irritation of the nerves, by the action of a vitiated state of the humours upon them.
It was familiar to me, that no means on earth were able to cleanse the human body of a cachexy, or purge the blood of vitiated humours so suddenly and effectually as that of
electrifying freely, and this succeeded by deep sweats.
I formed my process accordingly, and it had the desired and intended effect; and purging off the humours, was the cure of the involuntary motion of the nervous system.
I insolated the girl two or three times only, and this was not continued half an hour at a time; so that the cure could
not be founded on the action of so short a stimulus: moreover, she was not insolated until after she had received some degree of betterment.
The most of people exercised with this complaint, are in habits of debility.
This was my reason for recommending it, to corroborate with the shock.
Hysterics.
The spasm that attends this disease being a secondary effect, arising, undoubtedly, from compression and pressure - the whole affection the pressure to the stomach, head, &c. - all will
immediately subside, by passing the shocks, in due number and force, from the sides of the neck to the feet.
This compression and pressure is suddenly counteracted by the depression of the electrical shock upon the part affected.
I have seldom had occasion to give more than twenty shocks, and mostly light ones, to remove one of those rude fits.
I have used the shock in this manner, I think, in hundreds of cases; and have ever found it to have
one uniform effect, such as above described.
The effect of removing a paroxysm by the shocks has been, that when women have been careful not to take a cold immediately upon the shock, they
have been less subject to the paroxysm for a longer time, then when they were removed by other means.
Electriying from the hips to the feet only, would be sufficient to prevent a paroxysm, would women be careful to keep their feet warm.
Doctor Graham, of London, who used medical electricity a considerable time, and found it to be so exceedingly useful to women, in diseases peculiar to themselves,
hath said that women may, with propriety, adore electricity.
There is a certain effect produced by the electric shock, which I have scarcely noticed as yet, and which may as properly be
introduced here as any other place, inasmuch as this singular effect is concerned in the cure of the disease now under consideration. -
The effect I have reference to, is what caused Doctor Franklin to say, that the shock determined the blood, one way or the other, according as the shock was directed.
Dr. Cavallo, a late British writer upon medical electricity, hath, barely, contradicted Franklin's assertion.
I think Doctor Cavallo had better been silent on this subject: for there is an effect produced
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