In case of amenorrhea, the sexual organs may be subjected to the electric current either directly or indirectly, and the former is the pre ferable method. General faradization should also be tested in those in stances which do not yield readily to local. The external method of electrization is in particular applicable to virgins, and it should be tested faithfully in them before resorting to local. One pole is placed over the lower part of the abdomen and the other over the lumbar region or the sacrum. This method is never so efficient as the internal, whereby the mechanical effects are more strictly localized. Internal electrization may be resorted to with one pole in the vagina or in the uterus, and the other pole over the uterus and the ovarian regions. The cup electrode may be inserted over the cervix, or this organ may be clasped by an electrode similar to Duchenne's (Fig. 17), or else Beard and Rockwell's method of uterine faradization may be resorted as is represented in Fig. 19.
Further still, the current may be localized in the uterus by using an electrode similar to the one seen in Fig. 18.
In the choice of these methods, where the faradic current is employed, as in the vast majority of instances it will be, it matters not which pole is internal. Where the galvanic current is used, observers differ in regard to the pole, which by preference should be internal. Rockwell' expresses a decided preference for the positive pole as the internal, and he thinks that its superiority over the negative depends upon its more marked in fluence on unstriped muscular fibre. Engelmann,' on the other hand, is
in the habit of using the negative pole on account of its decided hemor rhagic property. Probably both poles are useful internally, the positive by preference where there is lack of development of the uterus, and the negative where the organ is developed and needs only further stimulation. Where the negative pole of the galvanic current is used internally, to avoid caustic effects the current should be mild and the seance not pro tracted.
Local electrization after one or another of these methods will some times yield us the desired result in a very short time; in other instances, however, the treatment must extend over a long interval, and even then may fail altogether. Treatment should never be desisted from when the patient is caused to menstruate, but should be continued for awhile until the habit has been acquired or regained. All who have tested electricity in amenorrhea agree that when properly chosen and persistently used it will frequently give us better results, and in less time, than are attainable by other agents. Engelmann calls it the remedy, and to his recent papers, as also to the writings of Munde, Beard and Rockwell, etc., we must refer the curious reader for the record of cases which exemplify the obtainable results.