Electric Influence

A New Treatment of Nervous and Muscular Diseases — Some Curious Manifestations.

But Dr. Morton was thinking entirely of physiology when he discovered how to produce an alternating current of extraordinary capacity, whereas Tesla later had thought only of the physical results of his experiments. There is no controversy between the two men. Tesla recognizes Morton’s discovery and acknowledges it; Morton frankly and most cordially admits the value of Tesla’s demonstrations.

In his lecture recently Dr. Morton illustrated his discoveries with some very remarkable experiments, which are certain to be regarded by the medical profession as of the utmost importance. He developed by means of his electrical machine, which does not differ greatly from Tesla’s, an electrical current of such marvelous celerity that the ether itself furnished a medium for its communication instead of a wire. A person was placed upon an insulated stool and connected with one end of the machine. Dr. Morton then took an insulated wand in his hand, the wand being connected with what to laymen may be best understood as the dynamo, and then approached the subject. Waving the wand perhaps two feet away from the subject a shower of electric sparks passed between the subject and the wand, although there was no other contact between them than that furnished, not by the atmosphere, but by the ether.

Then another experiment was tried. The subject, still remaining upon the insulated stool, was approached by Dr. Morton, who held in his hand an insulated brush, and he passed this brush over the person of the subject. A shower of electric sparks followed the course of the brush, so that it seemed to those in the room the subject must be on fire. Next Dr. Morton took the brush and, standing a foot or 15 inches away from the subject, waved it in the direction of the man on the insulated stool, and it seemed to the spectators as though a steady stream of fire, brilliant as the glow of an electric light, passed from the brush to the subject, although there was no medium of communication except the ether. Then he held the brush in a line with the subject’s forehead, and there appeared to be a brilliant electric stream passing from the brush directly into the man’s head, a stream quite as brilliant as is that seen in an incandescent lamp, although there is no other medium of communication than the ether.

The effect upon a patient or a subject thus submitted to this extraordinary electric influence can hardly be described in words. It is as though the sudden sting of a whip-lash was felt and immediately withdrawn. The patient has not time to cry with pain before he realizes that the pain has gone. It is not local anesthesia, but it is muscular stimulation that is produced, and after a patient has submitted to an operation of this kind, he feels every muscle instinct with life and energy and is filled with such physical enthusiasm that it seems to him he could walk 20 miles without weariness. Another curious manifestation discovered by Dr. Morton is that powerful drugs can be conveyed directly into the system by saturating the electrodes with them so that the vibratory power of electricity takes the essence of these drugs immediately into the circulation. Another curious effect of this discovery is that the limbs feel as though they were buoyant, patients saying that their arms and legs seem to be made of cork, and to be able to almost float in the air without exertion on their part.

In Dr. Morton’s paper he was careful to intimate that it is his belief that we are really on the threshold of the treatment of nervous and muscular disease by electricity, and he is anxious to have all quackery, all irresponsible electric baths, for instance, and electric massage treatment controlled by statutory enactment. But that enormous strides in the treatment of disease are imminent he intimated to be his belief, and perhaps the most important of the discussions at this meeting were those which followed the reading of this paper. — Holland in Philadelphia Press.