Perhaps
a reason for this difference of opinion may be found in its different
effects upon individual patients; but I see few in whom I do not find
electricity in one or another form helpful. For pains I order the
galvanic current through the affected nerves as strong as the man is
able to bear. If after a few days of this the pains are unchanged, a
rapidly interrupted faradic current is tried, and failing to do good
with this, I use light cauterization or a series of small blisters to
the spine at the point of exit of the painful nerves. Galvanization of
the bladder with an intravesical electrode is sometimes of service to
strengthen its capacity for contraction. Faradism is applied in the form
just described, using a wire brush as an electrode to the areas of
numbness and anaesthesia. Lately I have found that this current in a
strength which would be very painful to the normal skin will in some
instances relieve the feeling of pressure and dull discomfort about the
rectum and perineum, and it has been successful when galvanism did no
good. In patients within reach of a static machine, this form may be
used for the numbness if the others do not help it.
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