When the conducting cords are of equal length, as commonly they should be, each of the two poles or electrodes produces a polar effect in the patient directly the opposite of that produced by the other. Also, at any point in either half of the circuit, if it be within the person of the patient, the polar effect produced is the very reverse of what is experienced at the corresponding point in the other half of the circuit. And further; each half of the current produces a polar effect, at every point in the parts of the patient through which it runs, the same in kind, though differing in degree, as is produced immediately under the pole or electrode with which it is connected; yet an effect antagonistic to that which is produced under the other pole, or at the corresponding point in the other half of the current.
IMPORTANCE OF NOTING THE CENTRAL POINT.
From the above observations, it will be plain that, when we wish to bring a diseased organ under the influence of the positive pole, we must carefully place our electrodes so that none of the organ, or none of the diseased part of it, shall appear on the positive[B] side of the central point of the circuit; it being understood that the current moves as nearly in direct lines as the best conducting medium will admit. Or again, if it be desired to bring a diseased organ, or any extended part of it, under the influence of the negative pole, we must first calculate in placing our electrodes about where the central point will come, and then so apply them that no part of the lesion or disease shall appear on the negative[B] side of the central point; otherwise so much of it as lies on that side will come under the force of the wrong pole, and thus be affected in a way the opposite of what was intended. The characteristic influence of each pole is felt throughout its own half of the circuit.
DISTINCTIVE USE OF EACH POLE.
I have said that every disease is preternaturally either positive or negative. I have further said, that the application of either pole to a given part produces an effect the opposite of what would be produced in the same part by a reversal of the poles. The way is now prepared for me to announce THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE of our system of practice. The reader will bear in mind that all acutely inflammatory or hypersthenic affections are electrically positive in excess—having too much vital action—being overcharged with the electro-vital fluid; and that all paralytic diseases, or those of a sluggish, azoödynamic character, are electrically negative—having too little electro-vital fluid—too little vital action. It is a universal law of electricity that positives repel each other, and that negatives repel each other; but that positives and negatives attract each other. This is a principle of electric action everywhere known, where any thing is known on the subject. We appropriate it practically to therapeutic purposes. Therefore, when I wish to repress or repel inflammation, which is electrically positive in excess, I put the positive pole to it; or, at least, I bring it under that half of the circuit with which the positive pole is connected, and as near to the pole or electrode as possible. And because two positives repel each other, and also because the direction of the current is always from the positive to the negative pole, carrying the electro-vital fluid with it, either I must withdraw my positive electrode, or that excess of electro-vitality in the diseased part which makes it morbidly positive, and thus produces inflammation, must give way. I will not withdraw my positive pole, and therefore the positive inflammation must retreat and be dispersed. In treating this case, I will place my negative electrode either on some healthy part, or, if there be perceptible anywhere in the system a morbidly negative part, as is often the case, I will place my negative pole there. For example: if I am treating for nephritis—inflammation of the kidneys—when I do not perceive any part to be abnormally negative, I manipulate with my positive electrode over the inflamed kidney, having the negative electrode placed at the coccyx—lowest part of the spine. My positive pole repels the positive inflammation from the kidney; or, rather, repels from it that excess of electro-vital fluid which makes it morbidly positive and induces the inflammation, while the negative pole attracts the same towards the coccyx. On its way, it becomes more or less diverted to adjacent nerves; or, if gathered in the healthy part, under the negative pole, it is immediately dispersed by the normal circulation as soon as the electrode is removed. But if I find a spinal irritation, say in one or more of the cervical or dorsal vertebræ, and, at the same time, a stomach affected with chronic dyspepsia, accompanied with constipation of bowels, I will work over the inflamed or irritated spine with my positive pole, because I know from its irritation that there is an excess of electro-vital fluid in the part, making it improperly positive; and, with my negative electrode, I will, at the same time, treat over the stomach, bowels and liver; because I know, from the inaction of these organs, that there is a lack of the vital force—a deficiency of the electro-vital fluid—there, and that, consequently, they are too negative. Adopting this method, I accomplish two objects in the same treatment. First, my positive pole, applied to the spinal disease, repels from it the excess of electro-vital fluid which was there doing mischief; and, second, my negative pole attracts the same, along with the artificial or inorganic electricity, to the stomach and bowels where it is wanted, since negatives attract positives. Or I wish to rouse to action a torpid liver. Now, if I find inflammation, or enlargement of the spleen, as is commonly the case in chills and fever, I place the positive pole upon the spleen, at the left side, just below the false ribs, and the negative pole on the liver, which is best reached immediately below the ribs on the right side, and around backward and upward as far as to the spine. The positive pole repels the excess of electro-vitality away from the positive spleen, and so reduces the improper excitement there, while at the same time it rushes, by attraction, to the negative liver, under the negative pole, and makes that more positive, and so more active. In this way, I change the polarization of the parts, and, in so doing, remove the sustaining cause of the disease. You here perceive that I treat a positive part with the positive pole, so as to repel the excess of electro-vitality from it, and thus repress its excessive action; and that I treat a negative part with the negative pole, so as to attract the electro-vital fluid, along with the current from the machine, to it from under the positive pole, and thus increase the action by making it more positive.
But suppose I do what nearly all of the doctors do, who use electricity with any regard to polarity; that is, if treating acutely inflamed eyes, for example, apply the negative pole to the eyes, thinking thereby to make them more negative; or, if treating amaurosis, apply the positive electrode to the affected parts, thinking thereby to make them more positive! I say, suppose I do this same thing, do you not see that, by the fixed laws of electricity, I necessarily increase the evils that I would remedy? Do you not see that, by placing my negative pole on the already overcharged and inflamed eyes, I attract to them yet more of the electro-vital fluid, and so increase their positive condition and aggravate the inflammation? and that, by presenting my positive electrode to the eyes already more or less paralyzed, I repel what little electro-vitality there was there, and so make the nerves all the more negative and dead? And yet, I repeat it, this is precisely the plan of almost all the men who use electricity in therapeutic practice with any regard to its polarization. They treat a positive disease—rather, a hypersthenic disease, (for they seldom know anything of the electrical states of diseased parts), with the negative pole, and an azoödynamic disease, which is negative, with the positive pole!—all directly antagonistic to science and success.
But the great mass of physicians, who attempt to treat electrically, have no knowledge either of the electrical condition of the various forms of disease, nor of the distinctive and peculiar effects produced by either pole of the artificial current; and consequently all their use of this powerful agent is entirely empirical—merely haphazard experiment.
I may have raised an inquiry a few moments since which ought to be answered. I said, in effect, that in treating a positive disease, such, for instance, as acute, inflammatory rheumatism or acute pleurisy, I would use the positive pole on the inflamed parts, and the negative pole on either some healthy part or on a morbidly negative part, if I could find such. So, too, I said I would treat a negative disease, such as amaurosis or torpidity of liver, with the negative pole, placing the positive pole on either some healthy or morbidly positive part. The query may have arisen, "By placing the one pole or the other on a healthy part, do you not derange the normal electro-vital action there, disturbing its healthy polarization?" I answer, yes, for the time being, I do; and if this disturbing force were to be steadily continued for any considerable time, the disturbance would produce manifest and serious disease. But then, a pole or electrode, placed on a healthy part, we generally move, or ought to move, more or less, every few moments, which prevents the establishment of any perverted action in the part; and the moment the electrode is withdrawn, the normal polarization and healthy action are resumed.