ELECTRO-THERAPEIA, OR THE ELECTRIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 3915, 30 May 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

ELECTRO-THERAPEIA, OR THE ELECTRIC TREATMENT OF DISEASES.

[By J. R. S Hayward, F.R.C.S., L.S. A.., London City Publishing Company.] The influence of electricity upon vitality and health lias been acknowledged in all ages. Its effective application as a curative argent has, however, been the source of much difference of opinion. This little book gives a succinct history of the methods adopted by physicians both ancient and modern, to employ it for therapeutical purposes. The fact which is now generally acknowledged that electricity can be successfully used as a generator of ozone, gives to every attempt to apply it to the treatment of general debility or special disorders considerable importance. The contention of this publication is, (not that it is a universal specific) that the subject has been almost wholly neglected in the dissensions of medical practitioners. It is acknowledged that enthusiasts and quacks have had recourse to electricity with success, and the number of cures recorded are sufficiently authenticated to make an intelligent investigation of the subject highly desirable. This little book is rather suggestive and discursive than technical or elaborate. This can scarcely be regarded as a, fault when we recognise the fact that in the practice of medicine, as well as of other arts, the most beneficial and durable reforms have originated outside, rather than within the inner circle of professional opinion. The book is printed in bold type, which makes it easy to read, and commends itself to the general reader, as well as the scientific inquirer, by the light it affords to the hygienic conditions of life. Electricity is most effective in nervous disorders, and these, it may be said, constitute by far the largest series of disturbances of health, while they are the sources of diseases which the routine physician is called in to prescribe for. The evil consequences might often be diverted by the employment of so powerful an agent as electricity in rehabilitating relaxations caused by habit, climate, or other circumstances. The author is himself a thoroughly qualified practitioner, and the avowed object is not to establish a specific, but to restore to the domain of therapeutical application the most universal as well as the most potent of the influences which affect human life.