General Tonic Treatment

Categories: PRESCRIPTIONS.
Sources: A Newly Discovered System Of Electrical Medication

Take the B D current, (A D is very good), of fair medium strength. Place

the sponge-roll, N. P. [Negative Pole], at the coccyx--lowest point of

spine--and manipulate with side-sponge cup, P. P. [Positive Pole], from

the feet all over the lower limbs to and about the hips; occupying three

or four minutes, or less. Then remove the N. P., substituting for the

sponge-roll the end-sponge cup, and place this upon the spine at the
< r /> lower part of the neck. Now manipulate with side-sponge cup, P. P., over

the trunk generally, from the lower to the upper parts; giving special

attention to the spinal column by treating it somewhat more than other

parts. Treat the trunk some five to eight minutes. Next, keeping the N.

P. still upon the back of the neck, treat with P. P. over the hands and

arms, up to and about the shoulders. Treat here two or three minutes.



It has been customary, for the most part, in giving general tonic

treatment, to make the P. P. stationary--placing it successively at the

feet, the coccyx and the hands--and to manipulate above it with the N.

P. But the better way is as directed above. The object is to reinforce

the main nerve-lines and centers with electricity from without. The

nerves branch off from their centers--the brain, the spinal cord, the

ganglions, and the great plexuses--and run, in general, downward and

outward from the trunk lines, in a manner somewhat analogous to the

branches and twigs of an inverted little tree. If we place before us

such a shrub, with the root upward and the branches pointing downwards,

and then draw lines from the lowest point of the lowest twig to the

outer ends of all the branches surrounding the main trunk, we shall see

that our lines, instead of running in the general directions of the

limbs, will, for the most part, run across the twigs. But, if we draw

our lines from the outer extremities of the branches and twigs up to the

root, or near to the source of the trunk, we will find the lines, in the

main, running nearly parallel with the branches. Now, let us substitute

for this inverted tree the nervous system of a man, and remember that

the electric current moves from the positive to the negative pole as

nearly in straight lines as it can where there are good conductors, such

as the nerves and muscles, and it will at once appear that, in treating

the lower limbs, if we place our N. P. at the coccyx, and then

manipulate with P. P. over the feet and legs, our electric lines are

running from all the surface extremities of the nerve ramifications,

wherever the P. P. is moving, directly into and along these fine

ramifications, and, through the larger nerve-branches, up to the

stationary N. P. Or, if we treat the trunk of the body by placing the

N. P. on the spine, near its upper end, and then manipulate with P. P.

from the lower part upward over the back, sides, abdomen and chest, our

current strikes into the surface extremities of the nerves at every

point where the electrode touches, and makes its way upwards, along the

nerve-lines, to the great spinal cord under the N. P. thus replenishing

with fresh electricity all the ganglions, plexuses and nerve-trunks

along the way. But if P. P. be made stationary at the lower end of the

section under treatment, and we manipulate over the parts with the N.

P., the current strikes from P. P., across the nerve branches and comes

out at their surface extremities wherever the negative electrode

moves--so reaching but indirectly and imperfectly the trunk-lines and

their centers.