Fig. H. Facies posterior, peripheriæ propior.
Fig. I. Pars concava articuli majoris orthoceratitis, in qua diaphragmatis testacei jam crystallisati portiunculæ albicantes m n r conspiciuntur cum siphone transeunte.
Fig. K. Portio alia orthoceratitis majoris, ejusque facies exterior, cum siphone g ad peripheriam posito. Conspiciuntur his diaphragmata, quæ ab utroque latere, ab articulis procedunt, se invicem conjungunt, et siphonem ab exteriori parte obtegunt. a est testæ satis crassæ portiuncula, qua portio hæc orthoceratitis vestita adhuc est.
XCIV. A further Account of the Effects of Electricity in the Cure of some Diseases[133]: In a Letter from Mr. Patrick Brydone to Dr. Robert Whytt, Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh, and F.R.S.
Coldinghame, January 9th, 1758.
Read May 11, 1758.
A Young woman of Aiton, a village about two miles from this place, had her right leg drawn back by a contraction of the muscles that bend the knee, so that she had not been able to put that foot to the ground for near a twelvemonth. She had taken the advice of some Surgeons in the country, and had used several remedies to no purpose. At last, hearing of the cure of the paralytic woman, whose case I sent you some time ago, she insisted on being brought hither; and underwent a course of electrical shocks for near two months, receiving every day at least fifty or sixty in the following manner. She sat close by the machine, and grasping the phial in her hand, she presented the wire to the barrel or conductor, and drew the sparks from it for about half a minute. The phial being thus charged, she then touched her knee with the wire, and thereby received such severe strokes, as would sometimes instantly raise a blister on the part. The joint was at last so much relaxed, as that she could walk home with the help of a crutch, tho’ her leg was so weak, that she had very little use of it. After she had continued in this state for some weeks, she was advised to use the cold bath: but that soon brought back the contraction; and I have been since informed that she was worse than ever.
A soldier’s wife, a genteel looking woman, of about 30 years of age, was seized with a slight palsy, about Newcastle, on her way to this country: but before she got to this place, she had lost all the feeling in her left side, and so far the power of it, that she was brought to us in a cart. After receiving 600 strokes from the electrical machine in the usual way, and in the space of two days, she recovered the use of her side, and set out on foot to make out the rest of her journey. However, for fear of a relapse, I gave her a recommendatory letter to Mr. Sommer, Surgeon at Haddington, as she was to pass thro’ that town, and as I knew that he was likewise provided with an electrical apparatus.
A young woman from Home, a village in this shire, but at a good distance, complained of a coldness and insensibility in her left hand and wrist, of two years standing. When I felt that hand, it was as cold as a stone, whilst the other was sweating; and she told me, that it never had been warmer all that time. I made her draw the sparks from an egg (which for some other purpose was suspended by a wire from the conductor) for about half an hour; and at the end of that time I found the dead hand in a far greater sweat than the other. She then wrapt it up in a piece of flannel, as she used to do, and retired. Next day she told me, that since the operation she had been able to put off and on her cloaths without help, which she had not been able to do for a twelvemonth before. She was again electrised; and believing she was then quite well, she went away: but some weeks after, upon the coldness of her hand beginning to return, she made me another visit, was again electrised, and was dismissed a second time apparently cured. This is about two months ago, and I have heard nothing of her since.
As these two last women are at such a distance, I cannot pretend to send you their own testimony of their cure. But for the two cases in the separate paper, as the persons are inhabitants of this place, I have taken care that they themselves should sign them, along with my father; since you have acquainted me, that accounts of this kind should have the attestation both of the patients and the minister of the parish.