A treatise on electrolysis and its applications to therapeutical and surgical treatment in disease

Front matter

medical

AUTHOl

L

Preface

In presenting this short treatise on Electrolysis the author is well aware that the subject is by no means discussed with a view to the final determination of the causes under which this display of electrical energy performs its operations. Yet, he believes that many new facts and explanations of those previously recorded are not at variance.

It is difficult to understand the action of electricity in biological and physiological relations without first properly understanding the principles of chemistry and physics, which control the manifestations of this "physical force. Neither can we expect to grasp the great truths which underlie the action of electricity upon living tissue, unless a comprehensive view be presented of the natural laws which affect the construction and destruction of these living tissues.

It would be presumptuous to assume that modern science has yet established the natural laws of the metabolism of the tissues of the animal organism, but we have every reason to believe that many of these laws have been recognized in nature, and it becomes the duty of the student to compare and contrast these recognized laws with the teachings of natural physics. An attempt has been made to represent these natural laws in such a manner that the medical profession may apply the results of science to the conditions of diseased or hypertrophied tissues. It is hoped that the limits of therapeutical application are suggested in the following pages, so that the physician may know

IV PREFACE.

how to apply electricity to the human structures in a rational way, with the expectation that the results of this application shall not be entirely empirical, and to withhold its application in those cases of diseased tissue which are not amenable to its favorable action.

In consequence of this view of the subject of the so-called action of electrolysis upon living tissues, it has been deemed wise to begin the treatment of our subject with a statement of the principles of physics as applicable to electrolysis, and afterwards to present these applications in the treatment of diseases. On this account much elementary matter is brought forward, which it is hoped will enable the reader to follow more clearly the train of thought as presented by the writer. We are well aware that very many of the principles of electricity have been omitted, but with the more general knowledge held by physicians of the modern day, it would be wearisome and useless to repeat those which are more clearly j)resented in many of the well-known treatises on this subject.

379 Beacon St., Boston, May, 1886.

Chapter I. Page

Concerning Physical Laws, and outline of the subject of the Treatise.

Chapter II

The Physical Relations of Electrolysis. Electrical Osmosis . 9

Chemical relations of Electrolysis on inorganic and organic compounds — Chemical decompositions of organic compounds — The electro-chemical current — Endermic absorption of medicines as affected by electrical application to the human tissues — ' Electro-Catalysis " and electrolysis compared — Local effects of electrolysis on the living tissues — Intel-polar action, Ciniselli's description of the different effects from local application of positive and negative electrodes — Tripier's exposition of the local effects of electrolysis — On Polarization and Depolarization.

Chapter III

The 'Batteries for Electrolysis. Galvanic Cells, various Forms of . 51

On the electrical current, and the relations of its varying strength of action — The Galvanic battery — The electrical current is caused by the disruption of electro-chemical combinations — Single fluid cells — Galvanic cells with two fluids — The battery elements or electrodes — Chemical reactions in various forms of galvanic cells — Batteries arranged for surface and for tension, or in series — Tension of current — Chemical and electro-chemical equivalents — The electro-chemical work effected bj' decomposition of a chemical compound.

CHAPTER IV. On the Resistance and Diffusion of the Electrical Current 79

The derived currents — The effects of electricity as shown by these laws upon the human body — The electrical circuit — The relations of the tension of the current to the resistance in circuit — On electrical conductors and conductivity in the circuit — Schemes for the arrangement of batteries — The Rheostat or current arrester — The human body as a conductor of electricity — The resistance of human tissue — The electrical disturbance compared to the flow of water — Units of electrical measurement defined —

VI CONTENTS.

PAGE

The resistance of a conductor dependent on difference in potential energy —Direction of current in a conductor— On equi-potentials— Description of polarization of the living tissues— Electrical density.

Chapter V

Theory of Destruction of Living Tissues by Electrolysis . . 105 Metabolism— The Proteids— On the physical condition of various living tissues— On nutrition of the tissues- The chemical relations of the tissues —The life and natural death of the tissues, as illustrated by that of the hair— Cell proliferation— Segmentation— Karyokinesis— The effects of electricity on these functions— On the chemical basis of the tissues, and the effect of electricity upon its relations— On the cataphoric action as influencing cell proliferation and chemical action of the tissues.

CHAPTER VI. Methods of Employing Electrolysis in the Living Tissues . 129

On the prevention of cell proliferation— On the effects of osmosis as influencing absorption of fluids in the tissues — Application to hypertrophied and morbid growths — Resolution of tumors — Non-polarizable electrodes — On the use of the induction apparatus in electrolysis — Mode of measuring strength of induced current — Electrolysis in aneurisms, in varicose tumors — Needle electrodes.

A discussion of some of the causes of the resolutive action of the tissues by galvanism — Surface application and electro-puncture — On electrical osmosis, cataphoric action.

Chapter I. Introductory

The physician and surgeon are so accustomed to the use of material agents in the treatment of diseased tissues, that they can hardly be expected to take up the use of therapeutical agents which are apparently immaterial, unless they could obtain a clear understanding of the principles which govern their behavior.

Many of the books which treat of the general subject of electricity are too technical for the ordinary medical practitioner to glean that knowledge which may help him to apply, in a practical way, this immaterial agent to the treatment of diseases. Those treatises which are devoted to the subject of medical electricity mention the principle and practice of electrolysis in such a vague manner, that it would be wise to review in this introductory chapter the basis upon which electrolysis and its manifestations are founded.

What is known under the name of force, kinetic energy, or whatever else it may be called, is simply dependent upon properties existing in nature which enable one form of matter to transfer its latent, or stored up, energy to some other form of matter.

Among the bodies which exist among us, and which are recognizable by our senses, are some which seem to be arranged in definite forms and of definite structure, and whose particular organization has the property of renewing continuously, for a longer or shorter period, the materials of which they are composed; these bodies constitute what is called the Organic kingdom.

Other bodies which also exist about us, which are also recognizable by our senses — bodies which are not possessed with particular or individual properties of manufacturing the materials which constitute their form or structure — are comprised under the generic name of the Inorganic kingdom. It is true that some of the constituent members of this second class can be transformed into new bodies, which differ from the original form; in other words, these bodies are endowed with chemical phenomena. ' "While again others of this class are subject to receiving peculiar properties which may be imparted to them, and which may be called physical phenomena.

Observation shows us that every chemical phenomenon is accompanied with physical effects. Observation also teaches that every organic change is accompanied with physical or chemical effects.

Physical Zaw-s.— Among the phenomena of nature which are about us, we see an uniformity of behavior that proves to us that there are fixed laws which govern these phenomena; an instance illustrative of the truth of this statement is the falling of an apple from its tree to the earth. It is well known that upon the observation of this fact Newton founded the universal law of Gravitation. The establishment of these laws is deduced from science, and these laws must be confirmed by the fact of their general uniformity. The circumstances and basis upon which a physical law is founded, will invariably reproduce the same manifestations by which this law is illustrated; for instance, when a ball rolls upon an inclined plane from a higher to a lower level, its movements are controlled by the attraction which the earth exercises upon it'; these moveents are also influenced by the resistance which the plane itself effects either by friction, or by the resistance of the air or other medium, in which the objects themselves are all immersed.

The phenomena which are regulated by physical laws may for convenience be separated into two classes, — those which transport an unchanged body without alteration of its composition, and those which transport the material of which the body may itself be composed. An illustration of the first-named class is reiterated in the fall of a body by the laws of gravitation to the earth, and an illustration of the second class is seen in the magnetization of a piece of iron around which an electrical current traverses in a coil of wire.

All physical phenomena being recognized as those of motion, the causes of these motions should be referred to as forces.

It is necessary in the purely physical discussion to stop at this point. It belongs to the domain of metaphysics to discuss the original causes, or creation, of these forces.

Matter is found in different conditions; — the ponderable and impon-

1 Chemistry was originally the art of extracting juices from plants for medical purposes.

derable materials of which it is composed being associated in their elementary forms to constitute the substance itself: — the solid condition consists of a coherent form which is independent of the space which encloses the body; in other words, so long as the solid body is not subjected to any outside influence there is an equilibrium between the attracting and repelling forces, mutually inter-acting, which are inherent in the molecules of which the body is formed; — the fluid condition is that in which the molecules may take any arrangement of position, provided always that the relative distance of every two which are contiguous shall remain uniform; we may suppose in this condition that the attracting and repelling forces which act between the molecules of a fluid are almost in a state of equilibrium. In consequence of the property which the molecules possess, of altering their positions, the fluid will always assume the shape of the vessel in which it is contained, but the fluid condition will not assume any change of volume as long as the pressure upon all its surfaces is equal; — in the gaseous condition the body has the tendency of increasing its volume and of occupying all the space which is placed at its disposal.

The gaseous condition is therefore the direct opposite of the solid condition, and the power of expansion of the gaseous condition is in opposition to the power of cohesion which is inherent in the solid condition; consequently, the mutually attracting and repelling force of the molecules is overpowered by the repelling force which each molecule has upon the other. As the same body may exist in either the solid, fluid, or gaseous condition, it may be easily inferred that the molecules of which a body is composed will be nearest together in the solid condition and most widely separated in the gaseous condition. The action of heat, or of any other force, may change the solid condition to a fluid or gaseous condition; the volume, of course, will increase in changing from the solid to the fluid and gaseous condition. Upon the common theory, as above advanced, the ready inference may be drawn, that the mutually attracting forces of the ponderable atoms, which combine to form the individual molecules of a body, vary in proportion to the mutual contiguity of these molecules; then, when the same body becomes fluid these molecules must consequently occupy more space. Again, the molecules will become still more separated in the gaseous condition; moreover, when the molecules are more widely separated their mutual attraction will become more feeble; a very slight influence from an external source may entirely overcome in their latter state the mutual attraction of the molecules, in consequence of which they will separate or become attached to some other body which is ready to receive them.

This brief and concise review of the principles and conditions under which matter is found in nature, is essential to the comprehension of the subject of which this work will treat. Electricity is a force of nature, and its manifestation under the derived name of electrolysis in the structures met with in the organic kingdom, plays an important part in the decomposition and formation of these very structures. (EXexTpov amber, for electricity, and Avffis; a loosing).

Erb says, (Handbook of Electro-Therapeutics.) "Of effects of electrolytic processes produced within the economy we possess merely surmises. A beginning has been made by Drechsel, who succeeded in making urea from solutions of carbonate of ammonia by electrolysis with changing currents. It is at least probable that this process occurs also within the living organism."

The theory of the "Correlation of Forces" and the " Conservation of Energy," as well as its dissipation in the result of work accomplished, is one of the most important factors in the health and disease of the animal tissues. Empirical medicine has taught us many facts, the explanation of which upon scientific grounds has led modern physicians to achieve many triumphs over disease which in former times were not even thought of. Until the last few years electrolysis has been used in an empirical manner; it is only lately that the theory of its use in the production of changes in animal tissue has been studied; hence, achievements in the treatment of disease by this method have not formerly met with the success which it merits. A careful study of the empirical use of this agent in producing changes in living tissue should not be overlooked; the varying results from this experience should be compared with a scientific research and experiments upon organic structures. The difficulties formerly met with from an unstable knowledge of electrical phenomena are now replaced by more exact science. Sufficient information of many of the phases under which electricity is found in the organic as well as in the inorganic kingdom is now held, from which we may form the basis of a study of electrolysis in its effects on living and diseased tissue. The reader must bear patiently the details of this information, in order to learn something of the principles which underlie the therapeutical application of electrolysis; these principles are not more complicated than many others which have lent

INTRODUCTORY.

assistance in the practical application of valuable drugs to the treatment of diseases, and which are now so well known and used to good effect by the general practitioner of medicine.

No one will realize so much as the author of this treatise the difficulties which are encountered in unraveling the confusion and inconsistencies of clinical observations of those who have attempted to apply electrolysis to the cure of diseased tissue. It may be well understood that the enthusiasm of some physicians is in direct variance with the skeptical disbelief of others; and this may be true, even if votaries who belong to both classes have experimented with this method of treatment, and have conscientiously reported what each believed to be the correct result of his work.

It will be seen in the pages which follow this introduction of our subject, that a large amount of physical, laboratory, and clinical work of electrolysis has b:en submitted to a careful scrutiny; but that the physiologists have not contributed their cpiota. In consequence of this omission of an important link, we are obliged to glean our physiological information in part from the results of chemical science and in part from pathology, and to make our physiological application from the general knowledge of the existing laws of physiology; and also to compare the teachings which are derived from these two sources with the operations of electrolysis in the treatment of diseased tissues of the body. Fortunately clinical experience is so rich in the materials offered to our study, that there is a fruitful source for speculation as well as theory. Theory should be supported by the facts of experiment, if we wish the theory to be proved — and herein lies the difficulty; for in chemical science we can prove a theory by physical analysis and synthesis; in physiology we can bring to bear the observations of the minute animal structures, whether these are seen in healthy tissue or after they have been the subject of disease. For our present study, on the other hand, we shall be obliged to take under consideration the results of chemical research, of physical phenomena, of physiological teachings, and of clinical observations as seen for the most part by partisan observers. With these data we shall be obliged to obtain our results by the method of deduction, and to test these by our own knowledge of their truth, which is derived from personal experience.

Owing to the difficulties which have been enumerated, the purposes of this treatise may perhaps be better understood if an attempt be made to sketch in advance the method of this arrangement.

To comprehend the details of electricity as also the laws which govern b ELECTROLYSIS.

the various forces of nature a separate treatise would be required for each division; books on these subjects are already so numerous and well written, that the reader should consult them for the many omissions which necessarily will be found in these pages.

Electrolysis is considered by the physicists to be a manifestation of electricity displayed in fluid substances, so that they appear not to have thought it worth while to present a separate work on this effect of physical energy; again the writers on medical or physiological studies of electricity have incorporated the effects of electricity on the human body in a general, and not a special, view of the display of electricity in the nature of electrolysis; consequently a wide range of study is required to obtain a proper knowledge of special work in this line of enquiry. It will be noticed by those who have examined into this subject that electrolysis has been in use for a long time, and for the treatment of a large number of diseases; consequently we have a long list of its applications to study, if we wish to undertake this method of treatment.

The second chapter will be devoted to the physical action of electrolysis. In this portion of the study an attempt has been made to explain the causes and effects of electricity as shown in the general organism of nature; its relations to chemical analysis and chemical synthesis are also reviewed. It will there be seen that electricity, like heat, is a form of motion which is the result of the display of a force generated and transmitted by means of material substances. It is also attempted to show that the laboratory has revealed the fact that organic chemical confounds are endowed with those same properties of disengaging this force which are seen in the inorganic chemical compounds. A number of detailed chemical experiments are given, which have not to our knowledge been recorded in any text book, which show the laws under which the combinations and decompositions of several organic compounds are conducted and accompanied with the discharge of electrical force. It must be quite evident, if the results of these experiments are true, that similar chemical actions do proceed in the organic structures of which the human body is composed. If then the decompositions which take place in the inorganic compounds held in solution are accompanied by the display of chemical energy, it must also be true that disturbances resulting from the decompositions of the compounds held in solution in the human tissues will produce the display of some form of energy in the structures of this organism. It may be that this energy is not transformed into electricity, nor is it contended that such is the case, but some form of energy must result from the organic chemical decomposition, whether it is heat or cell formation or cell destruction, or the transmutation into another form of energy.

The third chapter will describe the method of generating electricity and delivering this force from the galvanic cell. A study of this subject will illustrate many of the principles and behavior of electrolysis in the presence of fluids and substances which are dissolved in these fluids. This exposition will serve a very good purpose in the explanation of the basis for the application of the use of electricity in producing decompositions of substances which are in the path of the electrical circuit. •

In the fourth chapter the matter of conductors, or paths along which the electrical force is transmitted, is discussed. Here is an important part of our ^tudy, for the question of an easy or a difficult passage of electricity forms a very important matter in the application of electrolysis to the structures of the human body. The diffusion of the current of electricity depends upon this property of the conductivity or resistance of the conducting medium. It is also shown in this same chapter that the amount of electro-chemical action will depend largely upon the question of the conductivity of the circuit which is outside of the battery; upon this principle will depend also the character and strength of the current which reaches the point of the desired application of electrolysis. It will here be seen, too, that the action of the current is applicable to all parts of the conducting medium, and it will be shown that the electrical force will pass through the easiest channels; but that the strength of the current will be equal through all parts of the circuit both within and without the galvanic cell. It will also be shown that, no matter of what size may be the electrodes, the same amount of the current will pass in or out of the conducting medium; and, moreover, that the interpolar zone will be placed in a condition of polarization.

The fifth chapter will be devoted to the explanation of the destruction of the living tissues by means of electrolysis. This effect cannot be definitely stated, because physiology has not yet laid down in what physical condition the life or death of a structure consists. It is not improbable that at some future day the life or death of a cell may be explained by the clearer interpretation of the natural forces, but it cannot be expected that the student of medicine shall interpret what the physiologist does not understand, and perhaps what it was not intended that he should understand.

In the sixth chapter will be described the method of using electrolysis as a therapeutical agent. It will therein be shown that the benefit which may be derived from this use is, like all other therapeutical agents, dependent in a great measure upon the manner in which this method maybe employed. As the manner of using electrolysis can be better understood by a knowledge of its practical application, it has been thought advisable to incorporate a practical description of the methods used by various operators in the treatment of certain diseases; these are described in the four following chapters.

The* apparatus and the methods of measuring the strength are described in the eleventh chapter. This matter of using currents of a definite and measured strength has lately been considered by writers on electricity as of considerable importance, because unless these currents are used with a proper knowledge on the part of the operator, the results which may be obtained are not necessarily such as should be hoped for. It will, therefore, be of importance to clearly understand how the strength of the currents may be measured.

The twelfth chapter will be occupied with a description of the apparatus and instruments which are required for treatment of diseases by electrolysis. It will be noticed in this description that it is not possible to arrange for every form of instrument which may serve the purpose for the convenient manijmlation of each form of disease; the operator will have to employ his ingenuity in devising suitable instruments for a given case, in the same way that surgeons practise in their applications to the cases which are brought under their observation from time to time.

The thirteenth chapter will be devoted to a general summary of the applications of electrolysis. It will also discuss the theory of the so-called electrolytical action of the tissues.

CHAPTEE II.

PHYSICS OF ELECTROLYSIS.

It will be necessary to explain something of the behavior of electricity as experienced in nature before its manifestations as electrolysis can be mastered. Without undertaking to explain the details of electricity, or electrical force, as it should be called, the reader should become acquainted with the conditions under which electricity is recognized. Reference should be made for a fuller explanation of the theories and scientific bearings of this subject to elementary and technical treatises, such as that of — "Jenkins on Electricity and Magnetism."

It wdl be sufficient for our purposes here to remember that electricity in nature is known under two opposite conditions, that of positive and of negative character. Electricity accumulating upon an object may charge it with one of these characters, which will be developed by influence upon that part of the conducting medium which is nearest to the electricized body; this accumulation of electricity will be of a kind contrary to that of the inducing substance. When these two kinds of electricity meet together in a conditcting medium they will neutralize each other, and the electrical condition of the body will be in equilibrium. This recombination of the two opposite kinds of electrical force, when brought suddenly together, combine by some manifestation of energy, which may not always be apparent to sight; oftentimes this forcible union produces an explosion and an electric spark. The following simple illustration is familiar to many of us: — when a person walks rapidly over a dry woolen carpet in dry air, and touches a stationary dry metallic object, or the dry skin of another person who is at rest, a spark piasses between the two points of contact; the rapid motion of the walking person and the friction upon the woolen surface charges his body with active electricity of one kind, and which is suddenly discharged by the contact with another conducting medium charged with the opposite kind of electricity. If the second jDerson would also keep in motion under similar circumstances, no spark will occur, because both conducting bodies are similarly charged. Again, if the surface of either body be moist, electricity, which is engendered by the moving body as the result of friction, will not accumulate, because it passes off through the conducting medium furnished by moisture. The spark in the above case is the dynamic result of the effort of the two forms of electricity to reunite, and to restore the lack of equilibrium between the bodies charged with opposite kinds of electricity.

Electricity may, on the other hand, pass continuously through appropriate conducting mediums from the place of its generation or accumulation, provided that the contact of the conducting medium be constant; in this case its transmission, or " flow," along the conducting medium will occur continuously from the point of origin, out and through them to the original source of electrical disturbance. To produce or set in motion this continuous flow, or transmission, we must have a generator of electrical force in which the electrical disturbance or excitement is excited in a continuous manner, and from which it can be transferred by a suitable circuit in a more or less uniform way.

Volta was the first to make such a generator, which may be called a battery of continuous current. This generator or battery was formed by making alternate layers of zinc and copper, and between them was interposed a layer of cloth or bibulous paper moistened with acidulated water. Any number of these layers of zinc, acidulated water, and copper may be piled one upon another, always with the precaution of having these layers placed in the same relative order, and to have each copper connected by solder joints with the succeeding zinc; the two end metallic layers were unconnected, and a copper wire was soldered to each, thus forming the two terminals of the voltaic pile or battery. These terminals are called Rheophores, [from pveiv depeiv, current carriers] or Electrodes [sXexr/jov, amber — oSos; way; path of electricity], and, when united together by contact, will complete or close the electrical circuit, as it is called; in this case the current will traverse from one pole to the other pole, and so on, through the voltaic pile. This apparatus is illustrated by Fig. 1.

This current, or flow, is set in motion from the zinc to the next copper, and so on, through the pile, by reason of the difference in potential enero-v, or that difference in electrical condition, which causes the transfer of the disturbance from one point to another; this motion resultino- from disturbance is always accompanied by some form of energy, the effect of which may usually be made evident or exhibited to our senses. The explanation of this physical effect is rendered in the following law:

PHYSICS OF ELECTROLYSIS.

Difference of potentials is a difference of electrical condition in virtue of which work is done by positive electricity in moving from the point at a higher potential to that at a lower potential, and it is measured by the work done by the unit quantity of positive electricity when thus transferred.