Additional experiments on the excitability of paralysed and healthy limbs by the galvanic current / by R. B. Todd, M.D., F.R.S. (Physician to King's College Hospital).

  • Todd, R. B.
Date:
1853
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Additional experiments on the excitability of paralysed and healthy limbs by the galvanic current / by R. B. Todd, M.D., F.R.S. (Physician to King's College Hospital). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    The first trial of galvanism was made with the coil machine. When the current was direct in the paralysed side, and inverse in the sound, the contractions were equal in both arms. But when the current was inverse in the paralysed and direct in the sound, the contractions of the former were feeble—those of the sound limb being strong and even violent. The direct current caused greater contractions in the sound limb, than the same current in the paralysed. But the inverse current caused distinctly stronger con- tractions in the paralysed side than the same current in the sound. Two days after the above experiments a second trial was made, and now the Cruickshank's battery was used. The direct current produced the greatest contractions through whichever limb it was directed, and those of the sound limb were distinctly greater than those of the paralysed: But, on transmitting a divided inverse current through both arms, the muscles of the paralysed arm were decidedly more affected than those of the sound limb. .After the lapse of a fortnight the leg had nearly com- pletely recovered, and additional power had been gained in the arm. A third trial with the Cruickshank's battery showed that whether with the direct or inverse current the contractions, as well in the arms as in the legs, were distinctly greater on the sound than on the paralysed side. On this occasion the greater contractions of the paralysed arm under the inverse current were not observed. This phenomenon of the greater contraction of the paralysed than of the sound arm under the inverse current, seemed to me attributable to some altered conditions of the nerves of the former limb, due, perhaps, to the process of repair going on in the brain. The patient caught erysipelas about three weeks after the last trial of galvanism, and quickly succumbed under it. We had thus an opportunity of ascertaining that the left