George M. Schweig

“ But even where we are in doubt or positively ignorant as to the origin of the symptoms, we are justified in giving preference empirically to electricity, not only because, the disease being essentially of a nervous character, we find in electricity the most powerful of neurotics, but also because recent statistics, those that embrace a period when electricity has been permitted to participate, if not duly, at least more largely than heretofore, in the treatment of disease, go to show that by means of this remedy better average results have been obtained than with any other. ”

“ When it is considered that in the employment of electric baths I have been to a great extent groping in the dark, that I have been deprived of the advantage of having the experience of others to guide me, it will not appear surprising that I should have met with many disappointments. My failures have been illustrative of the fact that the electric bath is no more a panacea for all ills than any [4] other remedial agent. Applicable as it is to a great variety of pathological conditions, it meets with many where it is destined to have negative or at best imperfect results. ”

“ IMPROVEMENT OF NUTRITION, as manifested by rapid increase of weight, and which I have likewise touched upon in the preceding chapter, is a reliable, constant effect of electric baths. Where previous loss of weight is due to an incurable organic disease, it is, if at all obtained, of course much less in degree, as well as transient. When due, however, as is frequently the case, to causes that are amenable to electrical influence, the increase in weight is marked, and has a tendency to be permanent. ”

“ As however the galvanic current is of vastly greater importance in a therapeutic respect, than the faradic, so also much greater care is required in the choice of a galvanic than a faradic battery. In making choice of a galvanic battery, we have to consider its relative quantity, intensity, constancy, permanency, economy of running expenses, and facility of management. We cannot be guided here by the same considerations that guide us in the choice of a battery for office use, where the séances are usually brief and the elements taxed not nearly so much as in the administration of baths. ”

“ Hysteria, general debility, emaciation, sterility, various nervous affections, phthisis, in short, a perversion of almost any of the various physiological functions may be the direct result of anæmia. On the other hand, anæmia may be only a symptom or sequel of some other morbid condition—but of such cases I do not now speak. I have to do here only with those cases where anæmia is the primary and etiological of a group of symptoms, and where therefore it is to this that the treatment must be mainly directed. ”

“ In chronic rheumatism it is not necessary to use the baths daily. Two or three times a week is quite sufficient. Indeed, the daily use of strong currents, as employed here, might in some instances be productive of evil rather than good. Although transient benefit may be experienced from a few baths—sometimes even from one bath, permanent progressive improvement need never be looked for from less than about a month’s treatment—more or less, according to the nature etc. ”

“ In this respect wood deserves the preference over all the others mentioned. Where economy is to be studied, it has a further item in its favor.
The tubs, which I have now in use for nearly three years are made of wood, and I find them to answer very well. It must not be forgotten, however, that a wooden tub requires to be well painted on the inside, in order to prevent its becoming water-soaked, because in that event it would become a conductor of electricity, and interfere to some extent, with the administration of the electric current in the bath. ”

“ Certain phenomena connected with the administration of electric baths having forced upon me some doubts in this respect, I made very careful experiments, both with and without the aid of the galvanometer (Bradley’s Tangent) , to satisfy these. Without wearying the reader with details, I will state that the result of my experiments leaves no room for doubt that water at the temperatures stated—and still more so at 981⁄2°—is superior to the human body as a conductor of electricity. I do not mean to be understood that water is a better conductor than every constituent of the human body ”

“ While some vaunt the faradic, others prefer the galvanic current in its treatment. It appears that thus far the best results have been obtained on the one hand by galvanization of the spine, on the other by general faradization. It occurred to me, when I began to devote myself to electro-balneological treatment, that a method which combines the electrical procedures alluded to, must needs also combine their virtues. Accordingly, I discontinued my previous practice of spinal galvanization in this disease, and had recourse to the baths in almost every case that applied to me for treatment. ”

“ Where we know the cause of a neuralgia, [101] it is of course comparatively easy for us to determine whether or not electricity promises to avail anything. But even where the nature of the cases appeared to indicate its use, the failures, in my hands at least, have outnumbered the successes. The brilliant results—sometimes almost instantaneous—that we obtain now and then, should not lead us into overlooking our failures. ”

“ Where we add substances to an electric bath with a view of producing some special action on the skin, we may be guided by the same principles that govern ordinary balneology. Thus to obtain counter-irritant effects, we may add mustard or common salt; to render the bath alkaline, bicarbonate of potassa or soda, etc., etc.
An important object to be furthered by the addition to the galvanic bath of chemicals, is the elimination from the system of certain metallic substances. It will be found here that in practice we have to deal chiefly with two substances, viz: mercury and lead. ”

“ Where it is desired to give the patient a galvanic shock, it is only necessary rapidly to reverse the current by means of the commutator. The simultaneous contraction of almost the ENTIRE muscular [22] system that accompanies the reversal of a current of sufficient intensity in the bath, affords a striking illustration of the general effects of the galvanic bath. In cases where paralyzed muscles have lost their faradic irritability, galvanic interruptions are almost indispensable to successful treatment. ”

“ The patients seem to live up anew under their influence. While in many if not most other complaints that come under electro-balneological treatment, a certain number of baths are requisite in order to get discernible effects, in the disease under consideration each bath, except perhaps the first, is followed by more or less immediate improvement, which, if the treatment is persevered in, remains permanent. ”

“ The intensity of the galvanic current corresponds directly to the number of cells from which it is derived. It were vain however to attempt to express this in figures, because the electro-motive force of different batteries varies to so great an extent, that a [20] number of cells of some batteries of low intensity yield a current so feeble as to be barely appreciable in the bath, while the same number of cells of a battery of high intensity, furnish a current that few persons can bear without pain. ”

“ True, I had expected a cure to take place; but I had looked for gradual improvement, and was not prepared for a result such as was here obtained. From the time the first bath was taken, defecation took place regularly once a day, without pain; the feces became perfectly normal both as to color and consistency, and the boy continues to the present day to defecate regularly and in every respect normally. To insure permanency, the baths were continued, at first twice, then [115] once a week. They have now been discontinued for upwards of a year, there being no occasion for their further use. ”

“ Before entering into details, it is necessary in the first place to inquire in what respects electric baths differ from other methods of electrization—especially those recently introduced as “general”—that their physiological effects should merit individual consideration. They differ in two ways. One of these is self-evident. To the effects of electricity are superadded those of the warm bath. The effects of the warm bath per se are too familiar to every physician [33] to require comment. Its effects in combination with electricity, however, may not be so generally known ”

“ I have even seen instances where, the sexual power having receded as the legitimate result of advancing age, it returned almost or quite perfectly and with seeming permanency under the influence of the baths. In the class of cases—and they are quite numerous—in which impotency (loss of the power of erection) occurs as a purely nervous symptom in comparatively young men; where its cause is sometimes purely [108] imaginative, at others the result of early excesses, the baths are attended with the most gratifying average results. ”

“ Where, then, we are able accurately to diagnose a case, there cannot be much doubt as to the appropriateness or not of electrical treatment, and in cases whose origin is obscure, which may be considered practically functional and therefore treated more or less empirically, electricity holds out as much or more hope than any other remedy. Whether electricity should be employed locally or in the form of baths, must depend on the features presented by each individual case. ”

“ Where on the one hand however many joints, on the other the muscles of entire limbs, or even more, are involved, the advantages of a method by means of which we reach all the affected parts at once, thus effecting in, say ten minutes, that which where, for example, six joints are involved, would by the ordinary method require sixty minutes, are readily realized. There is, however, another reason why the baths are preferable in rheumatism to local applications. Rheumatism is a constitutional disease with local manifestations. ”

“ The inefficient innervation may be—and in females frequently is—reflex, or its cause may be sought for in the central nervous system. The condition of the voluntary abdominal muscles is likewise a factor in the alvine process. Sluggishness of the abdominal (portal) circulation is a not infrequent etiological concomitant of constipation, and, finally, the conditions grouped as “dyspepsia” may form the causative feature of a case. I have mentioned these different causes simply in order to account to some extent for the almost wonderful effects in this condition of electric baths. ”

“ A remedy then which more than any other has a tendency to equalize the circulation, and thus counteract a condition which as cause or effect, or both, is an almost universal concomitant of disease, and which in addition to this is so admirable and physiological a stimulant and tonic, can hardly be surpassed as a prophylactic by any other uncombined remedy. ”

“ Where the cause is purely psychical, a very few baths are sometimes sufficient to dispel the morbid phenomena. Where masturbation or excessive venery are at the bottom of the trouble, there is always a probability of more or less organic change in the lower portion of the spinal cord, and frequently also a secondary enfeeblement of the digestive functions, which render requisite a long and steadily continued use of the baths. Patients whose sexual power was intact, who took the baths for other purposes, have time and again called my attention to their aphrodisiac effects. ”

“ That the faradic current stimulates the vasomotor centres little, if at all, does not influence the coats of vessels, except such as are close to the skin, but tonicizes these latter more effectually than the galvanic [56] current; that it stimulates the peripheral nerves to some extent, though far inferior in this respect to the galvanic current; but that when employed of sufficient intensity it superadds to those mentioned a strictly mechanical action, which consists in forcing static blood from the capillary into the general circulation through the medium of muscular contractions. ”

“ We must of course endeavor in all cases to relieve the original disease, and, where the baths are not adapted to this purpose, resort to other and appropriate means. It will be found of no small service to us in the therapeutical management of every case, to be enabled to procure for the patient, without the aid of medicinal hypnotics, sufficient of sleep during treatment.
Case XIII. Mr. A., from the clientele of Dr. Leonard Weber, was sent by Dr. W. to take electric baths. He suffered from chronic spinal congestion. Among the most prominent and annoying symptoms was agrypnia. ”

“ A negative effect of the galvanic bath, even where very intense currents are used, is the
ABSOLUTE FREEDOM FROM PAIN throughout the entire process. I wish this to be [50] understood of course as holding good only when currents within the ordinary limits of intensity are employed. The strongest that I have used, and on which I base my statement, was that from 48 Stöhrer or 60 Hill cells. As stronger currents are not required for therapeutic purposes, what I have asserted remains practically true as applied within these limits. ”

“ There is no rule without its exceptions, and I freely admit that in many instances where persons are, as the saying is, “run down,” a sojourn in some mountainous region or a course of sea-bathing, etc., would do them more good than anything else, electric baths included. The results obtained from these last are however sufficiently uniform to justify us in looking for very favorable results in every case. ”

“ The therapeutic uses of a remedy are based on what we know of its physiological effects. Many—or rather most—of the therapeutic effects of this as well as of most other remedies, correspond to certain physiological effects. Those therapeutic effects whereto we find none analogous among the physiological effects, are yet the results of the physiological tendencies of the remedy, and where these tendencies do not manifest themselves as results, it is because they find no field for action in the healthy organism. ”

“ By over-stimulation at first, much harm may be done, and the patient, instead of getting better, get worse. In such cases very mild currents should be employed in the beginning. As recuperation advances, stronger currents may be gradually introduced. The intensity of the currents should be carefully regulated to keep pace with the gradually increasing capacity of the various organs to respond to the electric stimulus without detriment. Both currents may be used from the first. The galvanic current should precede the faradic, and be employed for not more than ten minutes. ”

“ With respect to the frequency of the applications, I will say that while there are some cases where a bath twice a week is sufficient, and others where a bath every day is imperatively necessary, in far the greater majority of cases suitable for electro-balneological treatment, a bath every alternate day is sufficient, but a bath every day is better—it leads to more rapid as well as certain results. ”

“ Again, where there are no positive indications to employ any special method of electrization, either central or local, it appears rational to give the preference to a method that is at the same time central and peripheral, that admits of the application of either current with the utmost facility, and is susceptible of so many modifications that, with at best two or three tentative applications, it can be suitably adapted to almost any given case. ”

“ To realize thoroughly the indications in given cases for the employment of electric baths, we must first of all be more or less familiar with the effects and uses of the electric current as well as those of the ordinary warm bath. ”

“ Those who are familiar with the pre-eminent qualities as a neurotic of electricity, will not be surprised to be told of the beneficial effects in the condition under consideration of electric baths. It is not only in general nervous exhaustion, however, that electric baths exercise this salutary influence, but in the condition known as cerebral exhaustion likewise. ”

“ Even to-day, the number of those who are satisfied of the utility of electricity in this respect is comparatively small. Only two years ago, I attended a gentleman who was suffering from a very severe attack of rheumatic gout. I had both a galvanic and a faradic battery at his house, which, in addition to appropriate medicinal treatment, I applied daily to the affected joints,—using mainly the faradic current. ”

“ Where organic cardiac disease is at the bottom of the trouble, we cannot of course expect much permanent improvement. Although even here considerable relief is often afforded while the baths are being used, their discontinuance will in all probability be soon followed by a return of the former condition. Where, however, cases are not complicated by organic disease, where we have a “sluggishness” of the circulation, due either to vasomotor inertia or atony of the muscular coats of vessels, the electric bath will be found [124] reliably efficient. ”