Electricity as a Curative Agent.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 2899, 6 October 1909, Page 76

Electricity as a Curative Agent.

Some of the possibilities of applying medicaments directly to the tissues by means of the electric current are fairly well known. When two ends of an electric circuit are placed in a chemical solution thare is a tendency for constituents of the solution to travel, some to one pole of the circuit, some t< the other. To put it technically, there is a tendency in electrolysis for the ions of the solution to travel between the anode and the cathode. The principle, is made use of :.n: .n the treatment of some skin diseases by regarding the patient as a vessel of fluid and by- making an electric current pass through him. Thus, in the treatment of lupus by zinc, the particles of zinc can be forced to travel from the anode placed on the skin cieeper into the body. Thus zinc is applied to the under-surface tissues. We need not go further into the clinical aspects ol this method of treatment, which has disadvantages as well as advantages ; but we may note a curious experiment reported by Dr Charles Russ to the Royal Society. He found as the result of a series of experiments that bacilli will travel along an electric- current. During electrolysis of certain salts in which bacteria were suspended the bacteria, whether Living or dead, migrated down the stream towards the cathode. It will be 6een therefore that in this treatment, such as we have described, of a skin disease by electrolytic solution there might be a certain amount of dissemination of the bacilli into the deeper layers of the skin. The subject is one of great interest, especially in view of the fact that some micro-organisms have a tendency to migrate towards the positive and others towards the negative pole. •