A text-book of electro-therapeutics and electro-surgery.

  • Butler, John (Physician)
Date:
1880
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A text-book of electro-therapeutics and electro-surgery. 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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    CHAPTER VII. EYES. The action of electricity on the eye is very marked, especi- ally so is the effect of the galvanic current on the retina, and it is to be regretted, that a remedy so potent, is not more used in such diseases of these organs, as it seems so positively indi- cated. Amaurosis. Neftel in his work on Galvano-Therapeutics, page 86, speak- ing of this affection, says: The earliest record of the success- ful use of the galvanic current in amaurosis dates as far back as 1801. The celebrated anatomist, Loder, of Jena, on the advice of Alexander von Humboldt, to whom he gave instruc- tion in anatomy, instituted experiments on patients of his clinic. He describes in his Journal of Surgery two authentic cases of amaurosis, cured with the galvanic current by Lichtenstein and Bishoff, and witnessed by himself.* Of recent observers I will mention Remak, who was able to convince himself and Graefe of the beneficial effects of the galvanic current in some affections of the retina.f Dr. Driver:];, of Chemnitz, has used the galvanic current very successfully in the treatment of this disease, and De Saussure cured a case by statical electricity. Duchenne§ records a case of paralysis of the retina, produced by the action of the gal- vanic current, and after relatiug the case gives the following advice to his readers: By reason of its power to excite the retina, galvanism should be applied to the face with great cir- cumspection. The luminous sensation produced by it is so * Vide Remak, Galvano-therapie der Nerven- und Muskel-Krankheiten, S. 151. t Op. Cit, p. 460. X Archiv. Otol. and Opthalmology, Vol. Ill, No. 1. ? Localized Electrization, p. 17.