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2 in a great measure to the wearing of a ring of this description.
3 I must observe that those who make use of such galvano-
4 electric rings, ought not to be anxious when experiencing any
5 slight indisposition, and should avoid resorting at once to strong
6 remedies, lest the ill effects of those remedies should be attributed
7 to the ring, and thus destroy the confidence of the wearer, and
8 lead to a false conclusion. While advising persons to wear
9 such rings, it is not, however, to be considered that they are
10 talismans or amulets ; their virtues are of another character,
11 which I will endeavour to explain. We know well what
12 mighty influence the electric and magnetic fluid exercises on
13 the material world, and that it produces many of those wonderful
14 phenomena, which the wisdom of antiquity was unable to
15 explain ; but our modern naturalists have succeeded, if not in
16 absolutely discovering the hitherto hidden secrets of nature, at
17 least in lifting a portion of the veil which conceals them.
18 There is no doubt that an electro-magnetic fluid is diffused
19 through our most subtile nerves, its source or battery is the
20 brain, and it is probable that the wise Creator, for that reason,
21 has there united all the organs of sensation. Through the
22 continual mild and slight stimulation which these rings produce
23 upon the nervous system, in consequence of their affinity with
24 the electric fluid existing in the body, wre may believe them to
25 operate in a manner analogous to lightning conductors, and thus
26 to maintain the functions of the nerves in their normal state.
27 I refer the reader, as regards the construction of these rings, to
28 the illustrations of those which I distributed at Lahore and
29 Vienna, as given in the second volume of this work.
30 In the last year of my sojourn at Lahore, 1849, I observed, in
31 the English medical journals, a description of a galvano-electric
32 apparatus, consisting of one zinc and one silver plate, united by
33 a silver wire, and the statement of its effects, especially upon
34 ulcers and similar cases. This induced me to make some experi-
35 ments in cases of this description, in which I succeeded ; especially
36 at the prisoners1 hospital, where two brothers had on their feet
37 two cancerous ulcers, which were completely eradicated, the one