A celebrated electrician and galvanist having conversed with me lately respecting this remedy for Nyctalopia, suggested to me the probability, that the same remedy might be effectual also in _gutta serena_, as both those disorders are known to proceed from a defect in the optic nerve. This opinion he corroborated, by quoting, in confirmation of it, the opinion of a well-known author. The electrician perceiving my incredulity, or more properly, my ignorance of the wonderful connection that exists between the intestines and the head, was prompted, as I verily believe, by a philanthropic disposition; and actually proved to me, experimentally, the influence which the eyes have on the intestines, and _vice versa_. A patient with a _gutta serena_, who had been, as he informed me, twelve months under the hands of a celebrated oculist, was recommended by the latter, as a last resource, to try galvanism. He had received no benefit whatever whilst under the direction of the oculist above alluded to, but his intestines were intolerably deranged by the effects of the mercury 336 which he had taken. This gentleman galvanised his eyes, and the man, who is a gunsmith, told me, that when he first went to have the operation performed, he could not see the red border round the hearth-rug in the front parlour, but when he returned into that room, after having been galvanised, he assured me he saw it plainly. He moreover declared that his bowels had been, and then were, in a very deranged state, from the effects of the mercury which he had taken, but that he felt incredible relief after having been galvanised, and that, two or three days afterwards, they were quite restored to health and strength. Being thus satisfied with the influence that so wonderfully exists between the intestines and the eyes, I am now making arrangements with the same gentleman, to administer the remedy for the benefit, _as we hope_, of patients afflicted with _gutta serena_. But I now declare to the public a third time, that the remedy is simple, safe, and effectual, and that I am ready and desirous of administering it to any one who may choose to apply for it, who is afflicted with the disorder, with my positive assurances, that it will effect a cure in eight-and-forty hours at the utmost, but probably in twenty-four.
Architecture Journal
An Account of Timbuctoo and Housa Territories in the Interior of Africa — Part 160
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