not lie together, lest the shock should take a circumlocution, and pass partly on to the opposite side and may,
especially in a weak person, endanger abortion. I think there would be much danger in passing strong shocks
through the uterus; they would, undoubtedly, prove fatal to a delicate habit. Light shocks may be
passed in great numbers from right hand to left, across the breast, and from the sides of the neck to the
feet; but these last must be almost imperceptible; they must not be perceived to jar the patient in the body.
However, as there is an increased tension or stricture upon the vessels, there can be no great danger in
reducing that tension to the same degree of laxity which existed before the fever, if it is done moderately.
I have had occasion to use it on several women, in all stages of pregnancy, and have never observed any
ill effect produced by the shock in such cases. I had occasion to use the shock on a woman in
the yellow fever, at New-York, the wife of Abraham Bower, Washington street; she was in a very high state of
inflammation, and of a firm, compact habit: I have her great numbers of light shocks: in the course of two or
three days, she was relieved from the first operations of them from pain; in a few hours an universal diaphoresis was promoted, and
kept up about two days, by which time she was nearly well. I think it was the fourth or fifth day I took her under
my care, that she cooked gammon herself, and ate freely, without receiving any injury thereby. This was
about the last of September, 1798. Mrs. Bower, however, could hardly believe that those little insignificant
shocks should be so instrumental in her cure. Doctors in the city had the
same instruments, and did not use them scarcely in any case: I was from the country, and cut no popular
figure; in short, the lady did not know what to think of this new fashion, but was willing to own I had
cured her very suddenly, and was a good nurse.
The fever was on the decline when I came to the city, being the last of september, so that I had but a very
small opportunity of introducing my new and infallible remedy of fever. While I was tending on Mrs. Bower, I was
called to a woman near Bear-market, I think a kinswoman of Mrs. Bower; she was suddenly taken of
afever (but not pregnant;) I gave her a smart electrification, and directed the nurse
to pursue means of promoting a deep sweat; it was done; the next day I called to see her; she was setting up,
and comfortable, and was directly well. I was next called to a woman who had nursed a man, called Cootong
(but spelled differently) a shoemaker, nigh Teawater pump, who had just died; she was much affected in the pleura;
but a single electrification restored her, with a few other simples.
By advice from Dr. M'Lain, I went to Bellevue hospital, where I relieved a few convalescents.
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