The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

CASES OF INDIGESTION, &e., CURED BY
GALVANISM.—LONDON, 1898.
Mr. La Beaume, author of the present treatise,
seems to have discovered that enviable elixir, the
possession of which ensured Saint Leon his immor-
tality. He has ascertained that Galvanism ,is a
panacea for every variety of disease. Nervousness—
,e that most favourite and fashionable epidemic of the
present day---indigestion, paralysis, epilepsy,
Saint Vitus's dance, dropsy, lethargy, gout,
asthma—whose highest ambition is to rival the
music of the bellows ;—is some promising hypo-
chondriac blessed with the possession of one
or all of these? no matter, let Min apply himself di-
ligently to Mr. La Beaume's galvanic remedies, and
he will receive almost immediate relief. In proof
of what we have here advanced, we refer our readers
to the volume itself, wherein they will not fail to
find a most copious collection of certificates,
" Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks
Of Vallombrosa,"
from ladies and gentlemen of every age and constitu-
tion, stating the immense relief they have obtained,
from having been knocked down, or nearly so, by Mr.
.La Bcaume's gal,Traie apparatus. One old gentle-
woman, whose case is detailed by a surgeon at Leg-••
tlthrhead, asserts that " for twenty-five years she had
almost been constantly ill with loss of appetite, fla-
tulence, acid eructations„Sickness, lowness of spi-
rits, coldness of the handi and feet, disturbed sleep,
and great weakness of the limbs." To improve her
constitution,' she had " also been jaundiced twice;"
yet, notwithstanding these voluminous disorders,
Mr. La Beaume had no sooner taken a fair shot at
her with his galvanic battery, than she " walked home
from the Minories (we presume to Leatherhead),
feeling no fatigue from the exertion."
We remember a learned physician in Gil Blus—
one Doctor Sangrado—whose favourite nostrums, in
every ease, were bleeding and hot water. The
latter, he used often to observe, was as diligent
a scourer as fuller's-earth ; and as for the former, if
it so happened that there was too much blood in ;he
system, the necessity of evacuation was self-evident ;
if too little, why then it enabled a fresh supply to
pour in. Mr. La Beaume has manifestly taken a
hint from this considerate physician. Galvanism is
his darling nostrum—his one triumphant panacea.
Is a patient nervous ? A shock from his idolized
battery will counteract the irritability by increasing
it tenfold (on the principle we presume of the major
overpowering the minor)--is he lethargic ? the same
shock will have an equal effect ; is he dropsical,
asthmatic, deaf, blind, or jaundiced ? still the re-
medy is• ditto, ditto, ditto, as the Bristol Elector
observed to Mr. Burke. We have nothing to urge
against this universal nostrum, especially as Mr.
La Beaume assures us, that it is a remarkably plea-
sant operation ; it may, or may not be efficacious ;
if it be, why then the " sanative art" may be com-
pressed into very narrow limits ; but even if not,.
still it can do no great harm, inasmuch as it is a
plausible experiment, of as convulsive a character,
,erhaps, as the HammersMith Suspension Bridge;
ut assuredly quite as safe.

ROYAL UNION PENSION FUND.--A Gene-
ral Meeting of the Snbseribers to the above Fund, estab-
lished in memory of the late Duke of YORK, was held yes-
terday, for the purpose of electing ten snore pensioners,
and for deciding, by ballot, upon two males and two
females already on the Fund, to have their pensions in-
creased. The meeting was held in the Freemasons' Hall,
and was numerously attended. Among the fortunate ob-
jects elected and promoted, were the daughter of the late
Governor of St, Christopher's, and a respectable female
who has outlived all her friends, and is now 88 years of
age. The astonishing advances of this Institution exceeds
the expectation of its most'sanvuine friends,