works on the subject that have appeared within the

have had the opportunity of observing, were in a condition that might be called normal. By far the greater majority were suffering from some complaint, in most instances of a neurotic or rheumatic nature, the presence of which, while it afforded admirable opportunity for observing therapeutic results, modified more or less the physiolog

merit individual consideration. They differ in two ways. One of these is self-evident. To the effects of electricity are superadded those of the warm bath. The effects of the warm bath per se are too familiar to every physician to require co

so by contact with the skin, leads us to one of i

the human body gives rise to electric currents, which currents must be looked upon as being the excitors of the nerve-currents, the body acting merely as a conductor. From these experiments we conclude that no particular difference obtains between artifi

hrough the contact of the body with the water of the bath is modified chiefly b

ay be stimulating or soothing. The strength of the current is governed, as we have seen, by the quantity of gases present, the temperature and the salts. Or

ying to the nerves of sensation. If, now, we presuppose absorption or even imbibition on the part of the skin, a swelling of the nerve-ends is comprehensible, as the imbibed fluid reaches them. But, according to Heymann, the peripheral nerve-ends, i.e., the terminal bulbs of Krause, of the sensory nerves, and the tactile corpuscles of Meissner, become ev

rrent produced by contact of the water with the body preponderates over the swelling of the nerve-ends, have a s

from the contents of carbonic acid and salts, and lastly from the electric current generated in the bath water; each effect however reso

mer of electricity? Or rather, is it not very likely that this is so? And if such is the case, it would appear evident that the mineral water bath, the electric properties of which, depending on the chemical changes going on between the gases and salts of the water on the one, and the cutaneous secretions and other constituents

e authors[7]-have caused it to be extensively adopted by the medical profession, both here and in Europe. It is, however, not with its results that I have to do at present, but with its appellation and true nature. General faradization, so-called, consists of a series of local faradizations, administered during one and the same séance, until the current has alternately been made to impinge upon and traverse the entire or at least a large portion of the body. This cumulative procedure, it is true, approaches general electrization, as represented by the electric bath, more cl

bath as an electric method, I will without further digressi

e," on the other as either "transient" or "permanent." Strictly to classify these is impracticable, and I will t

, and at the same time most important, effect

NOT

ears quite natural, when it is considered that the same topical influences which produce it in local electrizations, and which I shall presently endeavor to analyze, are here brought to bear on the entire system. The hypnot

SENSE O

e, for therapeutic reasons, a strong faradic current-accompanied by responsive muscular contractions-is employed, that this feeling is intensified sufficiently to become

on. When the latter is the case however, the individual will as a rule become sleepy during the afternoon, or else at an earlier hour than usual in the evening, and sleep more soundly during the night. This is the effect of one bath. A series of bat

en the various functions have been more or less exercised for their daily allotted time-say seventeen hours-the respective organs need that profound rest which we know as sleep. Now, it is pretty well conceded by physiologists, that electricity stimulate

THE CHANG

isposition to sleep. As to the permanent improvement in sleep, where this has been below the normal standard, it must always be due to the removal of some morbid condition, and thus belongs among therapeutic results, rather than physiological effects. It is true that in many instances of agrypnia we are unable to discover any pathological con

I know-the first attempt at accounting for a phenomenon that has been noticed as a result of even local applic

t to the ef

TURE AN

tic rather than physiological effect, manifesting itself only where there is pneumogastric asthenia, and attributable directly to electric stimulation of this nerve. Thus in one instance, which occurred in the person of a physician of this city, who had an intermittent pulse, the result was as follows: Immediately before bath: pulse 70, two intermissions; at the expiration of 15 minutes, during which he was under the influence of a descending galvanic current: pulse 65, two intermissions; at the end of te

h it was 99?. Of permanent modifications of the temperature, the same holds good that I have said of permanent changes in the pulse. It must not be forgotten that the temperature of the water is undoubtedly an important factor in modifying the temperature of the body. In almost all instances where my observations were made, the temperature of the water was below that of the body, being 9

AL STIMULAN

y by a feeling of exhilaration and unwonted vigor, remotely by an improvement-where there is a margin for such-in the per

e those that occur within the sphere of the digestive and

STIVE AP

amounting to positive hunger, is a tolerably uniform and more or less immediate result of each separate bath. The permanent improvement of the appetite is relative. Not very appreciable where this is normal, it becomes most marked where the appetite has from some cause been impaired. The effect on the appetite is definite. The effects on absorption and

ectric bath, although we often have, as an immediate consequence, a cathartic effect that manifests itself as a more or less watery evacuation, either a few hours after the bath or on the s

hiefly to the electric stimulus to the secreto-motor nerves, and the increased activity of the muscular coats to a like influence transmitted to their motor nerves, I believe the permanent tonization and invigoration of the muscular fibres to be mainly attributable to the direct trophic influence of the current traversing the parts themselves

fluenc

L APP

een individuals whose sexual functions were normal, have stysis in the bath, but the mere cutaneous irritation of the electric curre

sion of improved nutrition and tonization of the system at large. I do not mean to be understood as wishing to put in negation the beneficial results that the local influence of electricity is capable of sometimes accomplishing in the sexual sphere. These results, however, are not of a physiological, but rather of a purely therapeutic nature, and are obtained there only where local morbid conditions exist. Now, in the great majority of the cases that have come under my observation, the causes of deterioration of the sexual capacity, though frequently obscure and indefinable, were certainly not local, but to be sought for in the general-most pro

omprehensive and pronounced, a fact which is not surprising, when we reflect that in the electric bath not only are all the organs indirec

timulant and tonic effects

VE INF

any idea of depression, for here we have none such. In addition to what I have already said in endeavoring to account for the hypnotic infl

anial and upper spinal region, the effect of producing the galvanic tast

IAL

he sphere of

uliar to the galvani

CH

. Rather pleasant when mild or medium currents are used, under the influence of strong currents it may bec

anic bath, even where very in

FREEDOM

ntensity are employed. The strongest that I have used, and on which I base my statement, was that from 48 St?hrer or 60 Hill cells. As s

tributed to the diffusion of the current throughout the body and its surface, as well as through the wate

t however is incautiously administered, the resulting muscular contractions are accompanied by an amount of local pain prop

respe

R CONTR

r comprehensiveness. Many groups of muscles may be made simultaneously to contract by this means. The practical

ological

E

em, and keeps pace with this. Mental buoyancy and even exhilaration are among the most com

iological effects of electric baths. As the isolated results of observations made in a limited field by one unaided individual, I trust the shortcomings of this chapter will be viewed indulgently. If what I have

tno

and chronische Gelenkrheumatismus

re refers to mine

th special reference to general electr

Medical and Surgical E

it. pp. 2