Elektrische Betäubung und elektrische Narkose

Summary

Electrical “narcosis” is produced both by repeated shocks (sinoidal alternating current, make—and—break shocks, rectangular shocks of a continuous current) and by constant galvanic current, when the current is allowed to flow through the central nervous system of mammals or men; in the case of the constant galvanic current the effect depends also on thedirection of the current in the body. The analysis of the current-effects shows that repeated shocksnever produce a paralysing effect similar to chemical narcosis and that the paralysis is caused only by the preceding maximal irritation of the central nervous system (demonstrated by the general muscular spasms). On the contrary areal narcosis is brought out by a constant galvanic current, whichdescends through the spinal cord of a mammal or a man; this effect is obtained without muscular spasms and is equivalent to the effect of chemical narcotics. Anascending galvanic current increases the central excitability and produces general muscular spasms, which are facilitated by analeptics and depressed by narcotics. This contrary variation of the central nervous systems's function, depending on the direction of the galvanic current, is only possible if there is a special micro-structure in the spinal cord of mammalians and men. We have not succeeded as yet in producing a physically easily variable narcosis by electrical methods, but many things of practical importance have been accomplished: the electrical stunning of cattle in the slaughter-houses, the electrical convulsant therapy of psychoses in humans, a new method for testing the effects, in respect to duration and depth, of drugs that stimulate or depress the nervous centers, a proof for the existence of special micro-structure in the central nervous system.