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A hundred and fifty years ago: Paralysis agitans senilis cured by electricity. Feb 2018;262(1812):29

150 years ago: Paralysis agitans senilis cured by electricity

22 Feb 2018Registered users

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.

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