How to Use a Galvanic Battery in Medicine and Surgery / A Discourse Delivered Before the Hunterian Society, Third Edition

by Herbert Tibbits

We have already studied methods of applying Franklinism.[10]

Voltaization and Faradization may both be applied either generally—as in the different forms of electrical baths—or locally.

The Application of Electricity.

A convenient method of applying electricity, when very strict localization is not required, is to insert the feet and hands of the patient, or one foot and one hand, as the case may be, in separate vessels containing tepid salt and water with which the conducting wires of the battery are in contact, the current being allowed to circulate during the time required. Ordinary foot-pails, basins, or jugs, will fulfil every requirement; while thick telegraph wire answers well to connect the battery with the vessels of water, as it is little liable to break and wears well. A variety of the constant current (originated by Dr. Radcliffe) is very readily applied in the way just described, with the addition only of some means of insulating the patient and the accessories, and of a length of ordinary uninsulated copper wire.|Radcliffe’s Positive Charge.| Dr. Radcliffe believes that an administration of positive Voltaic electricity, somewhat analogous to the charge of Franklinic electricity, is frequently beneficial. He insulates the patient and the accessories, and having connected the negative pole with the earth by a wire which he calls a “ground-wire,” he allows the current to pass. With careful insulation the negative electricity passes away by the wire, and while the current circulates the patient continues “charged” with positive electricity. There must be two wires from the negative pole, one to be applied, as well as the positive, to the patient, and the other taken “to earth.” This latter may be conveniently attached to a chandelier or gas-pipe, which always gives a direct metallic conduction to the ground. A perforated vulcanized indiarubber mat, or a sheet of gutta percha, or a glass-legged stool can be employed to insulate the patient and the accessories.

The Electric Bath.

There is another generalized application which has been much advocated, and remarkable statements have been put forth, not only of its curative power in almost every disease, but also of its purely physical and chemical effects—I refer to that by “Electric Baths,” several establishments of which exist in London, but you need not send your patients to them. You can teach them how to take an electric bath in their own bed or bath-room. A bath sufficiently large for the patient to recline in it should be insulated by glass supports (four stout tumblers will do very well), and filled with water at a temperature of 95 to 100 degrees. A metallic plate in connection with one pole may be inserted at the head, and a second plate in connection with the other pole at the foot of the bath. The patient should be protected from direct contact with either plate by sitting upon a wooden framework. With a sufficiently powerful current, a portion of the electricity will pass through the body of the patient reclining thus between the poles. Another method is to connect the water with one pole, and for the patient to grasp in his unimmersed hands a copper bar covered with wet flannel, and in connection with the second pole of the battery; or a conductor from this second pole may be held almost, but not quite, in contact with any part of the body immersed in the water. Either the Voltaic or Faradaic current may be used. Ordinary water with the Faradaic current, but salt and water, or acidulated water, with the Voltaic.

General Faradization.

Another more generalized application is that introduced by Beard and Rockwell, under the name of “General Faradization.” The patient sits with his naked feet upon a sheet of copper connected with one pole, while the other pole is connected by a moistened sponge with the left hand of the operator, who passes his disengaged hand, slightly moistened, over the muscles of the patient, and sometimes over his whole body. The current, I need hardly say, passes through the body of the operator before it reaches the patient, and the sensation he feels is his chief guide to its graduation.

Centralized Galvanization.

Another general application is the “Centralized Galvanization” of the same authors, in which their object is to bring the whole central nervous system under the influence of the Voltaic current.