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, by means of electricity, the very ends or the _best_ ends which would be aimed at by skillful surgical operations. PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE. POLAR ANTAGONISM. _When the conducting cords are of equal length_, as commonly they should be, each of the two poles or electrodes produces a polar effect in the patient directly the opposite of that produced by the other. Also, _at any point_ in either half of the circuit, if it be within the person of the patient, the polar effect produced is the very reverse of what is experienced at the corresponding point in the other half of the circuit. And further; each half of the current produces a polar effect, at every point in the parts of the patient through which it runs, the same in _kind_, though differing in _degree_, as is produced immediately under the pole or electrode with which it is connected; yet an effect antagonistic to that which is produced under the other pole, or at the corresponding point in the other half of the current. IMPORTANCE OF NOTING THE CENTRAL POINT. From the above observations, it will be plain that, when we wish to bring a diseased organ under the influence of the _positive_ pole, we must carefully place our electrodes so that none of the organ, or none of the diseased part of it, shall appear on the positive[B] side of the _central point of the circuit_; it being understood that the current moves as nearly in direct lines as the best conducting medium will admit. Or again, if it be desired to bring a diseased organ, or any extended part of it, under the influence of the _negative_ pole, we must first calculate in placing our electrodes about where the central point will come, and then so apply them that no part of the lesion or disease shall appear on the negative[B] side of the central point; otherwise so much of it as lies on that side will come under the force of the wrong pole, and thus be affected in a way the opposite of what was intended. The characteristic influence of each pole is felt throughout its own half of the circuit. DISTINCTIVE USE OF EACH POLE. I have said that every disease is preternaturally either positive or negative. I have further said, that the application of either pole to a given part produces an effect the opposite of what would be produced in the same part by a reversal of the poles. The way is now prepared for me to announce THE CENTRAL PRINCIPLE of our system of practice. The reader will bear i
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