IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF UTILIZING ELECTRICITY FOR MEDICAL PURPOSES, AND IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING SUCH ELECTRICITY
Year: 1882

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas, Welton at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th November 1882.
THOMAS WELTON, of 40, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF UTILIZING ELECTRICITY FOR MEDICAL
PURPOSES, AND IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR GENERATING SUCH
ELECTRICITY
"
This invention has for its objects, first, novel methods of utilizing a current of
electricity for medical or curative purposes by passing such current before its
application to a patient, through a medicinal substance such as a drug, salt, or
tincture, or a combination of two or more such substances appropriate to the
disease which is to be treated.
For this purpose I direct a current of electricity, preferably large in quantity
but of low intensity, from a galvanic battery or suitable generator, by means of
conducting wires to the part of the patient's person which it is desired to influence,
but to the wire from one or both the poles of such battery or generator I connect
a suitable vessel in which I place the medicinal substance which is to be used such
for instance as a salt of iodine, potassium, or soda.
I make this vessel of any suitable form, and preferably of glass which may be
in the form of a tube the lower open end of which is applied and pressed against
the body of the patient, whilst the conducting wire is inserted into its upper or
outer end and dips more or less into the substance contained in the tube, which
may be in the form of a solution, powder, or more or less liquid mixture.
I have found that the current of electricity passing through the vessel has more
or less action upon the substance, and in its passage into the body of the patient
produces an effect due not only to its own presence but also more or less to the
medicinal substances through which it has passed, and the action of which is more
rapidly and effectively perceptible than if they had been applied in the ordinary
way without the aid of the current of electricity. I do not confine myself to the
use of any particular substance, as it may be varied according to the nature of the
disease which it is desired to treat and the condition of the patient.
In order to produce a continuous current of electricity of considerable quantity
but low intensity for the purpose of treating diseases in the manner above described,

page_text: or by direct application, I prefer to use a novel arrangement of apparatus con-
sisting of one or more sheets of zinc the surface of which is preferably amalgamated
in the ordinary way with mercury. I bury these sheets in the earth at a short
distance below the surface and I connect to them in metallic contact a conducting
wire of copper.
At a short distance from the zinc so buried in the earth I make in the ground a
pit, which I fill with a sufficient quantity of carbonaceous material such as
ordinary coke, and in and amongst this coke I insert a number of wires or strips
of copper or other metal the upper ends of which are connected together and
attached in metallic contact to a second copper conducting wire.
The entire apparatus formed and arranged as described constitutes a permanent
galvanic battery from which a continuous current of electricity is obtained of low
intensity but large in quantity; and this current may be conveyed by means of
the conducting wires, which may be insulated in the usual way, to any desired
place where the extremities of the wires, which may be provided with plates or
armatures can be brought into direct contact with the body of the patient who is
to be treated, or may be first passed through the vessel or vessels containing the
medicinal substance or substances as first described. The conducting wires may
be provided with binding screws of the ordinary kind, and with insulated handles,
where desired.