odification of the
_electric_ force. It is, I think, pretty generally conceded at this day
that the "nervous influence" is probably electric. There are some
alleged facts, and other certain facts, which go far to sustain this
view. It is said that if we transfix, with a steel needle, a large nerve
of a living animal, as the great ischiatic, and let it remain in that
condition a suitable time, the needle becomes permanently magnetized.
So, too, if the point of a lancet be held for some length of time
between the severed ends of a newly-divided large nerve, that point, as
I have heard it affirmed, on what appeared to be good authority, becomes
magnetized; although I have not attempted to verify either of these
cases by experiment. However, admitting them to be true, the metal is
charged with simply the "nervous fluid." But the fact on which I myself
chiefly rely for evidence of this identification, being almost daily
conversant with it in my practice, is this: _The "nervous influence"
obeys the laws of electrical polarization, attraction and repulsion._
When I treat a paralyzed part, in which, to all appearance, the action
of the nerve force is suspended, I have but to assume that this force is
electric, and apply the poles of my instrument accordingly, and I _bring
it in_ from the more healthy parts, along with the inorganic current
from my machine. Forcing conduction through the nerves, by means of my
artificial apparatus, I rouse the susceptibility of the nerves until
they will normally conduct the "nervous influence" or electro-vital
fluid, as I term it, and the paralysis is removed. Again, if I treat an
inflamed part, in which the capillaries are engorged with arterial
blood, I have but to assume that the affected part is overcharged with
the electro-vital fluid, through the nerves and the arterial blood, and
so to apply my electrodes, according to well known electrical law, as to
produce mutual repulsion, and the inflammatory action is sure to be
repressed. I manifestly change the polarization of the parts. This thing
is so perfectly regular and constant that I am entirely assured, before
touching the patient, what sort of effect will be produced by this or
that arrangement in the application of the poles of the instrument. If I
desire to increase or depress the nervous force in any given case, I
find myself able, on this principle, to produce the one effect or the
other, at will. Hence, I say, the nervous influence o