electro-vital

Do you not see that, by placing my negative pole on the already overcharged and inflamed eyes, I attract to them yet more of the electro-vital fluid, and so increase their positive condition and aggravate the inflammation? and that, by presenting my positive electrode to the eyes already more or less paralyzed, I repel what little electro-vitality there was there, and so make the nerves all the more negative and dead?

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

And the nerve-lines and ramifications which issue from these great nerve-centers are polarized evidently in the same way -- the electro-vital fluid being disposed with its negative ends to the positive surfaces of the nerve-centers, and its positive or plus ends to the "vital organs," and especially to the surfaces of the organism as a whole.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

There are two, and only two, primary classes of disease -- those in which the electro-vital force is abnormally _positive_, and those where it is preternaturally _negative_.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

I believe that, in the form of electro-vital fluid, the great Creator employs it as His immediate agent to carry on all the functions of animal life; and that, in respect to voluntary functions, He subordinates it as a servant to the will of the creature, to effect such cerebral action and such muscular contractions as are demanded by the creature's volitions.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

But, in such cases, although the general disease of the system be chronic and negative, these sore and severely painful points have, for the time, risen in their electro-vital condition, and so become acute and positive.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

In the material organism of man, the great nerve-centers -- the brain, the spinal cord, and the ganglions -- appear to act the part of fixed magnets, charged with the electro-vital fluid.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

From several considerations, which can not be detailed here, I am led to think that cramps are produced, generally, at least, by a temporary or spasmodic _reaction_ of the electro-vital force from an improperly negative to an excessively positive state in the parts affected.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

Whatever bodily changes affect the polarization of the electro-vital medium in any part of the organism, do thereby produce corresponding changes in the mind.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

I also sometimes style this electro-vital element the _body electrical_, because it is certainly an entity, coëxtensive with and, in greater or less force, wholly pervading the visible, material body.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark

Forcing conduction through the nerves, by means of my artificial apparatus, I rouse the susceptibility of the nerves until they will normally conduct the "nervous influence" or electro-vital fluid, as I term it, and the paralysis is removed.

A Newly Discovered System of Electrical Medication Daniel Clark