The Electric Bath

by George M. Schweig

To realize thoroughly the indications in given cases for the employment of electric baths, we must first of all be more or less familiar with the effects and uses of the electric current as well as those of the ordinary warm bath. We must realize the fact that here we not only have these two forces united, but that the more important of the two, the electric current, here acts directly (locally) as well as indirectly (through the nervous centres) on every portion of the body—a circumstance of great importance in differentiating indications on the one hand for the baths, on the other for local electrization. In view of these circumstances we are fully justified in looking for results far more comprehensive than any that might be obtained singly from either of the two remedies that are here combined. There can be no doubt that in many cases the resisting power of a disease is sufficient to withstand two remedies brought singly and alternately to combat it, whereas the simultaneous combined action of these remedies may be fully adequate to overcome this resisting power.

Approaching in its effects more closely to the electric bath than any other remedy, is the process known as “general faradization,” to which I have already alluded ([p. 36]). In choosing between this and the bath, I state it as my conviction that, while there may be a small proportion of cases in which general faradization, so-called, is preferable, in almost all the cases where both these remedies are applicable, the faradic bath deserves the preference—it is a more complete faradization.

We need never be afraid of ordering electric baths on the score of any imagined exertion or discomfort attaching to them. The most delicate, the aged and children alike, bear them with far more ease, comfort and impunity than any ordinary warm bath, or any but the mildest local electrization. The entire absence of shock or pain of any kind whatsoever, is always an agreeable surprise to those who, urged by their physicians, have with fear and trembling submitted themselves to a treatment, the mere name of which filled their minds with extravagant—and, it is useless to say, groundless—visions of painful shocks. Thanks to the tonic effects of the current, they are by the feeble and infirm borne much better than the ordinary warm bath. There is likewise much less liability to get cold after the electric bath. The stimulus which the current furnishes to the peripheral circulation is a powerful protection against cold, so that even in midwinter I see people daily take electric baths at an average temperature of 95°, and enjoy apparent immunity from colds.

Having once determined on the use of the baths in a given case, we have to observe certain points in their application.

In the first place, guided by what we know of the relative effects of galvanism and induced electricity, we must decide which of these two currents to use, and if both, in which order. We must determine on the direction and intensity of the currents, as well as on the duration of the baths.

Next we must use our judgment as physicians, in deciding whether a given case promises to get well under electro-balneological treatment alone, or whether auxiliary treatment may not be required to bring it to a favorable issue.

With respect to the frequency of the applications, I will say that while there are some cases where a bath twice a week is sufficient, and others where a bath every day is imperatively necessary, in far the greater majority of cases suitable for electro-balneological treatment, a bath every alternate day is sufficient, but a bath every day is better—it leads to more rapid as well as certain results.

In most of the cases, a daily bath for a few days or a week, followed by one every other day for a time, and, when the cure is about completed, a bath twice a week, to consolidate and confirm the good results obtained, has done me the best service.

I would dwell particularly on the necessity of perseverance in this treatment. The majority of cases that have come under my observation in this connection, have been of a more or less chronic nature. In many of these, where medicinal and other treatment had been unavailingly gone through with for weeks, months and even years, I have found existing the most absurd expectations with regard to the effects of the baths. People who had made the tour of almost all the watering-places of Europe without obtaining the slightest benefit, have come to me imbued with the idea—whence derived I know not—that one or two baths should greatly improve, and two or three more cure them; and when these expectations were not realized, they would promptly discontinue treatment, fully satisfied that electric baths were no more capable of benefiting them than “all the other things.” I do not mean to be understood for a moment as intending to imply that ideas of this nature are shared by the profession; I mention them simply in order to show the necessity on the part of physicians to disabuse in this respect the minds of those patients whom they may send for electro-balneological treatment.

In appropriate cases, the use of the bath should not be too long deferred. I have had frequent occasion to become cognizant of the fact, that cases have been sent by physicians to take the baths only after prolonged ineffectual treatment of another nature had been gone through with, and where negative or at best tardy results took the place of the brilliant results that might have been obtained, had the cases been sent earlier. I do not mention this in a fault-finding spirit; to do so would be unjust. The remedy under consideration has up to the present time been too little known, the indications for its employment—in the absence of statistics—on too uncertain a basis, to expect from any but specialists the early realization in any case of its appropriateness. I trust however that in the future, from being a “dernier ressort,” it will come to take its proper place among other remedies, to be administered “when it will do the most good.” When this comes to pass, the results obtained, satisfactory as they are even now, will become as brilliant and well-authenticated as those of every other remedy from which experience has taught us how to reap the greatest advantage.