Identifier: medicalsurgicalu1896rock (find matches)
Title: The medical and surgical uses of electricity.
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Rockwell, A. D. (Alphonso David), 1840-1925
Subjects: Electrotherapeutics Electrosurgery Diagnosis, Radioscopic Electrosurgery Electric Stimulation Therapy
Publisher: New York : William Wood and Company
Contributing Library: Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons and Harvard Medical School

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ided advantage to do so. In faradization over the extremities, thesponge, or the hand of the operator, should be passed thoroughly over thesurface of the hands and arms, and with sufficient force to produce agree-able contractions of all the superficial muscles. Except in infants and 320 ELECTRO-THERAPEUTICS. corpulent females, contractions of the superficial muscles of the arm areobtained with a mild current. Applications to the Spine.—Stronger currents of electricity may be borneover the middle of the spine than perhaps over any other portion of thebody. There are no very sensitive peripheral nerves in the back, and thespinal cord is so thoroughly protected by its bony covering that the cur-rents are never felt in it painfully, except when it is greatly exhausted ororganically diseased. The nerves that issue from the spinal cord are moreor less affected by powerful applications to the back, and through themthe various parts and organs which they supply are considerably influenced.
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Fig. 107.—General Faradization. Application to the stomach. The best method of electrizing the back is to pass the sponge downits entire length beneath the under-clothing, in case it is not removed,from the first cervical vertebra to the cauda equina, carefully avoiding theprominences of the scapula and the ossa innominata. Below the inferiorangle of the scapula the sponge may be moved from side to side over theregion of the kidneys, liver, and spleen. If a strong current be applied over the lower portion of the spine, be-tween the upper borders of the ossa innominata, a slight sensation is some-times, though by no means uniformly, communicated to the rectum and the APPLICATIONS TO THE SPINE. 321 male genital apparatus, the penis and the testicles, through their spinalnerve supply. In view of these considerations it is manifest that in the employmentof general faradization particular attention should be given to the spine,even at the expense of neglecting other portions of the body.

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