Notes on the medical application of electricity / by William F. Channing.

  • Channing, William F. (William Francis), 1820-1901.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the medical application of electricity / by William F. Channing. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Harvey Cushing/John Hay Whitney Medical Library at Yale University.

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    observed, and are now admitted facts in physiology. They cannot but exercise an important function in the stimulation of the system. In the organs of secretion, where different fluids are separated from each other by a membrane, all the elements of a galvanic current, of some energy, are present; and this must necessarily modify the nature of the secretion, or react distinctly with the controlling vital force. These considerations are adduced as showing the extent of the relations of electricity to life, and the rational ground which exists for its application to disease. II. —FORMS OF MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 12. Currents of electricity are to be considered chiefly in relation to their quantity and intensity, —two elements which may be associated in infinitely vari- able proportions. Thus the electricity from the electrical machine has extreme tension, but almost inappreciable quantity, while the electricity from a single galvanic pair has great quantity, but so little intensity that it will hardly pass to an appreciable extent through the animal system interposed in its circuit. Between these extremes, currents can be obtained, in which the quantity and intensity exist in any desired proportion. These properties have dif- ferent physiological effects, and this, therefore, is one of the conditions to be attended to in the construction and use of apparatus. Currents also may be contin-