Amputation by Electricity.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 13, 28 September 1910, Page 66

Amputation by Electricity.

A French surgeon, Professor D’Arsonval, suggests a method of amputation which is quite novel, and not only painless during the operation, but without the slightest trouble afterwards. Neither knife, saw, nor any other cutting instrument is to be used. The limb is simply to fall oil as by magic, with the wound completely healed and cicatrised. The amputation suggested, the “Telegraph” save, is by means of electric currents of high frequency. Professor D’Arsonval explains that he has been able to send currents of high frequency through animals, and to raise the temperature of their bodies to a very high degree, without any apparent effect on their sensibility or the eontraetibility of their muscles. The animals seemed to feel nothing whatever. Jn some cases, he says, the calorific effect was sueh that certain members were literally cooked, and strange to say, the animal did not betray the least feeling of pain. When the members fell away after some days, as it were, by their own action, the etumps were perfectly cicatrised.