High Frequency Apparatus Page 141

NOTES FOR THE BEGINNER 141 therapeutic treatment may be said to rest in the practitioner first of all inspiring confidence in his patient. The most pronounced physiological effect of the high voltage current is shown in the increase of blood supply to the part under treatment. This results in an improvement in the local nutrition. Other characteristic effects are an increase of heat locally without a rise in the body temperature, a marked increase in excretion and secretion, and a general effect which may be either sedative or stimulating accordingly as the current is higher or lower in frequency. In at least one particular can the vacuum tube application be said to be the direct oppisite to the low voltage or D'Arsonval treatment. The effect of the vacuum tube treatment is to increase the arterial tension when the tube is passed up and down the spine, while the auto-condensation treatment with the D'Arsonval current is exceedingly efficacious in reducing the blood pressure. The pertinent fact here is to note that in cases of arteriosclerosis, the application of the vacuum tube to the spine should never be made. However, where the blood pressure is found to be normal, this treatment is of great advantage in producing a general tonic effect upon the system, particularly if a moderately low frequency is used. In cases of alopecia and other diseases of the scalp and skin the vacuum tube treatment has been found invaluable. The treatment has received a large amount of publicity under the misnomer of "The Violet Ray," and so far has this misleading advertising been carried that the treatment has frequently been condemned as quack. The violet ray part of the proposition is simply a fascinating and perhaps mysterious-sounding trade name which was undoubtedly coined as a result of the appearance of the vacuum tube when the current is passing. The interior is filled with a purplish