The value of electrical treatment / by Julius Althaus.

  • Althaus, Julius, 1833-1900.
Date:
1899
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The value of electrical treatment / by Julius Althaus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    44/186 (page 32)
    moves at the rate of fo, with a potential of one volt in one ■ second, the distance between the electrodes being one cm.; hydroxyl travels at 0-5, sodium at o'i2, potassium at 0 2, calcium at o'l, carbonic dioxide at 0-13, chlorine at o'2, phosphoric acid at o'o8, and sulphuric acid at o*2. Thus definite quantities of sodium, potassium and calcium will travel in the saliva during a certain period towards the cathode, while equally definite quantities of chlorine, sul- phuric acid, carbonic dioxide and phosphoric acid travel towards the anode; and the same proceeding takes place in the liquids of the other tissues. From a therapeutical point of view, that which takes place in the substance of the moist conductor, is far more important than anything which occurs at the points where the electrodes are applied. In order to make the current act with sufficient force on deeply-situated structures, other moistened conductors are interpolated between the body and the electrodes, such as moistened felt, amadou, sponge, etc., which diminish the resistance offered by the skin. Living tissues are not homogeneous conductors, but contain different solutions which serve to conduct the current from one to another. Differences of this kind exist even in the microscopic elements of the tissues, as it is an essential feature of metaboUsm that the composition of one particle is never exactly the same as that of neighbouring particles. The current therefore passes in the tissues from one moistened conductor to another, and there will be in two different electrolytic solutions which are placed near each other, a movement in the ions which is called diffusion. The faculty of diffusion and electric conductibility are directly proportional to one another. Cataphoresis. While the thermic effects of the galvanic current, when applied by moistened conductors to the body, are so in- significant that they may be neglected, the mechanical