Note 16 — LECTURE III. ELECTRICITY IN DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT.

In the treatment of Neuralgia by the constant current the electrodes should be so applied as to include between them the part or nerve affected—the number of cells the highest number that can be borne without pain, i.e., the current to be distinctly but not painfully felt, both electrodes being immovable. |Electricity in Neuralgia.| Time, five to ten minutes. Frequency, as often as the attacks of pain recur. I am satisfied that in severe cases this rule of application is essential—that the influence of the current shall be maintained as much as may be in the irritable nerve during the intervals of pain. In one case under my care the patient was galvanized with benefit 27 times in the 24 hours; but in milder cases one or two applications daily will generally suffice. A weak current from two or three cells—the electrodes being applied to each temple for one or two minutes—will sometimes dissipate a severe headache. This soothing influence of the current is often useful in allaying Spasm, as, for example, in spasmodic torticollis. The current should be localized in the irritable muscles: and it is generally advisable to energetically Faradize their antagonists and to conjoin with the electrical treatment appropriate gymnastic exercises, alternating with periods of perfect rest. I may mention that the only recorded case of improvement in that remarkable condition of spasm first described by Hammond under the name of Athetosis resulted from the Voltaic current. The case was brought before the Medico-Chirurgical Society by Dr. Gowers, and is published in the 49th volume of their Transactions. The reader will find the subject of neuralgia very exhaustively considered in Dr. Anstie’s work.[17] He quotes some extremely severe cases in which the effect of Electrization was to arrest the pain in a few sittings, and to procure a remission for several days or even weeks; and I have had several cases which I believe to have been as fairly cured as an ague fit may be said to be cured by quinine. Dr. Russell Reynolds also quotes the case of a patient, a lady, who for twenty years had suffered from an extremely severe neuralgia of the ophthalmic branch of the fifth nerve, which recurred daily and from which her health had greatly suffered. It was not only relieved but removed by a single application.