For decomposing and carrying off unnatural growths, as fistula, ficus,
glandular enlargements and other tumors, it is often best to dilute the
_electrolytic_ quality of the galvanic current A B with one or both of
the Faradaic currents, as by taking A C or A D instead of A B. But
_malignant_ and _poisonous_ affections, as scirrhus and other varieties
of cancer, and also cases of infectious virus, demand continually, or
with but occasional exceptions, the primary galvanic current A B.
[->]In treating these malignant affections, the current should be run
through as short a distance of _healthy_ tissue as possible, yet so as
fairly to reach the diseased part. And whether this part be brought, for
a given time, under the one pole or the other, the opposite pole should
be attached to the _long cord_, so as to throw the central point of the
circuit, not in the person of the patient, but out on the long cord,
thus bringing the entire organic parts though which the current is
passed on one and the same side of the center, and so, under the ruling
influence of the same pole.
Those diseases which require the chemical or electrolytic currents
should, for the most part, be treated under the negative pole,
particularly those which need the galvanic current A B, and also old
ulcers and _chronic irritation of mucus surfaces_. Glandular
enlargements not of scirrhous character, and excrescent growths not
poisonous, may often be reduced, and perhaps sometimes cured, under the
positive pole. But my own experience, even with these affections, is
that it is better to treat them under the negative pole until they come
to assume, as sometimes they will, an _acute_ state, when the positive
pole may be used with success. If, however, it appears desirable to
produce a _cauterizing_ effect, this must be done by persistent
treatment under the negative pole of a strong A B or A C current, and,
if the disease be external, with a small pointed electrode.