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Extracted from an early issue of The Practitioner
WHILE OCCUPIED some few days ago in preparing an electromagnetic machine for application to a patient, an old servant (upwards of 80 years), who had long been subject to violent spasmodic tremblings of both arms, chanced to enter the room.
More, in the spirit of levity than either philanthropy or philosophy, I asked her to take hold of the electrodes of the machine, at the same time pressing the bundle of soft wires some distance into the centre of the helix, so as to give a pretty sharp shock.
Although much startled at first, she continued to hold the electrodes for a short time, perhaps a minute or upwards. She then left the room, but returned almost immediately, and with a halfterrified, half-triumphant air she declared that since she got the shock the trembling had almost completely vanished from her arms. And in order to demonstrate the truth ofher statement, she held in her hand a rather heavy tray, with a tea-cup and saucer placed upon it, with scarcely any perceptible motion. Had she attempted to do so before the application,...