| Before Electricity. | After Electricity. | |||
| February | 8 | 98-2/5 | 99-1/5 | |
| " | 9 | 98-3/5 | 99 | |
| " | 10 | 98-2/5 | 99 | |
| " | 12 | 98-1/5 | 99-3/5 | |
| " | 13 | 98-2/5 | 99 | |
| " | 14 | 98-2/5 | 98-3/5 | |
| " | 15 | 98-2/5 | 98-4/5 | |
| " | 19 | 99 | 98-2/5 | |
| " | 20 | 98 | 99 | |
| " | 23 | 98-3/5 | 99-4/5 | Thermometer in mouth five |
| " | 24 | 99 | 99-2/5 | minutes before and after |
| " | 27 | 99-1/5 | 99-3/5 | |
| " | 28 | 98-4/5 | 99-4/5 |
Menstrual period.
| Before Electricity. | After Electricity. | ||
| March | 13 | 99 | 99-2/5 |
| " | 14 | 98-4/5 | 98-4/5 |
| " | 15 | 99 | 99-1/5 |
Miss R., æt. 27, was a fair case of hysterical conditions; over-use of chloral and bromides; anorexia and loss of flesh and color.
Thermometer in mouth.
| Before Electricity. | After Electricity. | |||
| May | 15 | 100 | 100 | } General faradization |
| " | 16 | 100 | 100 | } for fifteen minutes. |
| } | ||||
| " | 17 | 100-1/5 | 100-2/5 | } |
| " | 18 | 98-2/5 | 98-3/5 | } General faradization, |
| } fifteen minutes, also of | ||||
| " | 19 | 99-4/5 | 100-1/10 | } arm muscles, twenty minutes. |
| " | 20 | 100-1/10 | 100 | |
| General faradization, ten | ||||
| " | 22 | 99-2/5 | 99-3/5 | minutes; arms and legs |
| twenty minutes. | ||||
| " | 26 | 99-1/10 | 99-2/10 | |
| " | 27 | 99-3/10 | 99-4/10 | |
| " | 28 | 99-2/5 | 99-2/5 | |
| " | 29 | 99-3/10 | 99-3/10 | |
| " | 30 | 99-1/10 | 99-4/10 | |
| " | 31 | 99-1/10 | 99-2/10 | |
| June | 2 | 99-3/5 | 99-4/5 | |
| " | 4 | 99-5/10 | 99-6/10 | |
| " | 6 | 99-3/10 | 99-5/10 | |
| " | 7 | 99-3/10 | 99-5/10 |
I have given these full details because I have not seen elsewhere any statement of the rather remarkable phenomena which they exemplify. It may be that a part at least of the thermal change is due to the muscular action, although this seems hardly competent to account for any large share in the alteration of temperature, and we must look further to explain it fully. No mental excitement can be called upon as a cause, since it continues after the patient is perfectly accustomed to the process. I should add, also, that in most cases the subject of the experiment was kept in ignorance of the fact that a rise of the thermometer was to be expected. Is it not possible that the current even of an induction battery has the power so to stimulate the tissues as to cause an increase in the ordinary rate of disintegrative change? Perhaps a careful study of the secretions might lend force to this suggestion. That the muscular action produced by the battery is not essential to the increase of bodily heat is shown by the next set of facts to which I desire to call attention.
Some years ago, Messrs. Beard and Rockwell stated that when an induced current is used for fifteen to thirty minutes daily, one pole on the neck and one on either foot, or alternately on both, the persistent use of this form of treatment is decidedly tonic in its influence. I believe that in this opinion they were perfectly correct, and I am now able to show that, when thus employed, the induced current causes also a decided rise of temperature in many people, which proves at least that it is in some way an active agent, capable of positively influencing the nutritive changes of the body.
The rise of temperature thus caused is less constant, as well as less marked, than that occasioned by the muscle treatment. I do not think it necessary to give the tables in full. They show in the best cases, rises of one-fifth to four-fifths of a degree F., and were taken with the utmost care to exclude all possible causes of error.
The mode of treatment is as follows: At the close of the muscle-electrization one pole is placed on the nape of the neck and one on a foot for fifteen minutes. Then the foot pole is shifted to the other foot and left for the same length of time.