Electric currents and electromagnetic fields have been applied to biological systems, particularly humans, with both therapeutic and pathological results. Applied Bioelectricity discusses biological responses to electric currents and electromagnetic fields, including medical applications and shock hazards. The book covers fundamental physical and engineering principles of responses to short-term electrical exposure and emphasizes human reactions, although animal responses to electricity are considered as well. The treatment covers reactions from the just-detectable to the clearly detrimental. An important new chapter discusses standards for human exposure to electromagnetic fields and electric current and demonstrates how these standards have been developed based on the principles treated in earlier chapters. J. Patrick Reilly is a member of the principal staff of the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and is President of Metatec Associates.

Electric currents and electromagnetic fields have been applied to biological systems, particularly humans, with both therapeutic and pathological results. This text discusses biological responses to electric currents and electromagnetic fields, including medical applications and shock hazards. It covers fundamental physical and engineering principles of responses to short-term electrical exposure and emphasises human reactions, although animal responses are considered as well, and the treatment covers reactions from the just-detectable to the clearly detrimental. An important new chapter discusses standards for human exposure to electromagnetic fields and electric current and demonstrates how these standards have been developed using the principles treated in earlier chapters.

Human response to short-term electrical exposure can be beneficial, as in the application of electrical stimulation for medical purposes, or pathological, as in unintended electric shock. This book is the first to offer a cohesive treatment of the subject, covering fundamental principles, specific human responses, and electrical safety. The book begins with a description of fundamental bioelectric principles. Subsequent chapters treat human reactions to electrical stimulation according to the nature of the response - sensory reactions, cardiac reactions, muscle reactions, electric and magnetic field exposure, and high-voltage and high-current injuries. The last chapter discusses standards and protective measures in consumer products. The author is a member of the principal professional staff at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. To supplement his own chapters, he has invited specialists to contribute chapters in their fields of expertise: Hermann Antoni, University of Freiburg, on electrical properties of the heart; James Sweeney, University of Arizona, on skeletal muscle responses; Michael Chilbert, Medical College of Wisconsin, on high-voltage and high-current injuries; and Walter Skuggevig, Underwriters Laboratories, on standards and protective measures. Sifting through a vast body of engineering and biomedical literature, Reilly has provided a unique reference that will interest researchers, designers, and regulatory personnel.

Snake Music is a coming-of-age story set in the 1940s and 1950s in an inner-city Catholic neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. The author, J. Patrick Reilly, describes his struggles to cope with his mother's near-fatal descent into mental illness, his father's alcoholism and early death, his family's desperate financial straits, and a devastating accident that crippled him for several years. In the midst of these challenges, Snake Music shows the redeeming power of a loving mother, good humor, and a love for music. Reilly reveals an old and terrible family secret and its multigenerational consequences, while telling his own story through the eyes of the boy he was at each stage of his memoir. Snake Music makes the reader laugh out loud, and sometimes cry.