Femina, A Work for Every Woman

by John A. Miller

The milliampere meter is a galvanometer to measure the quantity of electricity that is applied, and as a chemical battery will of necessity change, a meter is the only means of judging the intensity of the current; so that without one there is danger of applying the current too strong, or an injustice may be done to the patient, and reproach cast on the treatment by not using it strong enough.

At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association, at Chicago, in 1887, Dr. Martin read a paper, in which he reported three cases that were treated with the most satisfactory results without puncture. The positive or external electrode was applied over the abdomen after the manner of Apostoli, and the negative electrode was placed in the rectum, vagina or uterus, in such a way as to cause the current to traverse the largest diameter of the tumor; this method is to my mind the ideal of an electrical treatment, it is galvanism without corrosion or electrolysis.

The number of eminent authorities that I have quoted, can hardly fail to convince the reader that electrical therapeutics in the treatment of fibroid tumors are not only efficacious, but in the infancy of experimental growth, so that every day will add new proofs and improved methods to the history of this most interesting subject. But this treatment is not limited in its usefulness to the removal of abnormal growths, for it has proven itself equally as effectual in the treatment of chronic inflammatory conditions of the pelvic organs. I have myself attained great success in curing certain forms of these diseases since the publication of “A New Treatment of Chronic Metritis,” by the same indefatigable author, Georges Apostoli, of Paris.

The value of electricity is now so firmly established that a physician who, ignorant of its virtues, and laboring under this self-imposed ignorance, brushes aside any reference to or desire for electrical treatment with a supercilious air, claiming “that there is nothing in it,” advertises himself as incompetent or insincere.

It must be apparent to anyone who has followed this brief outline from the beginning, that this subject requires a special and individual devotion, so as to become familiar, not only with the elementary principles of the physics of electricity, but with the technique of applying the treatment in each individual case. This, few persons have the honesty or ambition to acquire, and if they own a battery, it is more for show than for use. I am convinced that there are great possibilities in store for the curative value of the galvanic current, but it also requires a high order of intelligence to employ it, in order that those hopes may be realized.

“The positive pole is anodyne, sedative, anti-congestive, and anti-hemorrhagic. It combats and prevents the tendency to excessive vascularization, and consequently relieves congestion and inflammation and the pain depending upon these conditions. Its local or polar action, when used within the uterus, is hemostatic or styptic, and caustic, with high intensities of current.

“The negative pole is stimulating and has a marked electrolytic action. It tends to produce congestion, and a derivative effect which favors absorption of tumors, inflammatory deposits and adhesions. But great care must be observed in using it in some conditions, lest a new inflammation be rekindled.”

I have the record of a case where the womb was retroflexed and tied down by old inflammatory adhesions for nine years; the retroflexion dated back to a miscarriage. This woman had been an invalid since that time; her appetite was poor, and her digestion poorer, she was excessively constipated, suffered from pain during menstruation, but at other times there was a constant pain in the small of her back, which ran down the right thigh, the bladder was irritable, and there were neuralgic pains shooting from the ovaries down the groins. All these symptoms became more or less aggravated every few weeks or months. The womb was so firmly fixed or glued down on the lower portion of the spine, that it could not be moved an iota. This woman had tried all the remedies that I could suggest, except galvanism. This I concluded to try, by placing a large dispersing electrode on the small of her back, and the other electrode, properly prepared, so that it did not burn or cauterize, was introduced into the vagina, against the posterior aspect of the uterus. A current strength of from 90 to 120 milliampères was applied every other day for ten minutes; in six weeks the organ was quite movable, and in five months all adhesions had melted away, and the womb occupied its normal position, and the patient was in every way restored to health.

The diseases that are curable by galvanism are the different forms of subacute or chronic inflammation of the ovaries, and the consequent enlargement of these organs, small cysts or fibro-cysts of the ovaries are also amenable to the galvanic puncture.

Catarrhal inflammation of the Fallopian tubes, or when either or both ends are agglutinated with inflammatory exudation, so as to pen up their contents, which may be mucous, water, pus or blood, these fluids should be first aspirated or drawn off, and then, by means of appropriate galvanism, the normal conditions of the tubes may be restored.