CATARACTA ELECTRICA AND ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHIC CHANGES AFTER ELECTRIC SHOCK *

Despite the increasing use of electricity in modern times, accidents caused by it are somewhat rare, owing to stringent demands as to installation, and a wider knowledge of the risks involved by carelessness where electricity is concerned. In connection with a recent electricity accident which presented the combination of changes in the crystalline lens and in electrocardiographic records, it may be of value to recapitulate certain facts concerning electric traumata of eye and heart. These subjects are not without a certain actually, since electro-shock has been introduced into psychiatric therapy (Cerletti and Birni 1939); and even if the electric doses are supposed to be lower than what is sustained from an undesired shock, there hare been reports of serious cardial complications (see Clemmesen et a l . ) . Lens changes due to artificial electroshock have not, as yet, been reported. The effects of electric currents on the human organism are extremely varied. Between the two extremes: the scarcely perceptible electric shock and instantaneous death, there is a multitude of injuries to integuments and to internal organs. The many clinical findings (JeZZinek) are supplemented by experimental investigations (Koeppen, Croci) . The serious electric shocks comprise instances where the human organism acts as a conductor to the current. Certain factors, including those relating to the current (power, pres-