Presented by 
 
 Wesley M. Barrett , 
 
 Sr. 
 
 COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC PHYSICIANS 
 AND SURGEONS LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 
 
 Q? ! &F&f i <fif*f i ^$P&f l ^&^
 
 
 I f
 
 FIFTH EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED. 
 
 A NEW PATH 
 
 IN 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS: 
 
 AN ACCOUNT OK 
 
 THE AUTHOR'S GREAT DISCOVERY 
 
 OF 
 
 ELECTRICAL CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS, 
 
 AND THK SCIENTIFIC APPLICATION OF 
 
 DIFFERENT CURRENTS OF ELECTRICITY 
 
 TO THE CURE OF DISEASE. 
 
 A BRIEF TREATISE ON ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 
 
 AN HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERIES IN MAGNETISM 
 
 AND ELECTRICITY, THE PROGRESS OF MEDICAL SCIENCE, 
 
 AND BRIEF SKETCHES OF THE LIVES OF EMINENT 
 
 PRACTITIONERS, FROM THE EARLIEST AGES 
 
 TO THE PRESENT CENTURY; 
 
 ALSO 
 
 A THOROUGH SYSTEM OF HYGIENE; 
 
 TO WHICH AHE ADDED PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR THE TREATMENT 
 
 OF DISEASE BY THE AUTHOR'S SYSTEM OF 
 
 ELECTRICAL APPLICATIONS. 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH. 
 
 'Witness that she who did these things was born to do them ; claims her 
 license in her work." 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. 
 1886.
 
 Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by 
 
 ELIZABETH ). FRENCH, 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.
 
 TO 
 JOSEPH FRENCH, 
 
 CIVII. ENGINEER AND LATE SUPERINTENDENT OP THE PITTSBURGH CITT 
 WATER WORKS, 
 
 IN MEMORY OF A NOBLE LIFE, DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF 
 
 SCIENCE AND THE SERVICE OF HUMANITY; A WARM 
 
 HEART AND AN HONORED NAME, 
 
 THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED, 
 
 AS THE FITTEST MONUMENT IN WHICH UNDYING AFFECTION 
 CAN FIND EXPRESSION, 
 
 BY HIS WIDOW, 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 PACK 
 
 Reasons for publishing this volume The author's claims Dem- 
 onstration of popular errors and malpractices New system of 
 diagnosis ; its discovery and application Different electrical 
 currents Anton Mesmer; his famous aphorisms and pro- 
 phetic perceptions of electrical uses Electrical discoveries 
 Animai and mineral magnetism among the ancients Mytholo- 
 gical ideas of the loadstone Magnetism in the Middle Ages 
 History and practice of Mesmer The French Academy of 
 Sciences Jenner, Franklin, Napoleon Bonaparte, Galvani, 
 Volta, and other discoverers in magnetism and electricity Dis- 
 eases treated by electricity The electric vapor-bath The au- 
 thor's discoveries and practice 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM ANATOMICALLY AND PHYSIOLOGICALLY 
 CONSIDERED. 
 
 Character of standard works Use and abuse of medical and 
 anatomical terms Organic and inorganic matter The human 
 structure ; its composition, organs and tissues The skeleton 
 Thorax Abdomen Viscera Extremities Membranes 
 Nerves Blood Muscles The heart, and respiratory, circula- 
 tory, and digestive organs Processes of life . . . .24 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM, CONTINUED THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS 
 SYSTEM. 
 
 Nerve-action Importance of the nerve-functions and their study 
 Cellular formations Living and dead matter The life prin-
 
 Viii CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 ciple Nerve aura and electricity Popular opinions, and the 
 author's views on life and electricity The cerebro-spinal and 
 sympathetic systems The brain, spinal cord, cranial and 
 spinal nerves Motor, sensory, and reflex action The marvels 
 of cranial diagnosis Opposition of the faculty Bold affirma- 
 tions and defense of the author's claims as a discoverer and 
 practitioner General argument 42 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 
 
 Definitions and relations of mind Force and matter Popular 
 theories and their fallacy Electricity, galvanism, magnetism, 
 as forces in the universe Restoration from drowning by elec- 
 tricity Deaths by lightning Restoration of a paralyzed side 
 from a stroke of lightning The powers, practices, and future 
 possibilities of electrical therapeutics 60 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 
 
 Fallacy of symptomatic indications in disease Injuries produced 
 by diagnosing the body electrically to find the seat of disease 
 Malpractices in electricity and galvanism Antagonism of 
 medical practitioners to the author's system History of the 
 cranial diagnosis and its discovery The rationale of health, 
 disease, and cure Special diseases and their remedies . . 72 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 Whether a force, fluid, or mode of motion The name, whence 
 derived Amber workers Effects of heat, moisture, airs, etc. 
 Dr. Gilbert Hermes Mercury Magnetic needles and 
 batteries Voltaic piles Arago, Oersted, Faraday, Coulomb, 
 Ampere The author's batteries 82 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ELECTRICAL TREATMENTS. 
 
 Combination batteries Diagnosing and its necessity Directions 
 for the use of the battery and domestic practice in general 
 Directions for treatment in the cure of special diseases Grand 
 and infallible cure for drunkenness 96
 
 CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HYGIENE. 
 Part I. Gymnastics their Use and Abuse, 
 
 FACT 
 
 Necessity of gymnastic exercises Plea for movement-cure The 
 Greek and Roman gymnasts Athletes and gymnasia Use, 
 abuse, and status of gymnastic practices no 
 
 Part II. Food and Drink. 
 
 Physiological methods and classifications in diet Fallacies of 
 physiologists Effects of climate, occupation, and temperament 
 Tea Coffee Alcohol Times and seasons for meals 
 Methods of cooking and consuming food French cookery 
 Importance of chemical knowledge in cookery . . .114 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HYGIENE CONTINUED. 
 
 Part III. Ablutions. 
 
 Duty, necessity, and charm of cleanliness Absorption and evap- 
 oration Cutaneous obstructions and their effect Duty of the 
 medical profession in respect to ablutions The religious sys- 
 tems of the ancients in connection with ablutions Bathing; 
 its uses, abuses, and different kinds Best time to bathe 
 Cleanliness in the sick-room . . . . . . .124 
 
 Part IV. Ventilation. 
 
 The imperative necessity of free ventilation The constituent 
 elements of atmospheric air Adjustment of the system to all 
 other impure emanations than those of the human body Ven- 
 tilation of rooms, sleeping-apartments, public buildings, ships, 
 etc. Common-sense rules for common-sense people . .128 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HYGIENE CONTINUED. 
 
 Part V. Dress. 
 
 Admissible concessions to fashion Dangers of exposure and 
 muffling Full dress Small waists Heavy skirts Chignons 
 Cosmetics Care of the teeth Shoes, stockings, vests, silk 
 and woolen garments The day of small things all-important . 134
 
 x CONTENTS. 
 
 Part VL Late Hours. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Nature's laws and man's innovations on seasons of rest Summary 
 of physiological ideas 140 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE; ITS ANTIQUITY, ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND 
 PROGRESS. 
 
 Differences of health in savage and civilized states Causes of 
 physical degeneracy Hygiene The healing art among 
 savage tribes Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans ^-Esculapius 
 and his sons Hippocrates Aretreus Galen Systems of an- 
 cient Greek physicians The Arabians Alchemists The Ital- 
 ian and Spanish schools The first medical school Increase 
 of medical colleges Physicians Priests Barbers Surgeons 
 and Apothecaries University degrees Rosicrucians Para- 
 celsus The mystics Dissection, when first practiced Vesalius 
 Harvey and his discoveries Circulation of the blood Haller 
 Dr. Wm. Hunter; Mr. John Hunter: their splendid anato- 
 mical museums Note to chapter ix., on the degree and title of 
 doctor 143 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE FROM 1750 TO 1873. 
 
 Dr. Jenner and his discovery of cowpox Gall, Spurzheim ; 
 their discoveries in phrenology Sir Astley Cooper ; his daring 
 and successful surgery ; immense income ; royal cures and 
 favors Dr. Abernethy ; his talents, successes, and eccentricities 
 Bichat, the physiologist Sir Charles Bell Dr. John Bell 
 Hahnemann The history and progress of homoeopathy, hy- 
 dropathy, and various other systems of cure Electricity Close 
 of the review 165 
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 
 A GENERAL REVIEW AND SUMMARY. 
 
 Authoritative utterances on the identity of electricity and the life 
 principle Extracts from the writings of Mackintosh Singular 
 experiment of lifting a heavy body on the finger-tips Develop- 
 ment of spontaneous life by Mr. Crosse 186
 
 CONTENTS. Xi 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Supplement to Authoritative Utterances ..... 197 
 " Is Medical Electricity a Science?" A Lecture, by Prof. E. J. 
 
 French 203 
 
 References 212 
 
 Testimonials 215 
 
 A FEW REMARKABLE CASES OF CURE LETTERS, TESTIMONI- 
 ALS, ETC. 219
 
 A NEW PATH 
 
 IN 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 AFTER forty years of most arduous study and indus- 
 trious research into the principles of medical elec- 
 tricity, together with a vast range of practical experi- 
 ence in the results of its application as a therapeutic 
 agent, I feel it a duty incumbent upon me to give 
 those results to the world, and to announce that I am 
 able to prove, both in theory and practice, that elec- 
 tricity scientifically applied is the safest, most reliable, 
 and most universally beneficial of all curative systems 
 yet known to mankind. 
 
 I have frequently been urged by those who have 
 been cured by my treatments, or others who have 
 listened with interest to the announcement that the 
 clue was found which would enable the medical faculty 
 to wield the mysterious force of electricity with all the 
 precision of an exact science, to publish the records 
 of my experience and share this valuable discovery 
 with those who would be equally interested in it with
 
 10 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 myself; but not until time has ripened opinions into 
 knowledge, and deepened experiments into certainties, 
 could I be induced to challenge the preconceived 
 opinions of the world on the vague character of elec- 
 tricity as a curative agent, and affirm unhesitatingly 
 that medical electricity can be understood and applied 
 as a science, far more exact in its laws and workings 
 than any other remedial agent now in practice. 
 
 This stand-point, however, I may now venture to say, 
 I have attained. I know that the laws which govern 
 electrical forces are as stringent, yet as comprehensible 
 in medical treatment, as in the working of the mag- 
 netic telegraph. I claim to have attained to some 
 knowledge of those laws, and to have gained a correct, 
 though of course only limited understanding, of how 
 to apply them for the cure of disease. 
 
 I claim to have demonstrated the pernicious, and 
 even fatal, error of using electricity in unscientific 
 methods; and, on the other hand, I am prepared with 
 an army of living witnesses to prove the astounding 
 successes which ensue from the application of this force, 
 when regulated by the subtle powers which I find resi- 
 dent in the different currents evolved from carefully 
 constructed batteries. Another result still more re- 
 markable, namely, the power to give invariably correct 
 diagnoses of disease, has opened up in my path of dis- 
 covery, thus revealing all the hidden mysteries of the 
 human organism to the searching eyes of science. 
 The day of half-formed speculations, doubtful guesses, 
 and merely symptomatic indications is at an end. 
 The assumptions of half-lucid ignorance and half- 
 enlightened somnambulism fade away into the land of
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. 1 1 
 
 dreams, from whence so many of such revelations have 
 originated, and science, with all the nobility of simple 
 fact, ungarbled truth, and demonstrable principles, 
 arises to illuminate the realms of speculation, and 
 elevate the system of therapeutics to the very same 
 pedestal occupied by pure mathematics. 
 
 About one century ago, Friedrich Anton Mesmer, 
 whilst still laboring to evolve the doctrine of a uni- 
 versal magnetic force existing throughout the universe, 
 published twenty-seven aphorisms, in which are the 
 following remarkable views of the possibilities which 
 electricity and magnetism might yet open up to the 
 physician. Mesmer says: 
 
 "No. 8. In human bodies are discovered properties 
 which correspond with those of the magnet. Also 
 various opposite poles may be distinguished, which can 
 be imparted, changed, disturbed, and strengthened." 
 
 "No. 22. From instances deduced from my firmly- 
 established and thoroughly-proved rules, it will be easily 
 perceived that this principle can immediately cure dis- 
 eases of the nerves" 
 
 "No. 23. Through its assistance the physician re- 
 ceives much light regarding the application of medic- 
 aments, whereby he can improve their operation, call 
 forth more beneficial crises, and conduct them in such 
 wise as to become master of them." 
 
 " No. 25. Through this knowledge the physician will 
 be enabled to judge of the origin, progress, and nature 
 even of the most intricate diseases, and bring about a 
 cure without exposing his patient to dangerous effects 
 and painful consequences, whatever be the age, sex, or 
 temperament of the patient."
 
 12 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 "No. 27. The doctrine will, at length, place the 
 physician in such a position that he will be able to 
 judge the degrees of health possessed by any man, and 
 be able to protect him from the disease to which he 
 may be exposed. The art of healing will by this 
 means attain to its greatest height of perfection." 
 
 The day of realization for these bold and, at that 
 time, apparently transcendental aphorisms has now 
 dawned. 
 
 If I can justify my claim to have fulfilled, not in one 
 but in scores of instances, the possibilities promised by 
 the Viennese doctor, if I can prove that the science 
 whereon my system is founded can be reduced to 
 mathematical laws taught with unfailing precision, 
 entered upon the page of stern scholarship, and take 
 its rank among the fundamental laws which underlie 
 creation, I can no longer withhold the great discovery 
 from the world, nor keep back from public investigation 
 the results which my twenty-five years' labors have 
 achieved. 
 
 As I cannot in this treatise show the varieties of 
 forms in which electrical diagnoses and treatments of 
 diseases operate, I must urge upon my readers to peruse 
 attentively the few cases which I have selected from 
 hundreds of others in verification of the stupendous 
 curative powers which I claim for my system. 
 
 The evidence of many authentic writers assures us 
 that the practice of healing by means of magnetism 
 was in use among the ancients, who applied it as a part 
 of their most sacred mysteries. 
 
 Among the ancient Persians, Hindoos, Greeks, and 
 Romans, many evidences exist that the priests under-
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. r 3 
 
 stood and applied the forces of the magnet in aid of 
 their religious services. Their chief methods of heal- 
 ing the sick were conducted through the practices 
 of animal magnetism, strengthened by the influence 
 evolved from magnetic stones, crystals, etc. Their 
 temple sleep, ablutions, and purifications were only 
 adjuncts to the curative powers evolved from magnets, 
 and it is now understood that the twin deities Castor 
 and Pollux, who performed such a prominent part in 
 heathen mythology, were symbolical impersonations of 
 the opposing yet correlative polarities found in the 
 magnet. 
 
 During the Middle Ages, magnetic arts seem to have 
 been lost, or only practiced incidentally; but in the 
 eighteenth century they were revived by Mesmer, a 
 physician, born at Meersbtirg, Suabia, in 1734, and 
 who was said to have learned them from Maximilian 
 Hell, a professor of astronomy in Vienna. 
 
 Mesmer first attracted public attention by a re- 
 markable thesis upon planetary influence ; in which 
 he contended that the planets were the centres of an 
 all-pervading fluid, which, transmitted through the 
 atmosphere to the earth, affected plants, animals, and 
 human beings. From this point he extended his theory 
 until he taught that the forces evolved from batteries, 
 magnets, and human organisms could be made availa- 
 ble in the cure of disease ; and in this form he termed 
 their operations "animal magnetism." 
 
 Proceeding to Paris, Mesmer succeeded in forming 
 a sort of stock company, in which some of his admiring 
 followers invested large sums, and by aid of which he 
 was enabled to hire an elegant mansion in the Place 
 
 2
 
 1 4 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Vendome and give demonstrations of his art surrounded 
 with all the attractions of luxury and fashion. The 
 members of his society were to be instructed in the 
 marvels of his science; and, as he succeeded in effecting 
 many remarkable cures, it is no wonder that he soon 
 achieved a high reputation for his mysterious acquire- 
 ments no less than for his skill as an accomplished 
 physician. Dr. Anton Mesmer became the fashionable 
 sensation. 
 
 His seances attracted the highest nobles of the land ; 
 even Queen Marie Antoinette became a patroness of 
 the new therapeutic philosophy, and his salon was 
 crowded with great lords and fair ladies, all eager to 
 become participants in the marvels of his practice. 
 
 His custom was to receive his patients in a magnifi- 
 cently furnished apartment, in which the sound of 
 distant music and the influence of a soft light, subdued 
 by hangings of the choicest hues and texture, contrib- 
 uted to impress the senses with a mystic and fascinating 
 influence. A vat or tub was placed in the centre of 
 the salon, filled with magnets, metallic rods, and other 
 substances deemed at that time useful in the elimination 
 of the magic electrical flow, and this vat was so arranged 
 that conducting rods were carried from the main battery 
 to each of the parties to be operated upon. Mesmer's 
 early method of practice and their results have been so 
 often described by various authors that it is only neces- 
 sary to add that the magnetic currents arising from 
 the " baquct" combining doubtless with the delicious 
 sounds of music, the mysterious gloom of the apart- 
 ment, and the striking effects of the operator's presence 
 and influence, all contributed to produce strange and
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y, 1 5 
 
 often curative results upon the temperaments of those 
 assembled. 
 
 Mesraer's practice was in the first years of his dis- 
 covery undoubtedly more experimental than purely 
 scientific. The results too of his curious combinations 
 of mechanical and psychological appliances tended to 
 weaken his claims for acceptance on scientists ; still, he 
 produced effects in the cure of disease far too obvious 
 and striking to be overlooked, or to merit contemp- 
 tuous denial from any mind capable of appreciating 
 the indications which lead into untrodden paths of 
 science. 
 
 Dr. Anton Mesmer, whose methods had already in- 
 terested the king and queen of France, was advised 
 by his majesty, himself the President of the French 
 Academy of Sciences, to lay the results of his observa- 
 tions upon the existence of a universal fluid and its 
 application to curative purposes before that distin- 
 guished body of savants, whose office it was to investi- 
 gate all scientific subjects. The result of this applica- 
 tion (made, as has been above stated, at the suggestion 
 of King Louis XVI.) was not only adverse to the 
 propositions of Mesmer, but, by the contemptuous tone 
 in which the report of the academicians was given, it 
 was supposed the doctor's claims to scientific appreci- 
 ation would be forever quenched and his doctrines 
 exploded. History has sufficiently demonstrated that 
 the real assumptions of ignorance in this case, like that 
 of thousands of others, might with much more force 
 have been applied to the self-styled scientists than to 
 the ill-appreciated discoverer. 
 
 Mesmer's theory was not exploded by the arrogant
 
 1 6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 criticisms of the Academy. His practice continued tc 
 produce results fruitful for good in many parts of the 
 continent of Europe besides Paris ; and though he sub- 
 sequently suffered much from the world's ingratitude 
 and died at a very advanced age in extreme obscurity, 
 his doctrines were kept alive by numerous enthusiastic 
 followers, and still continue to offer foundation-stones 
 for the many splendid superstructures of new truths 
 in physics, which the world of forces is opening up 
 to us. 
 
 It may not be amiss here to insert, for the benefit of 
 those who intrust all matters of opinion to the keeping 
 of scientific bodies and graduates of old and well- 
 beaten paths, the comments of Dr. Justinus Kerner, 
 the celebrated German scientist, and author of a fine 
 biographical sketch of Mesmer, when remarking upon 
 the action of the French Academy of Sciences in re- 
 jecting the doctrine of animal magnetism. Dr. Kerner 
 says t 
 
 "It must be remembered that the same Academy 
 rejected Franklin's discovery of the lightning-con- 
 ductor, and Jenner's discovery of cow-pox. When the 
 first model of a steamship was presented to the Em- 
 peror Napoleon, he desired the Academy to test the 
 value of this discovery, and hereupon the wisdom of 
 the academicians led them to declare the invention to 
 be wholly impracticable and the idea untenable. At 
 a later period the French emperor was heard to de- 
 clare, ' How foolish I was not to have relied on my 
 own simple understanding, rather than upon the opin- 
 ions of learning masked by prejudice and blinded by 
 scientific bigotry !' To this conclusion I think every
 
 JNTR OD UCTOR K 1 7 
 
 advocate of new tniths, and every disciple of progress 
 in scientific unfoldments, will devoutly cry amen !" 
 
 In 1786 Galvani discovered and announced the 
 existence of animal electricity. He was bitterly op- 
 posed by Volta, and sustained by Humboldt ; but it 
 was not until Prof. Carlo Matteucci had added the 
 weight of his evidence that Galvani's theory was ad- 
 mitted to be correct. 
 
 Finally, Dubois-Reymond established the fact that 
 " the muscles and nerves, including the brain and 
 spinal cord, are endowed during life with an electro- 
 motive power, which acts according to a definite law." 
 
 In 1831 this question came before the Royal Acad- 
 emy of Medicine in Paris, when a committee decided 
 in favor of the claims of animal magnetism. This 
 committee comprised nine of the most distinguished 
 men in France, and its decision gave at once a strong 
 impetus to the new science. Its study and practice 
 extended into Great Britain and America, and it was 
 adopted and advocated by such men as Von Reichen- 
 bach, Dr. Elliotson, Dr. Gregory, Dr. Ashburner, and 
 a few gentlemen of equally high standing in their pro- 
 fession, who not only advocated the use of electricity 
 but adopted it in their own practice. 
 
 While Mesmer and others were operating in animal 
 magnetism, Mons. Jallabert had succeeded in affecting 
 a case of paralysis favorably. Still later, Abb6 Sans 
 and Sigaud de la Fond were operating successfully in 
 paralytic cases. In fact, it began to be generally con- 
 ceded that electricity might be made useful in con- 
 ditions of paralysis, nervous affections, or disturbed 
 circulation.
 
 jg ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Attempts were made to use the Leyden-jar in medi- 
 cal treatments, but its effects proved rather injurious 
 than otherwise, from the severity of the shock it occa- 
 sioned. As early as 1803 certain appliances began to 
 come into use, which showed that the new practice was 
 gaining ground; these were metallic brushes with insu- 
 lated handles. 
 
 The idea of galvanism or electricity eliminated from 
 a battery and applied to medical uses, originated in the 
 experiments of Humboldt on the muscular and nervous 
 fibres; but Aldini, the pupil of Galvani, was the first 
 who made this branch of the subject a matter of special 
 study, and who published his conclusions to the world. 
 This he did in Bologna, in 1804, in a work entitled 
 "Theoretical and Experimental Essay on Galvanism." 
 
 A few years later we find gout, rheumatism, and ner- 
 vous affections being treated by electricity, its appli- 
 cation to the dispersion of tumors and aneurisms, 
 through the medium of needles connected with a bat- 
 tery, beginnin'g to find considerable favor. By the 
 year 1828 public interest in the medical uses of elec- 
 tricity amounted to enthusiasm, and numerous treatises 
 upon the subject appeared in France, where it was 
 more especially being investigated. 
 
 In nervous affections, and even in derangements of 
 the sight, its power as a remedial agent was acknowl- 
 edged to be remarkably manifest. 
 
 It was finally adjudged by a large majority of one 
 Continental faculty that " whilst electricity could not 
 be considered as an actual specific, yet its power as a 
 remedial agent rendered it a most important adjunct in 
 the treatment of certain diseases."
 
 INTR OD UCTOR Y. x ^ 
 
 Under the influence of this authoritative admission, 
 the popularity of electrical treatment soon spread 
 through Italy, Germany, and England. It has also 
 been introduced into several public hospitals, besides 
 entering largely into private practice. 
 
 Whatever the ultimate combination of forces may 
 be which produces in animated beings the result so 
 vaguely called the "life principle," I claim that there 
 is in the human system a sufficient number of phe- 
 nomena accompanying nervous and muscular action 
 to demonstrate that the said "life principle" is some- 
 thing analogous to electricity, and that this force 
 properly distributed throughout the system maintains 
 it in health, and when disturbed results in disease. 
 
 As the electric forces of the human system are sim- 
 ply modifications of those which vitalize nature at 
 large, it follows that any excess or diminution in their 
 quantity, or any impoverishment in quality, may be 
 supplied by a judicious administration of the electric 
 battery. 
 
 ' It is upon this basis that my system of electrical thera- 
 peutics operates. I may, in fact, state here that my 
 theory of the electrical force in its connection with 
 the human organism, recognizes it as the actual life 
 principle. 
 
 Also, I assume that the human organism in a healthy 
 condition contains just so much, and no more, of this 
 fluid as suffices to maintain it in its highest condition ; 
 whilst any loss or disturbance of the normal quantity 
 of electricity involves a derangement not only in the 
 flow of that fluid, but in all the motions and functions 
 of the body, and that this derangement is disease. 
 2*
 
 20 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Any undue determination of this fluid to any specific 
 point not only disturbs the equilibrium of the whole 
 organism, but produces (when that determination 
 occurs) a morbid condition. I consider that examples 
 of this may be found in the forms of disease called 
 pleurisy, pneumonia, neuralgia, tic-douloureux, inflam- 
 matory rheumatism, softening of the brain, etc. 
 
 In these cases there is an excess of the electric fluid 
 in some special direction, owing to the proper channels 
 for its passage having become clogged, or to its having 
 been improperly diverted from its natural course. The 
 result is inevitably a morbid and congested condition in 
 the part affected. 
 
 Of course the primary object in such cases is to 
 renew the normal flow of electricity through the sys- 
 tem, either by removing the obstructions in its path, 
 or by opening other channels for its passage. 
 
 Where there is any lack or diminution of the electric 
 currents, there is a corresponding loss of vital power: 
 as in paralysis, torpid action of the liver, kidneys, or 
 bladder, etc. In such cases the normal condition can 
 only be restored by stimulating the flow of the electric 
 fluid. 
 
 In disordered circulation, sluggish action of the 
 blood, etc., the electricity is wanting, the vitality 
 gone, and until this is restored the circulation remains 
 in an unhealthy condition. 
 
 Such an application as I am in the habit of making 
 in these cases is always followed by renewed action in 
 the circulation, and by such sensations in the deadened 
 parts as announce the influence of the vitalizing electric 
 currents.
 
 MTR OD UCTOR Y. 2 X 
 
 From the success which attended my first treatments 
 of nervous disorders by electricity, as far back as 
 twenty-five years ago, I was induced to apply it to 
 other diseases, and I have found it more or less effica- 
 cious in treating all forms of suffering. In fact, I have 
 found in hundreds of instances its superiority over 
 every other mode of remedial art. 
 
 Unfortunate or unsuccessful results of the electrical 
 treatment may, in all cases, be attributed to faulty 
 methods in the treatment itself, and to ignorance or 
 an improper understanding of the laws which govern 
 the circulation of this fluid, and which should control 
 and direct its administration. 
 
 I was led to the adoption of the vapor-bath as a me- 
 dium for the administration of electricity after thor- 
 oughly testing the dry application and the use of 
 water-baths, by finding the first less effective and the 
 latter often injurious. I accordingly adopted the use 
 of the vapor-bath, and, in 1854, first established this 
 method of treatment in New York. 
 
 At that time it was generally believed by medical 
 men that the application of electricity in a temperature 
 of more than 100 Fahrenheit would endanger life. 
 
 Believing that this theory was a fallacy, I made the 
 experiment before Drs. Massey and Page at a tempera- 
 ture of 135 Fahrenheit, the result of the experiment 
 being to prove that my theory of the safety of such 
 applications was entirely correct. Since then I have 
 applied electricity in a case of cholera, at a tempera- 
 ture of 145 Fahrenheit, using the strongest battery 
 then known, and applying a current now denominated 
 in my battery A-D Eliminating. It is my usual prac-
 
 22 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tice, however, to apply the fluid in a temperature rang- 
 ing from 100 to 110 Fahrenheit. 
 
 It has been at length conceded, even by the medical 
 faculty, that the use of electricity is particularly avail- 
 able in the treatment of nervous disorders, that is to 
 say, in the special conditions of derangement, which the 
 faculty have never been able to deal with successfully in 
 any other way ; but I insist that I have yet to meet with 
 any disease, organic or functional, hereditary or conta- 
 gious, which I have not been able to affect satisfactorily 
 by the judicious application of this fluid. 
 
 I may perhaps better define my own impressions on 
 'his subject by drawing an analogy which has often 
 occurred to me. 
 
 I would liken the human organism not to a magnet, 
 which has been often done, but to a great natural 
 battery, of which the lungs are the magnets, generating 
 the electricity for the whole organism ; the nerves, 
 the wires or conductors; the heart, the helix or in- 
 tensifying factor; the head and feet answering to the 
 positive and negative poles. Conceive that the lungs 
 generate the fluid from the oxygen of the atmosphere, 
 and we have at once a never-failing electric reservoir, 
 in which the slightest perturbation in the current pro- 
 duces, as is well known, a corresponding disturbance 
 in the electric condition of the body. 
 
 With this view, and believing that the character of 
 the fluid undergoes an important and refining change 
 in its progress through the human battery, the marvel- 
 ous and otherwise inexplicable phenomena of animal 
 magnetism seem to me not only entirely worthy of 
 credence, but to be explicable under purely natural laws.
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 2 3 
 
 The sympathy which must exist between all the 
 modifications of this fluid and nature, is in itself a 
 sufficient explanation of many of Von Reichenbach's 
 most extraordinary experiments; while this same sym- 
 pathy is equally explanatory of the extraordinary suc- 
 cess which follows its application in cases of disease 
 which might else be well termed "incurable." 
 
 Believing in the divinely ordained "correlation of 
 forces" in all departments of life and being, I see no 
 reason for leaving out of this grand category of motor 
 powers the correlative of the life principle in man, or 
 vital electricity.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM ANATOMICALLY AND PHYSIO- 
 LOGICALLY CONSIDERED. 
 
 A GENERAL review of the standard works put forth 
 with the avowed aim of instructing the world in the 
 very profound yet essential details of self-knowledge, 
 would impress the unscientific reader with the belief 
 that the writers had purposely veiled the whole subject 
 behind a mask of technical mystery which it was 
 neither possible nor desirable to penetrate. A general 
 knowledge of the human structure, and a certain 
 amount of information concerning the workings of 
 that machinery which constitutes life and being, should 
 certainly be recognized as an essential feature in the 
 education of every reasonable being ; but in order to 
 arrive at even the simplest details of the physiology of 
 common life, the student seems compelled to wade 
 through such a mass of technical nomenclature, and 
 burden the memory with such an array of unpronounce- 
 able phraseology, that the study seems to be intrenched 
 behind the breastwork of professional monopoly, and 
 unprofessional men and women find the jargon of the 
 dissecting-room, or the incomprehensible literature of 
 medical pedantry, erecting insuperable barriers against 
 the most superficial understanding of their own sub- 
 lime and wonderful organisms. 
 24
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 25 
 
 Realizing the importance of a general understanding 
 of the human structure, the subtle workings and occult 
 powers of which will form the principal theme of this 
 volume, I feel it necessary to preface the statement of 
 my views concerning the best methods of cure, by a 
 plain and comprehensible definition of what that or- 
 ganism is upon which I propose to operate ; and, in 
 order to gain the most comprehensive possible view of 
 our subject, we shall assume that we are addressing un- 
 scientific readers, and those who will follow us through 
 such details as will afford them a wide range of ideas 
 without the trouble of searching for them in endless 
 labyrinths of words. 
 
 An organism is a body composed of separate parts 
 called organs. It is definite in form and function, and 
 each part or organ is necessary to the full perfection of 
 the whole structure. Unorganized matter, on the con- 
 trary, is not necessarily made up of separate parts ; it 
 does not consist of organs, nor are the sizes and forms 
 of inorganic masses limited or definite, except in respect 
 to crystalline formations, which are always definite. 
 Inorganic substances, such as minerals, earths, fluids, 
 gases, etc., may be unlimited in size, and heterogeneous 
 in the shape of their several masses, but plants and 
 animals always assume certain definite shapes and sizes, 
 ranging within certain normal limits. You may break 
 up and divide inorganic bodies into any number of sub- 
 divisions, and each part shall retain its identity and 
 be still the same substance ; but you cannot take from 
 an organized body any portion, however minute, with- 
 out damaging its integrity and depriving it of an essen- 
 tial part of its structure. 
 
 B 3
 
 26 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The study of anatomy deals with and describes dead 
 matter. Physiology treats of the powers, motions, and 
 functions of living bodies. Physiology also includes 
 a survey of all animated structures, from the simplest 
 forms of the vegetable to the highest conditions of 
 animal existence; but as the human structure maybe 
 regarded as a microcosm, including every form of life 
 below itself, so the study of man is the most instructive 
 and comprehensive of all other branches. 
 
 The human organism is made up of matter and 
 force, matter in its three states of solid, fluid, and 
 gaseous, and force, including all the various forms of 
 motion, the sum of which we call life. 
 
 The fluids in animal bodies exist chiefly in the form 
 of chyme, chyle, lymph, blood, the different juices 
 secreted by special glands, and water. 
 
 The solid portions are called tissues, and consist of 
 bone, muscle, cartilage, membrane, adipose, cellular 
 and areolar tissues, nervous matter, hair, teeth, and 
 nails. 
 
 The fluids contain in solution all the materials for 
 the formation of solids, and as the fluids and solids 
 are mutually convertible, and constantly interchanging 
 states, their constituent elements do not differ materially 
 from each other. 
 
 The following elements are found in more or less 
 variable proportions in the human system : oxygen, 
 hydrogen, nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, phosphorus, sili- 
 con, chlorine, fluorine, and iron. There are other 
 elements occasionally found in the body, such as man- 
 ganesium, aluminum, and copper, but these are rather 
 incidental than constant in their presence.
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 37 
 
 There are, without reckoning the teeth, about two 
 hundred and eight pieces of bone, arranged for the 
 most part in pairs, and grouped symmetrically on either 
 side of the body. The bony structure may be divided 
 into the cranium inclosing the brain, the bones of 
 the face, the trunk, including the sternum, vertebrae, 
 twelve pairs of ribs, the collar-bones and shoulder- 
 blades, and the pelvis, which supports the abdominal 
 regions. The lower extremities consist of the thigh- 
 and knee-bones, the legs, feet, and toes. The upper 
 extremities include the arms, hands, and fingers. 
 
 The cranium incloses the brain and its appropriate 
 system of blood-vessels, and also bounds the face, 
 organs of special sense, and cranial nerves. The tho- 
 rax and vertebrae inclose the heart, lungs, blood-ves- 
 sels, and spinal cord. The pelvic basin supports the 
 stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, bladder, intestines, 
 and organs of generation. Thus the bony structure 
 performs the important office of protecting, as in an 
 inclosed lattice-work, the vital organs. There are 
 certain pieces of bone in the pelvis, face, head, and 
 spine which are single and uniform ; all the rest are 
 arranged, like the extremities, in pairs, on either side 
 of the body. Each pair of bones differs in some re- 
 spects from every other pair, and all are fastened to- 
 gether by joints, called articulations. The cranium is 
 not formed of one compact mass, but consists of several 
 pieces, firmly united by the interlocking of notched 
 edges, called sutures. The long bones of the extremi- 
 ties are hard, hollow cylinders, lined with membrane, 
 on which blood-vessels are distributed for the nutri- 
 ment of their substance. The long bones are ex-
 
 28 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 panded at the extremities, so as to present surfaces for 
 articulation with other bones. Some of these bones 
 are united by a ball and socket, others by flat surfaces, 
 but all are firmly bound together by muscles and liga- 
 ments, and the end of each bone is covered with a 
 layer of cartilage, lubricated by means of a sac of 
 serous membrane, which effuses a peculiar fluid, called 
 synovia, the use of which is to keep the joints moist 
 and supple. 
 
 The bones are composed in the first place of car- 
 tilage, which is converted into osseous tissue by the 
 deposition of phosphate and carbonate of lime. In 
 infancy, cartilaginous or animal matter constitutes the 
 chief portion of the skeleton ; in adults, the lime in- 
 creases, hardening the bones, and communicating 
 strength to the frame; in old age, however, the animal 
 matter dissipates so rapidly that the bones become 
 exceedingly brittle, and hence it is that fractures to 
 persons in advanced life are so dangerous and difficult 
 to repair. 
 
 Without entering into the minutise of detail which 
 belongs to the anatomy of the bones, it is enough to 
 call attention to the beautiful mechanism of which the 
 frame-work is composed, the position it occupies in 
 the human economy, and to note how admirably the 
 finest principles of mechanics are carried out in the 
 articulation of the several joints, and the freedom with 
 which every part of the structure moves. 
 
 The respiratory apparatus commences with the mouth, 
 which conducts the inhaled air through the trachea 
 (windpipe) into the lungs. The trachea is a strong, 
 highly elastic tube, composed of muscular, fibrous, and
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 2 9 
 
 mucous membrane, all of which line and connect about 
 eighteen cartilaginous rings, the contractile action of 
 which is admirably adapted to produce the various 
 inflexions of the voice essential in speaking or singing. 
 
 We may here pause to remark that all portions of 
 the viscera or internal organs that are exposed to the 
 air are lined with mucous membrane, and all the in- 
 ternal organs themselves are inclosed in sacs of 
 serous membrane, the office of which is to secrete a 
 watery fluid, called serum. It is by the effusion of serum 
 that the various organs are lubricated, and any undue 
 irritation from their friction one upon the other is 
 avoided. 
 
 The trachea terminates, as it enters the thorax, in 
 two arches, called bronchi, and these, dividing off into 
 the right and the left lung, subdivide and ramify into 
 an immense system of tubing, every fibre of which ei.ds 
 in a minute air-cell. The tissue of the lungs is com- 
 posed of fine areolar membrane, air-cells, bronchial 
 tubing, arteries, veins, and capillaries. The air-cells 
 are composed of microscopic sacs of membrane. The 
 bronchial tubes, veins, arteries, and capillaries of the 
 lungs are all attenuated to the utmost degree of fine- 
 ness, and so profusely distributed that the entire mass 
 of the lungs may be said to consist of an immense 
 surface of membrane, with blood-vessels on one side 
 and air-cells on the other. The blood and air do not 
 come into contact, although the fine and permeable 
 character of the membrane permits the nutritive quality 
 of the blood to pass into and nourish the air-cells, and 
 the vitalizing properties of the inhaled air to act upon 
 and change materially the character of the blood. It
 
 30 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 has been estimated that there are at least six hundred 
 millions of air-cells in the lungs, each one of which is 
 supplied by an artery communicating with a vein, and 
 inflated by the air inhaled in the act of inspiration. 
 The surface presented by the membrane of the lungs 
 would, it is supposed, cover more than thirty times that 
 of the whole body, and the capacity for inflating this 
 light, spongy tissue is provided for, first, by the elastic 
 intercostal muscles which connect the ribs together 
 and expand with every respiration, and next by the 
 action of the large muscular membrane called the dia- 
 phragm, which separates the thorax from the abdomen, 
 and alternately curves upwards and downwards with 
 the actions of inspiration and exhalation performed by 
 the lungs. The chief function of the respiratory organs 
 is that of aerating the blood which is carried into the 
 lung-tissues by the pulmonary artery from the right 
 ventricle of the heart. At this point the blood is 
 finally collected by the veins from all portions of the 
 system, and, being charged with the impurities and 
 effete matters gathered up in traversing the body, pre- 
 sents the appearance of a dark purple, almost black, 
 fluid when poured through the right vena cava or large 
 vein into the heart. 
 
 By the exposure of the venous blood to the oxygen 
 of the atmosphere inhaled through the lungs, its im- 
 purities are in part disengaged and given off in the form 
 of carbonic acid gas ; the whole mass of blood, or 
 nearly the whole, becomes changed in tone and color ; 
 the dark purple hue is converted into a bright scarlet, 
 and by the time the pulmonary circulation is com- 
 pleted, the blood is arterialized and poured back into
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM, 31 
 
 the heart through the left auricle, in a condition suffi- 
 ciently renovated to form pabulum for the support and 
 nourishment of the entire system. 
 
 We must now trace in more detail the circulatory 
 process, and note the intimate connection and inter- 
 dependence which it maintains with the respiratory 
 system. The heart is the centre of the circulatory ap- 
 paratus, and it is situated in the thorax, between the 
 right and left lungs. The point or apex slants forwards 
 towards the left lung, on which it slightly impinges, 
 the base or broad part inclining backwards and upwards 
 towards the right shoulder. Although the formation 
 of muscular fibre is uniform in all parts of the system, 
 the closely-knit and strongly-packed fibres of the heart 
 constitute it the most powerful muscle of the whole 
 body. It is protected from friction against other 
 organs by a smooth serous membrane or sac containing 
 cardiacal fluid, and this sac is spread over the whole 
 surface of the heart, and so doubled on itself as to form 
 a closed bag, called the pericardium, or heart-case. 
 
 The heart itself is divided internally in the direction 
 of its length into two halves, which, though so closely 
 connected as to form one, constitute it in reality a 
 double organ. Each part also being called upon to 
 perform different functions from the other, the walls 
 of each side differ in thickness in proportion to their 
 uses. Thus, the right side (the office of which is simply 
 to receive the blood and propel it with moderate force 
 into the lungs) exhibits muscular walls less thick, and 
 valves less elaborately fashioned, than the left, through 
 which the blood is received from the lungs and pro- 
 pelled by the aortal artery through the whole body.
 
 32 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 There are four principal cavities in the heart, the 
 first two of which are termed auricles, situated on each 
 side, right and left, though not exactly uniform, and 
 two other cavities termed ventricles, both right and 
 left of the heart, though less uniform even than the 
 auricles. The auricles perform the part of receivers, 
 the ventricles that of propellers. 
 
 Between each cavity there is a beautifully constructed 
 valve, the duty of which is to permit the flow of blood 
 in one direction, but to prevent its return again through 
 the same orifice. 
 
 The auricle on the right side is furnished with a three- 
 pointed valve, called tricuspid, and that on the left 
 with a two-pointed valve, termed bicuspid. Both these 
 membranes are attached to the walls of the heart by 
 little muscular cords, and, though they appear to be 
 merely finely attenuated threads, they are fashioned, like 
 the valves, with an extraordinary amount of strength 
 and resisting power. 
 
 Besides the auricular valves, there are two sets com- 
 municating between the ventricles and the arteries. 
 These are termed semilunar valves, and their office is to 
 afford passage from the ventricles to the arteries : the 
 right ventricle forcing the blood into the pulmonary 
 artery, and from thence through the lungs, and the 
 left by the great aorta throughout the whole body. 
 
 In order to gain a correct idea of the course in which 
 the tidal currents of the blood are projected, it is 
 necessary to have a starting-point ; and this we shall 
 find by commencing to trace the circuit from the left 
 ventricle. Remember always that the blood does not 
 flow in regular channels through the heart, but that it
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 33 
 
 is propelled by a strong impulse through each valve into 
 its separate cavity. In the left ventricle we find the 
 blood in that bright scarlet condition peculiar to the 
 arterial flow. If we should pierce a vein in any part of 
 the living structure, we shall observe a moderate but by 
 no means impulsive flow of the contained fluid ; but if 
 we should sever an artery, a violent upward rush of the 
 blood will testify to the momentum with which the cur- 
 rent has been impelled. This impulse is originated by 
 the muscular contraction peculiar to the left ventricular 
 cavity, which forces the blood with immense power 
 through the large arterial tube crowning the broad base 
 of the heart, called the aorta. Directly after receiving 
 the first flow of the arterial fluid, the aorta divides like 
 an arch to the right and left, and again subdivides into 
 four main trunks, two branches of which extend up- 
 wards, when they are called the carotid arteries, and 
 supply the different portions of the throat and head, 
 the other two trunks tend downwards, and branch off 
 on either side of the body into a complex system of 
 tubing, ending in an inextricable net-work of fine hair- 
 like passages called capillaries. The ramifications of 
 this extensive system of vessels are supposed to extend in 
 length to several miles, and it is thus that arterial blood 
 is furnished to the body, supplying the entire system 
 with nutrition and the life-giving oxygen inhaled 
 through the lungs. 
 
 In the capillaries, the blood parts with its nutritive 
 qualities, and from thence it is taken up by the veins, 
 the extent and ramifications of which correspond in 
 all respects with the arteries, only that its dark purple, 
 almost black hue, denotes the absence of the vitalizing 
 B*
 
 34 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 elements found in the arteries : but it must be re- 
 membered that the chief office of the veins is to carry 
 the blood back again to the great central reservoir of 
 circulatory power in the heart. This they effect by 
 being distributed side by side with the arteries, in- 
 tersecting them in thousands of yards of fine hair-like 
 tubing, until they expand into larger proportions, and 
 finally concentrate into four main trunks about the 
 heart, corresponding to the position of the arteries. 
 The large trunks which carry back the venous blood 
 from the heart and throat are called the jugular veins, 
 and the branches which return the blood from the trunk 
 and extremities are termed venae cavse. Through 
 these the blood is emptied into the right auricle, and 
 from thence through the tricuspid valve into the right 
 ventricle. Here what is called the great systemic cir- 
 culation ends, and here the pulmonary or lesser circu- 
 lation commences; for it must be remembered that we 
 started on our analysis by tracing the blood from the 
 left ventricle, but before it can reach this point there 
 must intervene that complete pulmonary circuit through 
 the lungs to which we have previously called attention. 
 The object of this lesser system of circulation is, as 
 before stated, to expose the blood to the oxygen in- 
 haled by the act of respiration, and thus to effect that 
 radical change that converts the dark venous flow 
 into the healthful and vitalizing condition of arterial 
 blood. 
 
 The wonders of the circulatory system, and the 
 effects of health or disease which result from a 
 thorough understanding of its influence, cannot of 
 course be fully appreciated from the condensed descrip-
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 35 
 
 tion which I have herewith presented. It is enough to 
 say, however, that if, as the best- in formed physiologists 
 allow, a single grain of poison infused into any given 
 portion of the organism will traverse the whole circu- 
 latory extent of tubing in something less than three 
 minutes of time, what an array of poisonous elements 
 are we not perpetually introducing into our systems, in 
 the shape of vitiated airs, fermented liquors, and other 
 injurious articles of food, in the ignorant and unphysio- 
 logical modes in which nine-tenths of the community 
 pass their lives ! 
 
 I shall now add a brief sketch of the methods by 
 which food is prepared for the nourishment of the 
 system through the digestive apparatus. 
 
 The organs of digestion commence with the teeth, 
 and include the mouth, salivary glands, oesophagus, or 
 food-pipe, the stomach, duodenum, or entrance to the 
 small intestine, the pancreas, liver, gall-bladder, and 
 lacteals. 
 
 The three kinds of teeth found in the human jaw 
 are called incisors, canine, and molars. The first of 
 these are designed simply to divide the food, the 
 second to tear it, and the third to bruise or grind it. 
 There are two sets of teeth, namely, the milk-teeth, 
 which supply the gums of infancy and childhood, and 
 the permanent teeth, which take the place of the others, 
 from about the age of six to eight years. 
 
 The extreme hardness, diverse fashion, and separate 
 offices performed by the three varieties of teeth fast- 
 ened into the human jaw, taken in connection with 
 similarly diverse functions performed by other portions 
 of the digestive apparatus, speak as plainly as a divine
 
 36 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 revelation that the food designed to sustain man should 
 be of a mixed character, and include animal, vegetable, 
 and cereal productions. 
 
 Besides the act of mastication, another important 
 process takes place in the mouth, and this consists of 
 insalivation, or the moistening and preparing the food 
 for swallowing by the mixture of saliva. This fluid is 
 secreted from three different sets of glands : the one 
 pair situated just below each ear, and called the parotid 
 glands; the other pair placed beneath the tongue, called 
 sublingual; and the third, ^r submaxillary, placed near 
 the angles of the lower jaw. 
 
 The fluids secreted from these three sets of glands 
 differ in character, but in combination form saliva. A 
 certain portion of saliva is always found in the mouth, 
 except its flow is restrained by disease, but, like the 
 gastric juice of the stomach, the moment food is pre- 
 sented to the mouth the flow is greatly increased, and 
 sometimes occurs even when the thought of food ex- 
 cites the nerves which supply the salivary glands ; this 
 result is known in what is vulgarly called "setting the 
 mouth watering" at the sight or mention of desirable 
 food. After the food has been duly masticated and 
 moistened by the saliva, it is collected by the muscles 
 of the cheeks and the action of the tongue and con- 
 veyed against the back part or vail of the palate, which 
 is so hung as to close the cavity of the mouth in rest, 
 yet in swallowing to open it freely and permit the pas- 
 sage of the food into the pharynx. 
 
 The oesophagus is an elastic muscular tube resembling 
 the trachea in construction, inclosed on its external 
 surface by a serous membrane; then follows a layer of
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 37 
 
 thick elastic muscular membrane, the whole being lined 
 with mucous membrane. 
 
 By the muscular contractions of the oesophagus, the 
 food is next forced through an orifice near the heart, 
 surrounded with a strong band, or sphincter, into the 
 main digestive cavity, or stomach. 
 
 The human stomach is an oblong membraneous bag, 
 situated just below the diaphragm, and placed somewhat 
 obliquely across the abdomen. It has two orifices: 
 the one just alluded to, namely, the cardiac orifice, 
 by which the food is received, and the other at its 
 smaller extremity, called the pyloric orifice, the office 
 of which is to convey the semi-digested food from the 
 stomach into the intestines. Both these orifices are 
 surrounded with muscular bands, which close upon the 
 interior sac, and only open or expand when it is essen- 
 tial to receive or expel the food from the cavity of the 
 stomach. 
 
 The stomach has three coats, consisting of an external 
 covering, or serous membrane; a muscular or middle 
 coating, formed of highly elastic muscular fibre, the 
 property of which is to contract and expand, and thus 
 promote the rolling motion occurring whilst the food 
 is being digested in the stomach; and an inner lining, 
 called, as before stated, the mucous membrane, the 
 office of which is not only to cover the interior sur- 
 face with a smooth slimy fluid, but also to contain the 
 countless numbers of little follicles or glands through 
 which the gastric juices are poured out and secreted; 
 in fact, the entire of the mucous membrane or inner 
 lining of the stomach is pierced with little glands and 
 processes so thickly set, that millions of them may be 
 4
 
 38 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 counted under the microscope. When this organ con- 
 tains no food, these glands are at rest, but directly 
 food is introduced into the cardiac orifice, the follicles 
 pour out an acrid fluid secreted within them, which, 
 running down into the contents of the stomach, so dis- 
 solves and changes them that all matters which are sus- 
 ceptible of digestion become converted into a pulpy 
 mass, called chyme. 
 
 Nothing but solid matter, and that of an organic 
 nature, is acted upon by the gastric fluid. Liquids are 
 at once got rid of, and, when introduced into the 
 stomach in large quantities, materially interfere with the 
 process of digestion. Solid tissues, such as cooked 
 meat, fish, and bread, are most readily dissolved by the 
 gastric juices. Saccharine and starchy matters are 
 ejected in an unchanged state into the small intes- 
 tines. Gastric fluid, though poured in large quantities 
 into the stomach during the process of digestion, does 
 not remain there, nor is it all absorbed by the food : 
 some portions of it are reabsorbed into the capillaries 
 which surround and overlay the glands, and thus pass 
 into the general circulation and perform the function 
 of nourishing or vitiating the tissues of the body; but 
 the greater portion of the solids, when they are sus- 
 ceptible of being dissolved by the gastric juices, are 
 carried off through the pyloric orifice into the duo- 
 denum, or first part of the alimentary canal. 
 
 The usual length of the small intestine in man is 
 about twenty-five feet. The opening then widens into 
 a much larger passage, called the colon, or great intes- 
 tine, the length of which, for about five feet, is trav- 
 ersed by the waste matter, which is finally ejected from
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 39 
 
 the system. The intestines, like the stomach, have 
 three coats or membranes, consisting of the peritoneal, 
 or serous, the muscular, and the mucous. 
 
 The surface of the mucous lining of the small intes- 
 tine is even more numerously studded with small 
 glands, called villi, than the stomach. Through these 
 villi the nutritive portions of the food are absorbed 
 by a set of vessels called lacteals, but not until the 
 chyme, or half-digested food, has been further pre- 
 pared by a juice, secreted by a long gland situated on 
 the right side of the stomach, called the pancreas. 
 This gland pours out a fluid called the pancreatic juice, 
 and its peculiar property seems to be to mix with and 
 prepare the fatty matters taken into the system for 
 general distribution. 
 
 The final act of the digestive process is performed 
 by the liver. This is a large gland, divided into sev- 
 eral lobes, pierced thickly with blood-vessels, and 
 having a circulation of its own, called the portal cir- 
 culation. 
 
 One of the chief offices of the liver is to secrete or 
 manufacture a bitter, acrid fluid, called bile. This is 
 poured out into a small duct adhering to the lower 
 side of the liver, called the gall-bladder. There is a 
 duct which leads direct from the liver into the gall- 
 bladder, and from this again into the small intestine, 
 at or about the same point as the pancreatic duct, 
 and this is called the bile-duct. Through this passage 
 the biliary fluid is poured in a given quantity into the 
 small intestine, changing so materially the character 
 of the chyme, that after it has passed beyond the pan- 
 creatic and bile ducts it is converted into a white,
 
 40 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 milk-like fluid ; in fact, it now assumes that rudimental 
 condition of which blood is formed, and, having un- 
 dergone its last change in the act of digestion, it is 
 called chyle, and is taken up by absorption through 
 the mucous membrane of the small intestine into a 
 set of vessels termed lacteals, and from thence it is 
 poured into the general circulation through the blood- 
 vessels. 
 
 Whatever residue contains matter which is not fit for 
 nutriment is forced on into the colon, and as the lining 
 membrane in this intestine is no longer supplied with 
 nutritive glands, the contained matter becomes hard 
 and comparatively dry, and is expelled in regular 
 course from the system by the excrementary passage. 
 
 It now only remains for us to add a few words of de- 
 scription concerning the lacteals, through which the 
 thoroughly-digested food is ultimately converted into 
 chyle and poured into the general circulation. 
 
 The lacteals form part of an extensive fluid system, 
 called lymphatics, of which that portion termed lac- 
 teals originates in the mucous membrane of the ali- 
 mentary canal. Here they are imbedded in the form 
 of villi, or minute tubules, imperceptible to the naked 
 eye; and the chyle, or digested food, in its liquid, 
 milky state, is absorbed into these villi, from whence it 
 passes into larger passages, uniting into great branches, 
 and finally combining into one trunk, called the tho- 
 racic duct. 
 
 Into this main passage all the lymphatics and lacteals 
 are emptied. Its situation is in front of the second 
 lower joint of the spine, or lumbar vertebrae, and after 
 continuing up the backbone until it reaches a valvular
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 41 
 
 opening, just beneath the clavicle, or collar-bone, it 
 discharges its contents into the left subclavian vein, 
 becomes commingled with the returning currents of 
 venous blood, and is carried into the right cavity of 
 the heart, to be lost in the general circulation.
 
 CHAPTER IIL 
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM CONTINUED. 
 
 PART II. THE BRAIN AND NERVOUS SYSTEM. 
 
 IN describing the wonders of creative wisdom, 
 whether in astronomy or physics, figures convey but 
 little significance to the mind, and the sums by which 
 we seek to define creative ?focesses serve rather to con- 
 fuse than to enlighten the Imagination. 
 
 What idea could we form of an atom measuring 
 one four-thousandth part of an inch in diameter? 
 yet such is the only approximate conception we can 
 give of the size in which blood-discs appear beneath 
 the glass of the anatomist ! 
 
 Hundreds of millions of air-sacs in the lungs, miles 
 of tubing in the blood-vessels and capillaries, and mil- 
 lions of cells occupied in forming the brain, are so 
 many words, which, however true, bring no sense of 
 realization to the mind seeking to learn the nature of 
 the grand machinery of life. It is on account of the 
 poverty of words to express ideas that I withhold those 
 minutiae of description which apply to the original 
 formation of tissues, and simply state that all the dif- 
 ferent portions of the body, whether bone, muscle, 
 membrane, cartilage, or nervous matter, are constructed 
 42
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 43 
 
 from minute cells, the primary form of which is a sac 
 of membrane of infinitesimal attenuation and nuclei of 
 microscopic size. 
 
 Millions of these, flattened, elongated, rounded, or 
 pressed into spheroids, go to make up a single fibre of 
 muscular or nervous matter. Bundles of fibres, count- 
 less in multitude, are bound together to form a mass of 
 tissue; whilst the human body includes the totality 
 of all tissues, organs, systems, and apparatuses. Passing 
 forward, then, to the grand results of formation, we 
 are now about to enter upon that peculiar system of 
 organic life which connects the realms of matter and 
 force, and which begins to shadow forth the sphere of 
 causation underlying the variety of motions which have 
 been described in the preceding chapter. 
 
 When we turn from the dead body, which is in 
 reality inorganic matter, and contemplate the immense 
 variety of powers and functions manifest in the living 
 structure itself, the noblest example in creation of or- 
 ganic matter, it becomes impossible to narrow down 
 our investigations to the inert masses examined by 
 anatomy, and we must push forward on the road of 
 discovery opened up to us by physiology. 
 
 To determine the source of those marvelous activi- 
 ties which proceed with such regular order in life, and 
 ascertain what element it is, the absence of which stills 
 those activities into death and reduces their instru- 
 ment of expression to inert matter, has been the prob- 
 lem of ages, and one which even now would not have 
 been susceptible of solution if a partial disclosure of 
 the mystery had not been made by the researches of 
 physiologists, and the light which modern science has
 
 44 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 thrown upon the powers and functions of the nervous 
 system, under the stimulus of electricity. 
 
 For some time past the theory has been advanced, 
 that the hidden and mysterious forces of life were gen- 
 erated by the brain and nervous system in what is 
 termed "nerve aura," and that this element would 
 account for all the phenomena vaguely attributed to a 
 " vital principle . " 
 
 The simple fact that the nerves, like the rest of the 
 organs, perish at death, and that their tissues retain 
 none of the properties assumed to belong to them ex- 
 cept they are acted upon from without, is a sufficient 
 refutation of the fallacy that the " life principle" and 
 "nerve aura" are one and the same element; but 
 when we find a force which can produce upon the 
 organism the effects which we attribute to the vital 
 principle, when we find that force capable of moving 
 the muscles, stimulating the circulation, promoting 
 digestion and respiration, and acting even upon the 
 nervous system itself, are we not then justified in 
 assuming that such a force is one and the same with 
 the life principle? We have a sufficient array of phe- 
 nomena, through whatever media we observe the action 
 of electricity, to determine that it is the true motor of 
 vital force, and that the physiologist who carefully 
 observes its working as a therapeutic agent, and the 
 anatomist who watches its effects even upon dead mat- 
 ter, have just as much reason to cry, "Eureka! the 
 problem of life is solved," as Franklin had when he 
 ascertained the character of the electric fluid he drew 
 from the thunder-cloud. 
 
 Not to anticipate in this place the arguments we
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 45 
 
 design to present in support of this proposition, we 
 shall now review in brief the structure of the brain and 
 nervous system, and see how far we are justified in 
 assuming that in their operation we find the instru- 
 mentalities through which the life-forces act. 
 
 It has long been believed that consciousness, intelli- 
 gence, and will, find in the nervous matter of the brain 
 the seat of those properties by which mind acts upon 
 matter. As a full analysis of all that might be advanced 
 in reference to the subtle links which connect mind and 
 matter would involve psychological as well as physio- 
 logical definitions, we must confine our attention to the 
 physical relations of our subject, and only touch upon 
 its psychological connections so far as they are essen- 
 tial to elucidate the influences which mind exercises 
 upon matter in the different conditions of disease 
 and health. 
 
 In the nervous apparatus of man we find two well- 
 marked and distinct systems, the one called the cerebro- 
 spinal, and the other the sympathetic, or ganglionic 
 system. The cerebro-spinal consists of the brain, the 
 spinal cord, and the nerves, which extend from both 
 these great centres to the ultimate extremities of the 
 body. 
 
 The brain is composed of a soft, pulpy tissue, and is 
 inclosed in the cavity formed by the cranium. 
 
 The mass of the brain is divided, first, into two prin- 
 cipal portions, called the cerebrum, or front brain, and 
 the cerebellum, or back brain. 
 
 The cerebrum occupies all the anterior and upper 
 part of the cranial cavity; it also extends to the poste- 
 rior region of the head, covering the upper portion of
 
 46 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the cerebellum, and resting on the membranes which 
 divide the two. It is seven-eighths larger than the cere- 
 bellum, and is supposed to be the principal seat of the 
 intellectual faculties. 
 
 The mass of the cerebrum is divided into two hemi- 
 spheres or lateral halves, and these again have three 
 prominences on either side, called lobes. The lobes are 
 the special masses which fill the concave portions of the 
 skull at the forehead, temples, and back of the head. 
 
 The hemispheres are divided by a double fold of 
 membrane, which dips down between them, and cuts 
 the cerebrum into two distinct halves. There are trans- 
 verse bands of nervous matter connecting these hemi- 
 spheres, called commissures, and the last and largest of 
 these is situated at the base of the cerebrum, forming a 
 strong band of nerve-fibres, called the corpus callosum. 
 
 Towards the base of the cerebrum it becomes in- 
 flected inwards, then expands, and forms an intricate 
 cavity, with several chambers, called ventricles. 
 
 The surface of the cerebrum is folded up into an 
 immense number of convolutions, which pierce deeply 
 into the substance, and form a complete mass of fissures 
 and eminences. Brain-matter, although uniform in 
 consistence, presents two striking varieties in color, and 
 a specialty in the arrangement of its surfaces. The ex- 
 ternal surface is composed of a thick layer of nervous 
 matter of a gray color, called, from its ash-like hue, 
 cineritious, and this dips down into all the convolu- 
 tions, piercing the internal mass in a well-defined, 
 though exceedingly irregular, layer. 
 
 This interior mass is of a milky-white substance, 
 semi-fluid in consistence, and called medullary. Not-
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 47 
 
 withstanding the irregularity of surface occasioned by 
 the convoluted nature of the outer layer, the gray and 
 white matter do not commingle, but preserve their dis- 
 tinct positions throughout the whole mass. The brain 
 is more abundantly supplied with blood than any other 
 organ of the body; but if the extent of brain-surface 
 were limited by the size of the mass, only one-tenth ot 
 the quantity of blood would be sent to the brain that it 
 now receives, and this additional provision for its nutri- 
 tion is derived from the blood-vessels spread out on 
 the membranes, and piercing all the convolutions into 
 which the mass is folded. 
 
 There are three membranes inclosing the brain. The 
 external is a strong, firm tissue lining the cranial cavity 
 and adhering closely to the bones ; it also dips down 
 between the two hemispheres, and, being reflected back 
 over either side, forms the double fold which divides 
 them. This membrane is called the dura mater, or 
 "hard mother," from the belief of old anatomists that 
 it originated all the strong membranes of the body. 
 The second is called the arachnoid, or "spider-web," 
 from its exceeding attenuation. This membrane dips 
 into all the convolutions, and upon its surface is spread 
 out the extensive vascular system which supplies the 
 brain with blood. The third and inner lining is an 
 exceedingly fine and delicate investiture which incloses 
 all the brain-matter, and is termed the pia mater, or 
 " soft mother," in contradistinction to the dura mater. 
 Myriads of minute vessels are spread out between these 
 membranes, besides which there is a serous fluid secreted 
 by the arachnoid, serving the same lubricating purpose 
 as that effected by the serous sacs which inclose the
 
 48 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 heart, lungs, and internal organs. All these mem- 
 branes, in the same order as they exist in the cranium, 
 form the tubular sheath which invests the spinal cord. 
 The cerebellum, or back brain, is situated at the base 
 of the cerebrum, and is in part covered in by it. In 
 structure, as in functions, it differs from the cerebrum, 
 its surface being furrowed with lines or ridges instead 
 of convolutions. Like the cerebrum, it is divided into 
 two'hemispheres, separated by folds of membrane, and 
 united by commissures, or transverse bands of nervous 
 matter. The gray and the white matter are arranged in 
 layers similar to the cerebrum, but it is a curious feature 
 in the cerebellum, that when a vertical section of the 
 mass is cut into and solidified, the white matter is 
 found arranged in the form of a beautifully-defined 
 tree, called from this appearance the arbor vifce, or 
 tree of life. 
 
 At the upper part of the spinal column is a singular 
 bulb-shaped mass of white matter, called the medulla 
 oblongata. It is situated immediately beneath the 
 corpus callosum, between the right and left hemispheres 
 of the cerebellum, and forms the point of union between 
 the brain and spinal cord, although it properly be- 
 longs to the latter. Its functions in the nervous 
 system are complicated and important, and anatomists 
 assign it a very prominent position in the distribution 
 of nerve-force. It is not necessary in this condensed 
 description of the cranial anatomy to dilate upon all 
 the divisions and subdivisions into which this little 
 body is resolved ; it will be enough to mention four, 
 the functions of which are far more important than 
 their unpretentious size would lead us to expect. The
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 49 
 
 medulla oblongata is divided into two halves, like the 
 spinal cord, and although these are traversed and united 
 by bands of nerve-fibres, the functions of these columns 
 are obviously different. 
 
 The anterior half of the medulla is the gate through 
 which all the powers of motion are transmitted to the 
 nerves throughout the body ; the posterior half per- 
 forms the same office for the sensory nerves ; in fact, 
 whatever powers originate in the brain must be trans- 
 mitted through the medulla oblongata, and in reflex 
 action, whatever sensations are transmitted to the brain 
 must in like manner pass through this singular little 
 mass of nervous matter. The medulla oblongata is also 
 subdivided laterally, so that two distinct centres of 
 sensation are found to exist in the posterior half and 
 two corresponding centres of motion in the anterior 
 column. It has been found that if one of the anterior 
 columns of the medulla is cut away, the power of 
 motion in one half the body is lost, although, in the 
 other half, motion will remain and sensation is unim- 
 paired ; remove the other half of the anterior column, 
 and all motion ceases ; the same results to the powers 
 of sensation are obtained by cutting away the posterior 
 columns separately or together. 
 
 Experiments made on living animals have shown that 
 whilst successive portions of the brain may be cut away 
 until it is all removed, so long as the medulla oblongata 
 remains uninjured, the functions of breathing, degluti- 
 tion, and the automatic processes of life still go on 
 undisturbed. 
 
 A very slight wound at the centre of the medulla is 
 sufficient to produce death, and the functions of motion 
 c 5
 
 50 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and sensation are, as we have shown, absolutely depend- 
 ent on its integrity and perfectness. 
 
 It has been assumed that the instinctive powers of 
 animal life were centred in the cerebellum; but, whilst 
 that organ is undoubtedly essential to govern and com- 
 bine the instinctive powers, the much smaller mass of 
 the medulla oblongata is evidently the chief centre of 
 the powers themselves, and without its preservation, 
 motion, sensation, and even life itself, cease to animate 
 the organism. 
 
 There are twelve pairs of nerves given off from the 
 brain, and from thence to the organs of special sense 
 and different portions of the head. The first pair 
 terminate in the inner portions of the nose, and are 
 called the olfactory nerves; the second pair supply the 
 retina of the eye, and are called the optic nerves ; the 
 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth are also distributed about 
 the eyes, the third, fourth, and sixth being motor 
 nerves, the fifth pair, called the trifacial, are sensory, 
 and send off branches which supply the cheeks, nose, 
 and mouth. The seventh pair are the general motor 
 nerves of the facial muscles. The eighth pair are 
 called auditory nerves, and end in the interior of the 
 ear. The ninth pair supply the back of the mouth and 
 pharynx. The tenth are a very important pair of nerves, 
 called pneumogastric. They originate in the medulla 
 oblongata, communicate with the lungs, heart, and 
 stomach, and indeed ramify through the viscera to a 
 considerable extent. 
 
 The eleventh pair supply the muscles of the neck, 
 and the twelfth communicate with the tongue and the 
 organs of speech.
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 51 
 
 These two pairs are called spinal accessory and hypo- 
 glossal ; but physiologists are not in general agreed 
 upon the classification and names of the cranial nerves. 
 
 The nerves are mostly cells, or tubules, composed of 
 membraneous sacs or sheaths lined with nervous matter, 
 inclosing nerve-filaments in the form of bundles, which 
 stretch away, divide, and subdivide, but never lose the 
 original quality of sensation or motion which they de- 
 rive from their roots. In every membraneous sheath 
 it is believed there are two distinct sets of filaments, 
 one of which communicates with the cerebral hemi- 
 spheres, and the other with the spinal cord. 
 
 The spinal cord itself is a long, irregular column of 
 nerve-substance, inclosed in a sheath, composed of the 
 cranial membranes prolonged down the spine. It ex- 
 tends from the medulla oblongata to the second lumbar 
 vertebra of the spine. 
 
 The spinal cord, although composed of gray and 
 white nervous matter like the brain, presents a different 
 arrangement of the layers, the white matter being on 
 the external, and the gray, or cineritious mass, form- 
 ing a band which traverses the interior of the column. 
 
 Like the medulla oblongata, the spinal cord is di- 
 vided into two symmetrical halves, united in the middle 
 by a commissure, or converging lines of nerve-fibre ; it 
 is also separated into an anterior and a posterior column 
 by a vertical fissure. Each lateral half is traversed by 
 two longitudinal tracts which separate it by distinct 
 furrows. Thus, there are on either side three well- 
 marked columns, called the anterior, posterior, and 
 lateral. 
 
 The cord is enlarged at the neck and loins, and from
 
 52 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 these expansions are given off the nerves which supply 
 the upper and lower extremities. From the spinal cord 
 are given off thirty-one pairs of nerves, the roots of 
 which spring from either side, right and left. The first 
 eight pairs arise in the region of the neck, and are 
 called cervical; the next twelve pairs, corresponding 
 to the number of ribs, are termed dorsal ; then arise 
 five pairs which spring from the lumbar vertebrae ; 
 and the remaining six originate in the vertebral bones 
 which divide the basin of the pelvis, and supply the 
 lower abdominal regions. 
 
 Every nerve-trunk arises from a distinct root, and 
 these roots originate in pairs, one in the anterior and 
 the other in the posterior half of the column. 
 
 The nerves which spring from the posterior half are 
 nerves of sensation ; those in the anterior division of 
 the cord, motor nerves. And here let us remark that, 
 like the columns of the medulla oblongata, if one of 
 the sensory nerves be divided at any portion of its 
 length, the ultimate point which it supplies becomes 
 destitute of sensation. A corresponding effect is pro- 
 duced by dividing a motor nerve: the muscle or joint 
 with which it communicates will never move more, 
 and that, notwithstanding that the brain and spinal 
 cord may remain in their perfect integrity. 
 
 To cut or sever the cord itself in any portion of its 
 length is paralysis of both motion and sensation in all 
 those parts of the body supplied by the nerves arising 
 below the point of injury ; in fact, it is manifest that 
 the stupendous powers of motion and sensation find 
 their instrumentalities in these little insignificant-look- 
 ing nerve-filaments j sever, wound, or injure them, and
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 
 
 53 
 
 paralysis of motion or sensation is just as inevitably 
 the result as if the columns of the medulla oblongata 
 were cut away as above described. The nerves arise, 
 as we have said, in pairs; a nerve of motion and sensa- 
 tion in one half of the column, and corresponding 
 roots springing from the other half, the sensory nerve- 
 roots arising from the posterior division, the motor 
 from the anterior. These pairs arise at first singly, 
 but they soon after combine into a ganglionic knot, 
 again to divide and subdivide, and indeed to ramify 
 into countless fibrous lengths, supplying every part 
 of the body, reaching to the ultimate points of the 
 skin, the interior of the bones, muscles, membranes, 
 tissues, and blood-vessels; in fact, it would be impos- 
 sible to conceive any portion of the organism which is 
 not supplied with some extension from the main trunks 
 of the cerebro-spinal system. 
 
 It must be noted that nervous action is invariably 
 dual or reflex: for example, the cerebrum wills to move 
 a joint or contract a muscle; the thought is imme- 
 diately telegraphed through the medulla oblongata to 
 the desired point, and whatever sensation is produced 
 by that motion is instantaneously telegraphed back 
 again to the brain by the corresponding nerve of the 
 pair. Of course there are a vast number of motions 
 going on in the system which proceed wholly inde- 
 pendent of volition. Many of these arise under the 
 influence of the pneumogastric and spinal accessory 
 nerves, also from the ganglionic or sympathetic system, 
 the nerves of which supply the functions of organic 
 life; but whatever motions are produced under the 
 influence of nerve-action, are telegraphed back to the 
 ,.*
 
 54 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 brain by reflex action. When the system is in health, 
 the motions that proceed in the various departments of 
 organic life are so mechanically perfect that they pro- 
 duce no other sensation than a generally exhilarating 
 realization of life; but when, on the contrary, there is 
 a lack of equilibrium in the system, and torpidity or 
 excessive action ensues, the result is disease, and the 
 announcement of its presence is telegraphed to the 
 brain in the sensation called pain. It may be argued 
 against this position, that the ganglionic nerves (a 
 system which supplies the viscera and is profusely dis- 
 tributed about the head and trunk) are neither sensory 
 nor motot, hence that those portions of the organism 
 supplied by the sympathetic system do not convey to 
 the brain the sensations of pain. 
 
 To apprehend the working of this complex scheme 
 of nervous action, we must consider the nature of the 
 ganglionic or sympathetic system, and its connection 
 with the cerebro-spinal nerves. 
 
 The sympathetic system consists of a double chain 
 of nervous ganglia, running along the front and sides 
 of the spinal column, and connected with each other 
 by slender longitudinal filaments. Each ganglion is 
 reinforced by a motor and a sensitive filament, derived 
 from the cerebro-spinal system, and thus the organs 
 supplied by the sympathetic nerves are brought directly 
 into communication with the brain, which is kept in- 
 formed of all the influences operating on the organs 
 supplied by the sympathetics. The nerves of this sys- 
 tem are distributed to the heart, liver, spleen, kidneys, 
 intestines, generative organs, head, neck, lungs, and 
 blood-vessels.
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 55 
 
 The whole system abounds in ganglia, which form 
 plexuses of glands and nerves, and completely overlay 
 the organs which they supply. Masses of sympa- 
 thetic ganglia abound in the abdominal regions, the 
 largest of which has been named, from its numerous 
 inosculations, the solar plexus ; but the entire system 
 communicates, first with each part of its own system, 
 next with the cerebro-spinal system, and finally with 
 all the internal viscera. 
 
 Now, although the connections between the two sys- 
 tems are preserved throughout the body, they are never- 
 theless much scattered ; and as the sensory and motor 
 nerves do not penetrate into the internal portions of 
 the organism, where the sympathetics most abound, it 
 follows that the telegraphic communications which the 
 latter send off to the brain must proceed more slowly, 
 as they act through a secondary system. It is for this 
 reason that the parts of the body immediately under 
 the influence of the cerebro-spinal nerves are more sen- 
 sitive to pain than those supplied by the sympathetics. 
 The sensations travel more slowly, and the motions, 
 being purely instinctive, do not report themselves to 
 the brain as directly as those operating immediately 
 under the influence of the will. Still, they are reported, 
 and it is by this intimate connection between the two 
 systems that the brain is kept informed of all that is 
 transpiring in the body, of all its states and con- 
 ditions, and that without the fatigue and wear which 
 would ensue if every motion were immediately under 
 the influence of the will. 
 
 In describing, even in this brief sketch, the action of 
 the two systems of nerves, their mutual relations to each
 
 5 6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 other, and the intelligence resident in the brain, we 
 may clearly understand how the skillful physician is en- 
 abled to interpret the nerve-language which assumes the 
 tone of pain ; and the only marvel is, that the experi- 
 ence and observation of more than two thousand years 
 of medical practice have not been sufficient to reduce 
 symptomatic indications to a far more exact status than 
 that which it at present occupies. But let us retrace 
 our footsteps a little, and see if in this respect we 
 demand too much. 
 
 The cerebrum is obviously the seat of. consciousness. 
 No matter how structureless and insignificant may 
 appear the matter of this grand cranial instrument, 
 considered in its physiological workings it is the seat 
 of consciousness. The cerebellum is the governing 
 organ, which controls and directs in harmonious combi- 
 nations all the purely instinctive motions of the system, 
 and enables the will, emanating from cerebral influence, 
 to put its designs into execution. 
 
 The medulla oblongata keeps the gate through which 
 the telegraphic messages of the mind pass forth, and 
 the obedient responses of the muscles,, or the com- 
 plaints of any diseased organs, inform the conscious- 
 ness of their condition. The cerebro-spinal nerves, 
 with their dual functions of motion and sensation, pro- 
 voke the muscles to act, and report faithfully back to 
 the brain the sensations which all such actions have 
 produced. 
 
 The pneumogastric and spinal accessory nerves, to- 
 gether with the whole array of the sympathetic system, 
 pierce into the dark and hidden places, removed from 
 the exercise of the will ; but still they cannot escape
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM. 57 
 
 from the duty of reporting their condition upon the 
 little fibres of the cerebro-spinal system with which 
 they are connected, and this again sounds the alarm 
 in the tones of pain through the cerebral hemispheres, 
 where it reports itself, with the accompanying demand 
 upon the physician's art to restore the equilibrium which 
 any suffering organ has lost. 
 
 But here the physician himself intervenes, exclaim- 
 ing, "Your picture is an exaggerated one, and does 
 not tally with the stern demands of science and the 
 accurate revelations of fact. The nervous system does 
 act in the way you delineate, and does aim to record 
 the conditions of the organism it supplies with all the 
 fidelity of which it is capable ; but that it does or can 
 make a correct record of all the conditions under which 
 the system becomes diseased, that it can locate and dis- 
 close the exact extent of the degradation which has 
 beset hidden organs, internal tissues, tumors imbedded 
 in secret places, and fluids whose course no eye can 
 trace, is an assumption which none but the ignorant or 
 transcendental would venture to put forth. 
 
 "All that the physician's art can achieve must be 
 learned from symptoms; and these do not, as you 
 allege, constantly and correctly report themselves on 
 the brain, inform the consciousness, or register their 
 procedures on the cerebrum. Your position is a fal- 
 lacy, then, your picture a fancy sketch." And now, 
 world of therapeutic art, and realm of medical science, 
 it is at this point that I propose to take leave of you. 
 
 Here it is that I, the disciple of electrical science, 
 and the propounder of a new method in therapeutics, 
 commence my path of departure. Electricity is at 
 c*
 
 5 8 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 once my motor-power, my registrar-general ; the force 
 of my will, the carrier of my will, my silent and invol- 
 untary operator, working the machine whilst I sleep, 
 wakening me by a sense of pain to inform me when I 
 am afflicted, writing the record of my case on my brain 
 when I am otherwise ignorant of it, and then submis- 
 sively bowing its supreme powers and forces to my con- 
 trol as my agent of cure, provided only I have learned 
 its language and can read its silent but infallible 
 records. Electricity, I repeat, can and does inscribe 
 on my brain a chart of the organs of which I am made 
 up, and electricity can and does record, in characters 
 which all may learn to read, the conditions of every 
 organ and the extent of every form of suffering which 
 afflicts it. If the physician has not learned to read 
 this language and interpret the chart which the life- 
 lightnings have inscribed on the human head, his 
 ignorance is no excuse for mine, and no evidence that 
 I cannot perform what he fails in; nay, more, it is 
 because I can read this infallible record, and that with 
 the precision of a mathematician evolving his problems 
 on the principles of exact science, that I now write 
 this book, demand that it shall be read, its assertions 
 tested, and its claims admitted or rejected only upon 
 the basis of practical demonstration. I teach herein 
 the people who read, to understand their own organ- 
 isms, without being compelled to shipwreck brain and 
 intellect upon the ocean of technical verbiage. I teach 
 the people who read, that a new form of therapeutics 
 is in the world, safe, sure in action, applicable to all 
 forms of suffering, attainable in practice to all classes 
 of operators, if they will study the methods and ob-
 
 THE HUMAN ORGANISM, 
 
 59 
 
 serve the laws which govern it. But I also teach that 
 if the powers of this great curative agent can bring 
 blessing, it is also susceptible of producing injury. 
 
 Abuse its powers rudely, grasp its lightnings with the 
 hand of blind ignorance, and it will retort upon you 
 with added suffering, and perhaps destruction ; but 
 reverently study the laws by which it acts, and apply 
 them in the due formulae of its sublime and scientific 
 modes, and it will become a therapeutic agent in your 
 hands more swift, sure, and beneficent than all the 
 drugs that have ever been compounded since tne days 
 of Galen, or all the theories that have been enunciated 
 since the generation of Aristotle.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 
 
 UP to this point we have only been treating of the 
 human structure in its physical organization. It will 
 now be necessary to analyze the conditions of motion 
 and characteristics of force, which draw the line of 
 demarkation between living and dead matter. 
 
 r The subtle connections by which mind is enabled to 
 act upon and through matter, must reside in the realms 
 of force ; and although this is a subject that has baffled 
 the researches of philosophy to explain, it may be quite 
 possible to throw light upon it when once we have ob- 
 tained a clue to unravel the mystery of what vital force 
 really is. 
 
 Before presenting to the reader the arguments by 
 which I propose to sustain my opinion, that electricity 
 and the vital force are analogous, if not actually the 
 same elements, I desire it to be understood that I am 
 quite aware this proposition, whenever hazarded by 
 others, has been met with what seems to me to be a 
 most unreasonable and illogical amount of scorn and 
 denial by many of the most authoritative scientists of 
 the day. 
 
 That electricity, as manifest in the thunder-cloud, 
 acts in a totally different way from the silent flow of the 
 vital currents in man, I admit ; but it is now generally 
 60
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 6 1 
 
 conceded that that same electricity in the thunder- 
 cloud is an element closely analogous to, if not actu- 
 ally the same as, that evolved from the Leyden-jar, the 
 friction machine, and even the electro-galvanic and 
 magnetic battery. Now, the force generated in the 
 electro-magnetic battery produces a set of phenomena 
 in the human structure almost similar to the action of 
 the life principle itself. For example, when this life 
 principle is plus or minus in the human system, when 
 it is deficient at one point, or circulates with inflam- 
 matory violence in another, I know of no better 
 method of regulating it, supplying its deficiency, or 
 controlling its force, than the action of the electro- 
 magnetic battery and the introduction of electricity 
 into the system. 
 
 I will, however, proceed with the various proposi- 
 tions I have to allege on this subject, and that not 
 for the purpose of arraying my opinions against those 
 of more popular authorities, but rather because I think 
 the clear understanding of this question throws light 
 upon the best methods of dealing with the organism 
 vitalized by the life principle, and aids the physician 
 in the application of electricity as a remedial agent. 
 
 To obtain the most comprehensive view of the ac- 
 tion of the electric force, we must remember that 
 gravitation, heat, light, attraction, repulsion, and all 
 other forms of motion known in the universe, refer 
 back to some original force. That force may be con- 
 sidered as a unit, for every form of motion seems 
 to have but two modes, and those are attraction and 
 repulsion. We call these dual forms of motion by 
 many names, but after all they are still attraction and 
 
 6
 
 62 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 repulsion, or positive and negative. It seems reason- 
 able to assume, then, that electricity in the atmosphere, 
 magnetism in the earth, the properties of loadstones 
 and minerals, the forces which regulate the orbits of 
 bodies in space, no less than the principles of growth 
 and decay, are all parts or modifications of one origi- 
 nal force, and whether we call them galvanism, mag- 
 netism, electricity, life, vitality, or motion, all and each 
 move in one of the two modes indicated above, so 
 that in comparative rest they may be called positive 
 and negative, and in action, attraction and repulsion. 
 
 Whilst I assume that this universal force includes all 
 forms and varieties of motion, we must also be pre- 
 pared to find great varieties and many modifications in 
 forms of motion, owing to the countless varieties of 
 material through which force is exhibited. 
 
 It may not admit of a doubt that the principles of 
 cohesion that bind together the atoms of a dew-drop, 
 are the same as those that combine in one grand system 
 of unity the planetary satellites of the sun. 
 
 The same powers of repulsion that hold apart the 
 atoms in that dew-drop and prevent its crystallizing 
 into a solid body, operate in a similar way to prevent 
 the planets from yielding to the attractive force of the 
 sun and rushing together in a single mass. Yet the 
 exhibitions of attraction and repulsion in dew-drops 
 and solar systems do not convey much analogical 
 meaning to the mind, and the forces required to sustain 
 and uphold the mighty machinery of the universe lose 
 all significance as we contemplate them in microscopic 
 forms. Still, they are the same, and though modified 
 by the media of the material objects through which
 
 MATTER AND FORCE, 63 
 
 they are exhibited, I believe the dual modes of one ori- 
 ginal force will explain all the varied phenomena which 
 we call by many names, life and electricity included. 
 Again, I would suggest that the modifications of force 
 exhibited in electricity and the living organism are so 
 often analogous to each other, that, allowing for all the 
 differences of action which we must expect to find 
 between the fluid which traverses the delicate tissues of 
 a living body and that which is eliminated from two 
 or three inorganic pieces of metal, I cannot discover 
 any rational cause for denying the identity of the force, 
 or questioning tfiat the vital principle in man is elec- 
 tricity because it does not evolve all the phenomena 
 produced through the battery. 
 
 As a mere theory, it would matter little whether this 
 point were established or refuted, but when it comes to 
 a matter of practice, and I find myself searching for 
 the laws which connect the influences of the living tis- 
 sues and the forces of electricity, in order that I may 
 control the latter as a remedial agent for the former, 
 it then becomes me to analyze all the phases of the 
 subject, and that in the unprejudiced and dispassionate 
 form which so important a research demands. 
 
 In the first place, then, I find that galvanic action 
 can be obtained by placing a number of slices of 
 muscle, recently taken from the body of an animal, in 
 the form of a pile. 
 
 Such a battery has been found to act upon galvanic 
 instruments, and, according to Fernand Papillon, to 
 excite contraction even in the muscles of living bodies. 
 
 The experiments which prove that galvanism, mag- 
 netism, and electricity can stimulate the nerves in dead
 
 64 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 matter to perform many of the functions of life, such 
 as muscular contraction, respiratory motions, etc., are 
 too numerous and too well established to need reitera- 
 tion ; on the other hand, the question has long since 
 been decided, that no agent is so effective in promoting, 
 all the functions of life within the organized body as 
 electricity. 
 
 M. Becquerel, whose long years of industrious re- 
 search into tile phenomena produced by electricity 
 from living tissues give him the most authoritative 
 claim to be heard on such a subject, affirms his belief 
 that electricity is the mysterious agent to which the 
 action of the capillaries in the human system is due. 
 He even gives the term 'electro-capillary' to this form 
 of motion, besides assuming that the veins and arteries 
 in proximity form pairs, which, on electro-galvanic 
 principles, may account for the processes of circulation 
 much more satisfactorily than in any other way. That 
 the immense vitality of the nerves and the important 
 functions they perform in the human organism are in- 
 timately related to the dual modes in which electricity 
 is evolved from a battery, has long been a subject of 
 speculation to the unprejudiced philosopher. The 
 arrangement of nervous matter into gray and white 
 layers, and the disposition of nervous fibres in pairs at 
 their points of origin, are both suggestive of the close 
 analogy which exists between the human organism and 
 a grand battery, wherein the electric fluids are softened 
 and subdued to the degree of tension proper to so 
 fine and complex a system as that of man. 
 
 Whilst experimentalists in other countries have been 
 devoting their opportunities of research as much to
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 65 
 
 the qualities of the electric fluid as to its action, I sub- 
 mit that my twenty-five years of equally industrious 
 research and continual experience have qualified me 
 to speak on the subject of that action, and the results 
 of my observations leave no shadow of doubt in my 
 mind that the life principle in man is electricity, and 
 that all the forms of motion transpiring in his organism 
 are due to the flow of electric currents generated in the 
 brain, renovated and nourished by the electric fluid 
 transmitted through the lungs by the blood currents to 
 the brain and nervous system, distributed by the blood 
 as pabulum to the muscular tissue, and absorbed through 
 the appropriate conduits of the skin from the atmos- 
 phere, just as plants drink in carbonic acid gas through 
 the same medium. 
 
 That action and reaction is the law of life is an 
 axiom too self-evident to admit of dispute. Whilst 
 the frame can and does give off electricity then, as 
 witnessed in the phenomena of animal magnetism, 
 sparks emitted from the hair in friction, the clothing 
 in cold weather, and even the fingers' ends when the 
 feet are briskly exercised upon a carpet, and whilst 
 electricity can and does stimulate digestion and circu- 
 lation, provoke nervous action, muscular contraction, 
 enter into and assimilate with the human organism 
 more completely than any other element in nature, and 
 whilst its absence from the body in the thunder-storm 
 produces lassitude, and its abundance in clear, cold 
 weather stimulates to high energy, I ask no other testi- 
 mony than the obvious revelations of Nature herself to 
 elucidate my theory. 
 
 Were the opinions of every scientist opposed to my 
 6*
 
 66 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 belief, these and multitudes of other indications evolved 
 by the phenomena of life, health, and disease, would 
 suffice to assure me that I supply the very principle of 
 life itself when I infuse electricity into the system. 
 
 In 1849 a young man by the name of Russell, 
 sailing on the Alleghany River, was upset from his 
 boat opposite the Pittsburg Water-Works. It was 
 quite thirty minutes before the body was recovered 
 from the water, and attempts were made by the or- 
 dinary methods of friction, etc., to produce reanima- 
 tion. Being present at the scene of the accident, I 
 succeeded in procuring the opportunity to apply my 
 battery to the inanimate form in my own way. In 
 about ten minutes the man gave signs of returning life, 
 and in less than half an hour he was completely 
 restored. About sixteen years previous to this occur- 
 rence, two of my nearest and dearest relatives, namely, 
 a brother and sister, were killed simultaneously by a 
 stroke of lightning. My mother, being present at the 
 scene of the tragedy, received a sufficient portion of the 
 shock to paralyze one side of her body, thus apparently 
 destroying the functions of life in one half of the sys- 
 tem. That dead half I subsequently restored to life by 
 the action of certain rude batteries, in the construction 
 of which I, even then a child, endowed with strong 
 tendencies in that direction, was myself the mechanic. 
 I do not wish to burden my work with details which 
 might prove irrelevant to its main points of interest; 
 I have only given, therefore, the briefest summary of 
 this corollary of incidents ; but I would ask the least 
 analytical mind that peruses them to array itself in the 
 attitude of a deliberate judgment upon this singular
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 67 
 
 chain of testimony. The electric fluid produces death 
 in two individuals, and semi-death that is, death of 
 one-half of the life functions in another, and that 
 same electric fluid restores the life functions thus par- 
 tially arrested in the one organism ; and in yet another 
 case, where the entire action of the vital principle was 
 suspended, and seemingly destroyed, by drowning, it 
 restores it to its normal condition of activity. Here 
 stand, then, three infallible witnesses of life, death, and 
 cure, each arraying itself under the fiery banners of 
 electricity, and each performing its separate office upon 
 the human frame. 
 
 Physicists may insist that there exists a difference 
 between the phenomenon which operates in the ovum to 
 promote life and ultimate organization, and that which 
 suspends the action of life, and, by its withdrawal, tilti- 
 mates in disorganization ; also, that there is a difference 
 between the force which within the system causes mus- 
 cular contraction, nervous irritability, respiratory action, 
 and circulatory flow, and that which without the system 
 will produce all these results when applied to it ; but, 
 for my part, I can only see differences without distinc- 
 tions, and distinctions without differences. 
 
 As regards the life currents, their action upon healthy 
 organisms all tend to a general condition of equilibrium, 
 and consist of an immense number of minor polarities 
 established throughout the system. 
 
 So noiselessly and harmoniously do these life currents 
 flow on, that all the complex forms of motion proceed- 
 ing in the heart, lungs, stomach, and viscera, act 
 without arresting attention or causing sufficient dis- 
 turbance to excite a recollection of their action.
 
 68 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Five hundred pieces of muscle are set in motion, 
 and their contractile movements excite nothing but 
 pleasurable sensations. 
 
 Six hundred millions of air-cells are inflated in less 
 than a second of time, with no appreciable results but 
 enjoyment ; miles of tubing are engaged in carrying 
 forward a profound system of manufactory with solid 
 and fluid machinery, and all this goes on without caus- 
 ing a single jar in the marvelous array of activities to 
 impress the brain with one single idea of what is tran- 
 spiring. Surely no one will insist that all this vast, 
 moving machinery is propelled by muscular contraction, 
 when it is evident that the muscles are stirred to motion 
 by the nerves. It cannot be "nerve aura," as the 
 phrase goes, when it is conclusively proved that a large 
 amount of the pabulum supplied to the nerves is de- 
 rived from the blood. It cannot all proceed from the 
 activities of the blood, since we clearly perceive that 
 the blood derives much of its vital quality from the 
 inhaled air of the lungs ; neither can the great motor 
 reside wholly in the lungs, for the lungs are nothing 
 more than air-cells except they receive the nourish- 
 ment of the blood and the stimulus of the nerves. Does, 
 then, the force lie in the system of digestion, and 
 grow out of the superior quality of the food we con- 
 sume? Again we are baffled, for on the very thresh- 
 old of this inquiry we are met with the fact that blood, 
 air, nerves, and muscles must all combine in action 
 ere the digestive apparatus can supply the tissues with 
 the nourishment which it is their office to prepare. 
 
 But, say the philosophers, "You forget that it is not 
 in any special function that the ALL of life resides. It
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 69 
 
 fs in the fact of organization as a whole, in the fact that 
 a grand unity of forces is brought to bear on the frame, 
 that life inheres therein as a general product." Sup- 
 posing we could grant this position, how, then, would 
 philosophy explain the phenomenon of death? how 
 would it resolve that a paralyzed limb should cease to 
 be a part of the grand organism one moment, and by 
 the action of the electric battery assume its place as 
 a part of the organism the next moment ? 
 
 How comes it that the organism, if its vital power be 
 purely organic, should ever become diseased? and how 
 is it, in fine, that being diseased, the self-same electric 
 battery can and does restore it to its normal condition 
 as an organism? These are problems which philosophy 
 must meet. If it would take and hold its rank as such, 
 it must explain to us the action of life and death. 
 
 It must tell us, if the organism itself is the cause of 
 life, or, in other words, its own cause and its own effect, 
 why it is active in life and still in death. 
 
 The organism is the same in both conditions, and 
 yet how different ! What constitutes that difference, 
 and what is it that renders it an organism one moment 
 and inorganic matter the next? 
 
 Organization cannot be its own cause and its own 
 effect ; this is an unanswerable axiom, and one which 
 must be met ere the question can be left in the hands 
 of the philosophers ; who would refer the sources of life 
 back to any material cause, whether in the several parts 
 or their totality. I have put these positions before the 
 reader less in the spirit of antagonism to what I deem 
 wholly untenable philosophy, than to lead the mind to 
 the rational, legitimate, and demonstrable position that
 
 70 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the life principle is electricity, that disease originates 
 in a disturbance of the electric currents; hence that 
 the only element of cure with which we can hope to 
 deal successfully and radically must also be electricity. 
 This position is not difficult to prove, and the attempt 
 to disprove it only strengthens our case, and forces us 
 back perpetually to the same great remedial agent. 
 What, then, remains to be discovered ? Why, simply 
 that method of eliminating the fluid which will best 
 adapt itself to the finely attenuated currents in the 
 human system, and next to search for, and put in prac- 
 tice, those laws by which different qualities of the fluid 
 can be adapted to different conditions of the diseased 
 organism. 
 
 In the perfectly well-balanced condition of the human 
 structure, one in which every function is in active oper- 
 ation, the mind controls and directs the organs and 
 puts them to far higher uses than merely instinctive 
 actions. 
 
 But when the body is diseased, the mind in strong 
 sympathy with the body cannot effectively control it, 
 and, what is more, all the conditions, from raving mad- 
 ness to imbecility or morbid melancholy, may be 
 traced to their source in the influence of a diseased 
 organism. Of what stupendous import, then, be- 
 comes the discovery of the link that connects mind 
 with matter ! 
 
 That mind is not matter is evident from the fact 
 that mind cannot w////the body well, when it becomes 
 diseased : a link must exist between them, then, a 
 link which is not intelligence, nor yet inert matter. 
 That link is force ; and if force be electricity in the
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 71 
 
 atmosphere, the planets, suns, systems, rocks, stones, 
 crystals, metals, and plants, why not in the living 
 tissues, so strongly and readily affected by electricity? 
 
 Electricity is the universal force of motion, the 
 substance of life, the grand distributer of living and 
 subordinate forces throughout the whole arcanum of 
 nature. 
 
 The cause of life must also be the source of health, 
 disease, and cure. That better and more perfect in- 
 struments may yet be constructed for the generation 
 of electricity, and better modes^of adapting it to the 
 human system than at present exist be discovered, we 
 may all confidently hope and expect ; but though 
 electricity is yet in its infancy as a science, and its 
 application as a remedial agent is as yet very im- 
 perfectly understood, enough is known, and enough 
 even in this brief treatise has been discussed, to prove 
 that its action as a therapeutic must depend greatly on 
 the scientific understanding with which it is adminis- 
 tered, and the adaptation of its forcible but subtle 
 powers to the various conditions which it is designed 
 to operate upon.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 
 
 EVER since the uses of electricity have been recog- 
 nized in the treatment of disease as a popular remedial 
 agent, it has been observed that the application of one 
 of the poles of the battery, attached to a sponge or 
 used as an electrode in any way, would produce espe- 
 cially painful sensations when directed to a sore spot 
 or diseased organ. 
 
 Those who have improved upon this method of diag- 
 nosing by aid of the battery, and carefully watched the 
 effects produced by passing over the organism with the 
 electrode, must be aware of the peculiar susceptibility 
 of the fluid to detect disease. Indeed, we need hardly 
 remind any of our readers who have ever witnessed 
 electrical medical practice, that it has often been a 
 source of amusement no less than astonishment to 
 watch the injured muscles contract beneath the action 
 of the searching fluid, or the hurt nerves quiver when 
 their lost equilibrium was revealed through the pun- 
 gent applications of electricity. 
 
 Ignorant lookers-on have been actually seen to smile, 
 and felicitate themselves with the air of spectators at 
 an amusing entertainment, as the victims of this kind 
 of diagnosis shrank away from the lightning-knives 
 that were piercing their suffering frames ; and none but 
 72
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 
 
 73 
 
 the hapless patients themselves seem to have realized 
 that such experiments were painful, might be productive 
 of injury, and sometimes did actually result in muscular 
 contractions, nervous spasms, and local aggravations 
 of disease. 
 
 Make as light of the subject as we may, one thing is 
 certain : if electricity can cure, it can also kill ; if it 
 can assuage pain, it can just as surely produce it ; it 
 can create as well as disperse tumors, paralyze as well 
 as renovate, and injure by unscientific applications as 
 effectually as it can benefit the organism by skillful 
 methods. My own practice has been marked by mul- 
 titudes of cases in which patients have come to me 
 with partial paralysis, aggravated conditions of tumor, 
 and nervous derangements, occasioned by rank mal- 
 practice with galvanism and electricity ; and thus we 
 keep adding to the list of diseases which already afflict 
 the race, and convert the healthful currents of electric 
 life into a fresh source of bane and injury. Besides 
 the actual suffering experienced in submitting to this 
 mode of diagnosing, I find, from repeated observation 
 of its action, that it is not reliable in detecting disease. 
 
 I have myself watched the operator passing the 
 electrode over the surfaces of diseased organs, such 
 as the kidneys, heart, liver, etc., and utterly fail to 
 discover the seats of injury hidden beneath. These 
 failures, no less than the serious damage the structure 
 is liable to receive in feeling for the parts affected, de- 
 termine me to put in my protest against such pernicious 
 attempts. In fact, as above stated, I have seen the 
 worst effects produced upon persons thus examined, and 
 I have long since come to the conclusion that if there 
 i> 7
 
 74 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS 
 
 was no better way of diagnosing disease, the old plan 
 of symptomatic indications, confirmed by partial guess- 
 work, was at least more safe and far less painful. 
 
 Careful study and systematic research, however, have 
 unfolded to me not only a safer but a far surer method 
 of diagnosis, and that by the scientific application of 
 electricity, in such a fashion as reveals a new and won- 
 derful phase of anthropology. It is many years since 
 I discovered that the human brain is a chart upon which 
 may be found delineated all the organs of the body, 
 and with these, a correct and comprehensible record 
 of the exact condition in which the organs exist. I 
 am quite aware that the theories of anatomists, and 
 many of the self-elected arbiters of opinion upon 
 medical subjects, are opposed to the acceptance even 
 of the possibility that such a system of diagnosis can 
 be made. It was only since the writing of this chapter 
 was commenced that one of my students, commenting 
 on the invariable success which attended this method 
 of diagnosis, was insolently rebuked by a well-known 
 medical practitioner of the city of Philadelphia, on the 
 ground that it was an impossibility to detect diseased 
 conditions of the various organs on the brain, and that 
 the woman who claimed to do so "was mad," and any 
 one who reaffirmed it for her was as mad as herself! 
 
 Remembering that every great reformer who has 
 dared to advance one step beyond the beaten path in 
 which mediocrity delights to run, whether in religion, 
 art, science, or politics, has been invariably called 
 "mad;" recollecting, moreover, that one of the most 
 popular definitions that has ever been rendered of 
 genius is, that it is "insanity," lean afford to con-
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 75 
 
 tent myself with the brand of insanity, shared by the 
 noblest and most progressive minds in the world, and 
 simply reaffirm to my readers that for twenty-five years 
 I have practiced this method of cranial diagnosis with 
 invariable success; that I have communicated it to 
 several of my pupils, who practice it with more or less 
 correctness according to their capacity to master its 
 scientific details; that I still follow it, and at this pres- 
 ent writing may be found in its exercise any day during 
 business hours, when those who seek me for this pur- 
 pose are in attendance. 
 
 It was about the year 1848 that I arrived at the con- 
 clusion that the nature and seat of disease could be 
 correctly ascertained from cranial diagnoses. I beg 
 distinctly to state here, that I do not derive my system 
 from phrenology, nor any accepted or rejected methods 
 now in use. I conceived the idea that the brain, as the 
 great nerve-centre and focal point to which all sensory 
 and motor nerves report themselves, should be the 
 map on which the organs and their special conditions 
 are represented. I tried and demonstrated the correct- 
 ness of this hypothesis in a series of carefully con- 
 ducted experiments, and the result has not only proved 
 the truth of my theory, but furnished me with hun- 
 dreds of explanations to suffering conditions of the 
 physique, which would else have remained a sealed 
 book to me. I do not conceive that I am bound to 
 bestow upon the army of quacks and pretenders who 
 flood the world, the results of my long years of study 
 by publishing the minutiae of my system, neither do I 
 propose to put this new weapon of defense against 
 charlatans into their very hands.
 
 76 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The gentlemen who think that any woman must be 
 mad who pretends to know more than they do, or 
 deem nothing but lunacy can advance one step beyond 
 them, may find out as best they can the secret of my 
 madness. 
 
 To the students who do not believe they know every- 
 thing, and realize how much more effective my method 
 has been to discern the true character of disease than 
 the assumed sanity of fossilized schools of routine prac- 
 tice, my system has been taught ; and in every instance 
 in which it has been studied intelligently, it results in 
 the same characteristic methods of cranial diagnosis. 
 
 I have now only to add, that in making these diag- 
 noses I attracted the attention of some medical prac- 
 titioners in New York, whose modesty was as eminent 
 as their skill. These gentlemen, who were not of that 
 school of thinkers whose highest authority is to be 
 found in the single vowel /, have frequently attended 
 my operating-rooms, pronounced the results of my 
 electrical diagnoses truly wonderful, and a complete 
 revelation in therapeutic science. 
 
 In conclusion, I have now been practicing this 
 method for upwards of twenty years. To assume in- 
 fallibility for the status at which I have myself arrived 
 would be an amount of arrogance worthy only of a 
 sect, a clique, or a craft ; but I nevertheless believe 
 that the system itself is infallible, and when humanity 
 has sufficiently realized the subtle relations between 
 the brain and the physique, to follow them out in their 
 exactitude, it will be found possible to detect the 
 scratch of a pin or a slight bruise recorded on the mar- 
 velously fine tablets of the great nerve-centre.
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 
 
 77 
 
 In this connection I feel bound to state that my 
 method of cranial diagnosing the result of many 
 years of study and research is now secured to me by 
 caveat. The charts on which the system is laid out 
 with mathematical precision will in due time be given 
 to the world, and when once popularized, I shall no 
 longer be subject to the attempts of presumptuous imi- 
 tators to acquire in a few short hours the knowledge 
 which it has cost me a quarter of a century to perfect. 
 Meantime, the facts which result from my labors are 
 testified to by an army of living witnesses, in the face 
 of whose grateful recognition of my services I can 
 afford to be stigmatized as "mad" by presumptuous 
 ignorance and unscrupulous charlatanism. 
 
 THE RATIONALE OF DISEASE. 
 
 The principles upon which I base my applications 
 of electricity to diseased organisms must have already 
 been apprehended by the intelligent reader in several 
 parts of this volume, but in order to afford to the un- 
 scientific student the greatest amount of facility for 
 mastering as much of the subject as may be necessary 
 for domestic practice, I shall here lay down again, in 
 the plainest possible terms, my theory of disease and 
 cure. 
 
 In health, I claim that the various motions of the 
 body, whether under the guidance of will or simply 
 instinctive, are all operative by the influence of force. 
 I claim that vital force, or the "life principle," is not 
 a property of vital tissue, nor yet the result of organi- 
 zation. 
 
 7*
 
 78 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Muscular contraction, nervous irritability, etc., are 
 secondary results, and merely modes in which the one 
 great original force of life expresses itself through 
 different tissues. As to the question of organization 
 being the cause of life, the phenomenon of death occur- 
 ring, as I have before shown, whilst the organism is 
 itself intact, and the fact that life precedes organiza- 
 tion, and is its cause, rather than its effect, form argu- 
 ments against this position, from which there is no 
 appeal. 
 
 What, then, remains? I claim that the life prin- 
 ciple in man is the life principle in all things; that the 
 nearest approach we can discover in elemental sub- 
 stances to this universal life principle is electricity, 
 with all its different modes and varieties of exhibition. 
 
 Health being the normal condition of the body, in 
 health the electric currents are all in perfect operation, 
 and their equable flow, in traversing the system, is 
 itself health. Now, the least disturbance in the distri- 
 bution of the electric currents must of necessity affect 
 the points where that disturbance occurs. For instance : 
 if the stomach or any portion of the digestive appa- 
 ratus absorb too much or too little food, if the pabu- 
 lum which supplies it is unfit for its support, the life- 
 lightnings are arrested, or unduly quickened, by the 
 interposing obstacles. They refuse to act, or are 
 forced on with undue excitement ; the loss of equi- 
 librium is the loss of health ; and disease, engendered 
 by the first disturbance of the life-currents, immediately 
 ensues. 
 
 One disease begets another, and before the silent 
 channels of the force can be renovated in one direction
 
 THE CRANIAL DIAGNOSIS. 79 
 
 they are so obstructed in others that slight disabilities 
 become chronic diseases, and various unnatural con- 
 ditions are set up from the one original hindrance. 
 
 The first disturbance may occur in the lungs, head, 
 spine, skin, or at any given point of the body; but, 
 wherever it is, the real source of disease lies in any 
 check or unnatural impulse given to the flow of the life 
 currents. If the lungs inhale vitiated airs, or too little 
 or too much of the oxygenated fluid of the atmosphere, 
 a disturbance is at once set up in the lung-tissues, by 
 which the blood is corrupted, the body deprived of nu- 
 triment, the health equilibrium destroyed. 
 
 This theory of disease applies with universal force to 
 every part of the system alike. If, then, we are looking 
 for a universal restorative as well as a universal cause 
 for disease, in what can we possibly find it but in the 
 life-giving element itself? It is an impossibility to ob- 
 tain the vital fluid, modified by passing through the 
 living tissues, except in the element given off by animal 
 magnetism. Even if the living magnetic forces of one 
 individual could apply to all the varied conditions of 
 many (a thing which experience proves to be an im- 
 possibility), we should still require that the magnetizer 
 should be perfectly healthful, sound, sane, and then 
 possessed of the requisite mobility of fluidic life to 
 apply to all conditions of organism and disease. 
 
 The improbability of attaining the perfection of such 
 an instrument in all cases, even where the possibility 
 existed, renders the application of animal magnetism 
 inadmissible as a regular therapeutic agent. Again, 
 therefore, we recur, with reasonable chances of success, 
 to the existence of a mineral fluid possessing the near-
 
 80 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 est proximate similitude to the vital principle, and capa- 
 ble of such modifications of force and quality as will 
 be found applicable to many conditions of disease. If 
 we cannot always insure success in the use of the battery 
 when directed by science and controlled by skill, we 
 must remember that in its application to remedial pur- 
 poses electricity is, as yet, but little understood. 
 
 To destroy cancers and tumors, remove fibroid 
 growths, and distribute the forces of life equally through 
 paralyzed parts or inflamed tissues, electricity has 
 already been an approved instrument. To cure nearly 
 all nervous disorders, and apply successfully to mor- 
 bid conditions of the blood, digestive or respiratory 
 organs, the electrical forces have been acknowledged as 
 the most available means. For the amputation of parts, 
 the cauterization of wounds, the suspension of a hemor- 
 rhoidal flow, or general surgical operations, electricity 
 is one of the best remedial agents known ; but the pro- 
 found ignorance of the community on its methods of 
 application, the determined bigotry of many of the 
 medical faculty in opposing all advance or suggestion 
 of advance in its use, beyond the narrow spheres of 
 their own experience, and the strong and perhaps natural 
 tendency to experiment with this force, so little known, 
 so ill understood, all tend to diminish public confidence 
 in its virtue, and render the uninformed cautious of 
 submitting themselves to be tampered with by the pro- 
 fessors of a comparatively unknown art. 
 
 From my own experience in the uses of electricity, 
 I have entire faith in its scientific appliance, but an 
 equally strong aversion to its exercise in unscientific 
 hands. I do not claim infallibility for my practice of
 
 MATTER AND FORCE. 8 1 
 
 electricity, nor do I apprehend I have done more than 
 enter upon the first step of the vestibule which will 
 conduct the race into the arcanum of the life mystery; 
 but that which I do claim I found on experience, prove 
 by living witness, and demonstrate by daily practice; 
 it is this: that the methods of treatment given in this 
 book will be found effective in subduing the several 
 diseases to which I direct them as applicable ; also, that 
 numerous other complaints of far more important and 
 complicated character will yield to carefully directed 
 electrical treatments, and that with study and experi- 
 ence, continually strengthened by fresh unfoldments of 
 electrical science, this life-giving fluid will in a few gen- 
 erations be recognized as the one grand remedial agent, 
 and that its orderly applications in skillful hands will be 
 found capable of curing every complaint that is curable, 
 and elevating the human physique to the highest stand- 
 ard of which it is susceptible.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 WHETHER electricity be a force, a fluid, a mode of 
 motion, or, as I have claimed for it, the actual life of 
 things, the real original element in which resides the 
 sum of all forces and motors, is not relevant to our 
 present purpose to discuss further. We are about to 
 consider only some of the modes in which electricity 
 has been known and is now exhibited, and more es- 
 pecially in regard to the machinery by which it be- 
 comes most applicable to therapeutic purposes. 
 
 "Electricity" is a term derived from the Greek 
 word elektron, and at one time it was applied exclu- 
 sively to designate the product called amber, which 
 abounds on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, and, 
 from being found to possess in a very remarkable de- 
 gree the property of attraction, was believed by the 
 ancients to be endowed with sundry mysterious pow- 
 ers, even life, and something of the nature of soul. 
 Amber is a fossil of a vegetable origin, or, more prop- 
 erly speaking, it may be regarded as a fossilized gum. 
 
 Under the influence of friction its attractive power 
 is very remarkable, and those now engaged in cutting 
 it into the form of ornaments are found to become so 
 subject to nervous excitations in the process of their 
 work that they are obliged to change the pieces they 
 82
 
 ELECTRICITY. 83 
 
 are employed upon constantly, in order that the fric- 
 tion ized quality of the substance may subside. 
 
 Amber and its peculiar powers are frequently men- 
 tioned by classical writers, more especially Thales of 
 Miletus, and Pliny. 
 
 It would seem that other ancient writers also were 
 acquainted with the properties of amber, and the 
 superstitious awe with which it was regarded by the 
 Greeks and Romans caused them to associate it with 
 the famous Magnesian stone, so frequently alluded to in 
 classical writings, and used, no doubt, as the moderns 
 would now apply the loadstone or any natural magnet. 
 
 The phenomenon of sparks beingemitted from woolen 
 clothing and hair in dry weather, as well as the elec- 
 trical power of the gymnotus, are no new discoveries ; 
 but the systematic investigation of electrical force as 
 a science did not seem to have been attempted until the 
 year 1600, when Dr. Gilbert, of England, announced 
 certain theories concerning the action of attraction and 
 magnetism as derived from the loadstone and other min- 
 erals. Dr. Gilbert was one of the first scientists who 
 suggested that the powers of magnetism were more 
 effective in a cool, dry atmosphere than in one satu- 
 rated with moisture. 
 
 There are many curious facts in nature to justify this 
 theory, even the phenomenon of an ostrich-feather 
 becoming strongly charged with electricity when it is 
 held against the currents of hot, dry winds that blow 
 at certain seasons over the deserts of Africa; this and 
 many similar experiments prove that dry atmospheres, 
 in connection with extremes of heat or cold, are the 
 most favorable conditions for the action of frictional
 
 84 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 electricity. It is entirely different in the production 
 of electro-magnetism. Here every experienced medi- 
 cal electrician can testify that the presence of moisture 
 on the skin is necessary to promote the assimilation of 
 the electric currents with the organism. 
 
 Among the ancients, it was generally believed that 
 the power of the loadstone was in some mysterious 
 manner due to the influence of ^Esculapius the healer, 
 esteemed as a god in heathen mythology. The force 
 evolved from the magnet, minerals, and crystals was 
 also deemed a gift of the gods, and Apollo, Castor and 
 Pollux, and Mercury, the "swift-winged messenger of 
 the gods," were supposed to exert special influences 
 in connection with magnetism. 
 
 Could we disentangle the legends of mythology 
 from the indications of science and the half-formed 
 speculations of philosophy, we should no doubt per- 
 ceive that many of the occult principles of nature 
 were sought to be embodied in the fabled deities of 
 the skies. It is curious and not uninstructive to trace 
 out the connection between mythical ideas and the 
 discoveries of modern science ; and the fact that the 
 powers of the magnet were known and used so many 
 centuries ago, throws much light upon the mysteries 
 of ancient worship and the art of healing. 
 
 We need not reiterate any accounts of the progress 
 elicited in electricity and magnetism during the last 
 century, save to notice one or two leading points 
 which bear upon the construction of the machines 
 now found so valuable in therapeutic practice. The 
 Leyden-jar was first used in 1748, and its power in 
 collecting and discharging the electric element has
 
 ELECTRICITY. 85 
 
 been thoroughly tested. Galvanism was named after 
 Galvani, the originator of the galvanic battery, so well 
 known in the realms of science. The voltaic pile 
 was called after the constructor, Volta; but the in- 
 crease of power and intensity procured through the 
 pile is due to an increase of the number and size 
 of the plates employed, rather than to any material 
 difference in the quality of the force evolved. 
 
 The discovery of the close relations subsisting be- 
 tween electricity and magnetism, and the construction 
 of a machine combining the properties peculiar to 
 both conditions of the fluid, were due to the researches 
 of Prof. Oersted, of Copenhagen, who contributed 
 some valuable theories on the subject in 1819-20. 
 Prof. Oersted demonstrated the fact that when the 
 two poles of a galvanic battery were united by a con- 
 ducting wire, and this wire was brought into proximity 
 with a magnetic needle, the latter tended to turn at 
 right angles with the former. 
 
 M. Arago supplemented the researches of Prof. 
 Oersted in many important directions. He showed 
 that the wire joining the two poles of a galvanic bat- 
 tery was capable of imparting magnetism to iron filings 
 whilst the battery was in action. Again, Ampere carried 
 forward the progress of discovery, and proved that two 
 parallel wires transmitting currents of electricity in the 
 same direction attract each other, whilst similar wires 
 transmitting currents in opposite directions repel each 
 ether. 
 
 From this Ampere evolved his remarkable hypothesis 
 explanatory of the laws of electro -magnetism, viz., 
 " Currents moving in the same direction attract, and 
 
 8
 
 86 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS, 
 
 in opposite directions repel, each other." Again he 
 says, " The magnetism of a bar of iron consists of cur- 
 rents of electricity revolving at right angles to the 
 length of the bar around each particle of the metal." 
 
 Prof. Henry, of Washington, was probably the first 
 scientist who clearly demonstrated the application of 
 the above-named theories in the construction of the 
 electro-galvanic battery. In the machine devised by 
 the professor, he caused a coil of wire to be wound 
 round a bar of iron bent in the form of a horse-shoe ; 
 this wire he connected with a galvanic battery, and 
 the result was the generation of a powerful current of 
 magnetism. 
 
 In this connection we must not forget to mention 
 the discovery of Prof. Faraday, who claimed that 
 magnetic properties are the attributes of all bodies, 
 and that the currents run either in the direction of the 
 greatest length, or at right angles with the length of 
 a body, and this second current is named "dia- 
 magnetic." 
 
 In 1802 M. Coulomb, a French savant of great 
 eminence, conducted some interesting experiments by 
 the employment of a glass receiver, from the top of 
 which he suspended a silk fibre, attached to the sub- 
 stance to be examined. We need not repeat the de- 
 tails of his experiments in this place, as they belong 
 more immediately to the department of mechanics 
 than that of therapeutics. 
 
 For a still further elucidation of the principles de- 
 veloped in the construction of batteries adapted to 
 medical treatments, I shall now give several quotations 
 from the various works on the subject, which will explain
 
 ELECTRICITY. 87 
 
 some of my reasons for devoting so many years to the 
 perfecting of the Combination Batteries, which I have 
 adopted solely in my practice, after having tried many 
 others with less favorable effect. My varied experi- 
 ences in the evolvement of galvanism, magnetism, and 
 combinations of electrical force have been long and 
 faithfully tested, and although there is still much to 
 learn and much to improve in every direction, the scien- 
 tific results I have obtained with my batteries as applied 
 to the cure of disease are most valuable and satisfactory. 
 
 On the existence of a different quality in the cur- 
 rents evolved from batteries, several writers say: 
 
 " Currents of different qualities have not only dif- 
 ferent characters of sensation, and different effects on 
 muscular irritability, as recognized by all who have 
 carefully scrutinized in regard to these varied electrical 
 phenomena, but also one quality even when so weak in 
 power as not to produce any pain, but rather a pleasant 
 sensation. 
 
 "It must not seem strange to find electricity pro- 
 duced in many different qualities to have varied effects. 
 There are, indeed, other facts recognized as true, and 
 which might seem stranger still; for it is well known to 
 all chemists that the same proportion and kind of atoms 
 may form substances so different in their nature as to 
 be recognized as entirely different substances. For 
 example, spirits of turpentine and oil of bergamot are 
 identical in composition, being composed often atoms 
 of carbon and eight of hydrogen, and the difference is 
 recognized as merely that of the arrangement of the 
 atoms. Also light is recognized as the effect of vibra- 
 tions of wave motions in the ether, which is every-
 
 88 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 where ; and the different colors result from the differ- 
 ent lengths of these waves. (See Prof. Draper's ' Chem- 
 istry,' and other scientific text-books.) And yet, even 
 the difference in the character of the vibrations or wave 
 lengths of the ether gives a difference in their chemical 
 effects; for, indeed, it is known to be chiefly the yellow 
 ray which causes the absorption of the carbon from the 
 carbonic acid gas in the atmosphere into the solid form 
 of a tree, by the influence of the sunlight falling upon 
 its leaves. And it is the indigo ray which is chiefly 
 concerned in causing hydrogen and chlorine to unite 
 by passing light through a glass vessel containing a 
 mixture of the two gases. 
 
 "Also, sound results from vibrations in the atmos- 
 phere or other media. Yet sounds may have differences 
 in pitch, and also differences in qualities of tones 
 having the same pitch. Its effects are what the spirit 
 of man receives as jarring discord or sweet harmonies, 
 and successions and qualities of tones, that inspire the 
 emotions of courage and hope, or produce solemn and 
 mournful feelings. 
 
 " Considering the fact that mere variations or modi- 
 fications in vibratory or wave motions produce dif- 
 ferences in effects, we should not think it strange, but 
 should rather expect that the magnetic influence which 
 excites the electricity in metallic helices would produce 
 currents modified in qualities, by varying the physical 
 condition of those helices ; for by varying the helices 
 we vary the medium of vibratory or wave motions 
 resulting from polarizations, whose phenomenon is 
 electricity." 
 
 These statements, based as they are upon scientific
 
 ELECTRICITY. 
 
 89 
 
 analogies, are quite in harmony with my own experi- 
 ence, in which, during many past years, I have amply 
 demonstrated that there are in the Combination bat- 
 teries the fifteen and twenty-eight different currents or 
 qualities of current which I claim, and that these vary- 
 ing qualities of the electric force are particularly effec- 
 tive in treating different kinds of disease. We often 
 hear the expression used, "Electricity is electricity; 
 and although we may increase the tension or quantity, 
 there can be no difference in the quality of the force." 
 Now, it is precisely on this point that I take issue with 
 the vox populi, and precisely for this reason that I have 
 contended, with what might else seem to be such ob- 
 stinate tenacity, for the use of properly constructed 
 batteries. 
 
 That which we must all admit to be modifications of 
 the force, I claim, in addition, by the use of different 
 metals and lengths of wire in the helices, to evolve 
 a variety in the quality: "The terms quantity and 
 tension, as applied to electricity, do not express the 
 real distinction in the qualities of electricity, and 
 that 's one reason why the terms are so generally 
 misunderstood when thus used. The term intensity is 
 often "misused for power, but the difference is as plain 
 as the difference between loudness and pitch in regard 
 to sounds. A musical string conditioned for a given 
 pitch does not change that pitch by a greater or less force 
 of the blow causing it to vibrate; it simply changes its 
 loudness. And in regard to electricity, the magnetic 
 force upon the helix determines the power or strength 
 of the induced current ; but the intensity or tension, 
 that is, quality, is determined, not by the amount of 
 8*
 
 9 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 magnetic force upon the helix, but by the physical con. 
 struction of the helix itself. ' ' 
 
 It is to be lamented that the study of electricity does 
 not form an essential feature in the education of every 
 medical practitioner. So many of the most eminent 
 members of the faculty are now using it, and its admis- 
 sion to the hospital is becoming so general, that it seems 
 strange and anomalous to find the discovery of its pow- 
 ers and possibilities left to experimenters rather than 
 taught as a science. During my long years of practice 
 in New York, I was favored with the patronage of 
 many of the medical faculty, who sent such patients to 
 me as they deemed likely to receive benefit from my 
 special forms of treatment. Let us hope that the time 
 is not far distant when the science of electrical thera- 
 peutics will form a necessary part of every medical 
 student's education, and the hap-hazard administration 
 of this great and potential force, as potential for evil 
 as for good, will thereby be taken out of the hands of 
 charlatans and mere experimenters. For the benefit of 
 those who desire to know the nature of the machines 
 which I have found so successful, I insert a brief de- 
 scription and plates of the batteries I most constantly 
 use. I also take great pleasure in recommending the 
 cautery batteries manufactured by Otto Flemming as 
 admirably adapted for surgical purposes. To those 
 experienced in electrical treatments, the case of instru- 
 ments manufactured by Otto Flemming for my use will 
 be found essential and specially adapted to internal 
 applications.
 
 THE COMBINATION BATTERIES. gi 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH'S COMBINATION BATTERY, No. 
 i, has five differently conditioned coils in the helices, 
 arranged to use in various connections, producing 
 fifteen different qualities or currents of electricity, as 
 follows: A-B, A-C, A-D, A-E, A-F, B-C, B-D, 
 B-E, B-F, C-D, C-E, C-F, D-E, D-F, and E-F. 
 
 The common electrical machines are made on the 
 principle of simply creating power. They have only 
 two helices and two currents, the inner helix being 
 always a necessity for producing the current on the 
 outer helix; and they have too often been considered 
 valuable in proportion only as they produced pain. 
 
 How would such a rule apply in buying a musical 
 instrument? What would one think of a person 
 who selected a piano solely from the amount of pain
 
 92 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 its noise would give the ear, or for the finish of the 
 case? Do not all persons carefully regard the qual- 
 ity of the music it is capable of offering to the human 
 ear? Also, what would the most costly piano be 
 worth if its strings were not tuned in accordance 
 with the philosophy of the octaves, diapason, and dia- 
 pente, within the degrees recognized by the human 
 ear? How important it is, then, that an electrical 
 machine for remedial uses should have the pitch of 
 its currents not only sufficiently definite and varied, 
 but also harmonized to meet the wants of the vital ner- 
 vous system when used for the treatment of disease. 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH s COMBINATION BATTERY, 
 No. 2, has seven differently conditioned coils and 
 combined metals in the helices, arranged to produce
 
 THE COMBINATION BATTERIES. 
 
 93 
 
 twenty-eight different grades of electrical currents, as 
 follows: A-B, A-C, A-D, A-E, A-F, A-G, A-H t 
 B-C, B-D, B-E, B-F, B-G, B-H, C-D, C-E, C-F, 
 C-G, C-H, D-E, D-F, D-G, D-H, E-F, E-G, 
 E-ff, F-G, F-H, and G-H. 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH'S COMBINATION BATTERY, No. 
 3, arranged to produce twenty-eight different grades of 
 current, but much more complete than No. 2, and 
 
 provided, besides, with the rapid vibrator, with Flem- 
 ming's slow interrupting rheotome, and commutator, 
 or pole-changer, etc.
 
 94 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH'S COMBINATION BATTERY, No. 
 4, is similar to No. 3, but has her latest patent, the 
 SILVER HELIX in addition. 
 
 CARE OF THE BATTERY. 
 
 The SOLUTION for the batteries consists of one and three-quarters 
 (if) ounces bichromate of potassa, three-quarters (5) of an ounce 
 of saltpetre dissolved in twenty-seven (27) ounces of hot water, in 
 an earthenware vessel. When cold, add three (3) fluidounces com- 
 mercial sulphuric acid, and one-quarter (i) ounce bisulphate of 
 mercury (avoirdupois). 
 
 In filling and emptying the cell do not remove the top ; as doing 
 so gives needless trouble and renders the carbons liable to be broken. 
 Use the central aperture. Do not fill the cell above the lower part 
 of the curve of the neck, and never use hot or warm solution. 
 
 CAUTION. The battery-fluid will eat and destroy any fabric with 
 which it comes in contact, unless immediately sponged out with pure 
 water, and the material moistened in a solution of aqua ammonia, 
 which will restore the color. It is wise to keep a small bottle in the 
 case. The person using the battery should avoid breathing the 
 emanations which are emitted from the open cup. 
 
 TO START THE BATTERY. 
 
 Place the cell in its receptacle, immerse the zinc plate with its 
 connecting clamp through the aperture, and connect the clamp and 
 the binding-post of the carbons on the left with the two binding-posts 
 of the instrument by means of the wires. TfciS" See that the zinc does 
 not touch either of the carbons in the cell by tilting to one side. -fSa^ 
 
 The immersed surface of the zinc plate may be increased or 
 diminished by changing the position of its clamp up or down, thus 
 increasing or diminishing at pleasure the QUANTITY of electricity 
 evolved. Before the lower half of the zinc is entirely eaten away, 
 it may be turned in the clamp and the other half immersed, thus 
 utilizing the whole plate. 
 
 When removing the zinc from either the rubber cup or the battery- 
 cell, be careful that no mercury or fluid drops on any part of the 
 apparatus ; the acid will stain the wood and eat off the nickel-plating 
 a id, if allowed to dry under or around the hydrostat, will crystallize
 
 TO USE A BATTERY. 
 
 95 
 
 and prevent its being fluid-tight. Always leave the cell open a few 
 minutes after using, to permit the escape of the hydrogen gas gen- 
 erated during action. This gas must escape in some way, and if the 
 hydrostat be screwed down immediately, the confined gas will force 
 its way up between the carbons and the brass frame to which they 
 are attached, and the fluid will follow by capillary attraction through 
 the air-spaces thus made. 
 
 To prevent irregular working of the battery the zinc should be 
 kept well amalgamated, i.e.. well covered with mercury. For this 
 purpose some bisulphate of mercury is added to the solution, which 
 obviates the necessity of keeping quicksilver in the rubber cup. 
 Always replace the zinc in the rubber cup after using the battery. 
 
 If the trembler, or interrupter, should not start itself, a slight touch 
 of the finger will set it in motion. If the battery stops during applica- 
 tion, it may be started again by shaking the zinc to remove the hy- 
 drogen gas from the surface of the negative plates, when that causes 
 the stoppage. 
 
 The rubber on the hydrostat may be turned around occasionally in 
 order to present a new and closer surface to the edges of the aperture. 
 In replacing a broken carbon with a new one, use sealing-wax to 
 make the aperture fluid-tight. 
 
 When the battery-fluid grows weaker with use, or becomes de- 
 composed (of a greenish-black color), it should be renewed. Also, 
 when the current becomes very weak it is usually an indication that 
 the fluid needs to be renewed, or the zinc reamalgamated. 
 
 The greatest ca"re should be exercised to keep the battery as clean 
 as possible, in order to insure its perfect working. The metallic parts 
 especially should be kept scrupulously free from all dust, dirt, and 
 oxidation.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ELECTRICAL TREATMENTS. 
 
 I CANNOT, of course, present in this volume anything 
 beyond a few general directions for the treatment of 
 such diseases as would, under ordinary circumstances, 
 be ranged in the category of domestic practice. In 
 fevers, tumors, cancers, complicated forms of disease, 
 fractures, or surgical cases, the experience of the skil- 
 ful practitioner is demanded ; and though this book is 
 written for the express purpose of extending the hid- 
 den mysteries of physiological art from the college to 
 the home, in the present imperfect and experimental 
 understanding of electricity I should not feel justified 
 in furnishing an excuse for unscrupulous pretenders to 
 tamper with my system in highly momentous cases. 
 
 I have already sketched out my views concerning 
 the urgent necessity of applying electricity, as a reme- 
 dial agent for disease, with the utmost caution, and all 
 the scientific acumen we can command in our present 
 rudimental knowledge of the art. 
 
 Treatments should invariably be preceded by an 
 electrical Cranial Diagnosis, because I find the fallacy 
 of accepting the symptoms described by patients as a 
 reliable indication of their states. This diagnosis dis- 
 covers conditions which symptoms do not reveal ; and 
 with it I am confident of penetrating the causes as well 
 as the effects. 
 
 DIFFERENCE IN ELECTRICAL CURRENTS. 
 
 Each of the twenty-eight currents of the combina- 
 tion battery has a different physiological effect, which 
 96
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. 
 
 97 
 
 the experience of every-day practice has demonstrated, 
 and in many of which differences are easily distin- 
 guished by the senses. The eight posts are marked 
 from left to right alphabetically, A, B, C, D, E t F, 
 G, H. Of these the first four are connected with the 
 copper wires of the helices, E and F with the iron 
 wires, G and H with the brass wire. It is claimed 
 that different and better results can be obtained in 
 practice from this variety of currents than by the ordi- 
 nary methods. Some of the leading properties of these 
 currents may be enumerated as follows : 
 
 A-B, magnetic-anodyne and soothing current. 
 
 A-C, nerve-current, sedative, anaesthetic current, 
 for nervousness, pain, soreness, paralysis, etc. 
 
 A-D, muscle-current, forcing, eliminating, or run- 
 ning-off current, used always in the vapor-bath, also 
 to complete many treatments. 
 
 A-E, shock, applied where there is insensibility 
 to other currents, in cases of fainting, spasms, or 
 convulsions. 
 
 A-F, emollient current, applicable to mucous 
 membranes and tissues, especially beneficial in affec- 
 tions of the throat. 
 
 A-G, alterative current, also tissue-tonic, used in 
 dropsical and anaemic conditions. 
 
 A-H, arterial stimulant and circulatory current, 
 arousing from inertia and relieving the apoplectic 
 tendency. 
 
 B-C, blood-current, and ordinary styptic, when re- 
 versed ; acts on the sanguified functions, used for 
 humoral taints, etc. 
 
 B-D, febrifuge, breaking-up, anti-congestive cur-
 
 98 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 rent, having a special affinity for the general tissue 
 framework, ligamentous tissues, etc. 
 
 B-E, main styptic current, when reversed, anti- 
 phlogistic, used direct. 
 
 B-F, astringent current, especially adapted to the 
 destruction of the virulence of cancers and extirpation 
 of tumors. 
 
 B-G, powerful antiphlogistic current, used in con- 
 nection with B-E and D-G currents. 
 
 B-ff, diaphoretic current, used to relieve high 
 internal inflammation, by inducing perspiration and 
 carrying it off through the pores of the skin. 
 
 C-D, permeating current, its use is indicated for 
 internal purulent accumulations, in connection with 
 B-D and C-G currents. 
 
 C-E, absorbent current, including lymphatics and 
 lacteals ; warming current, in coldness of surface and 
 substance without chilliness. 
 
 C-F, cerebral stimulant current, arousing from be- 
 numbed life into action, used in comatose conditions. 
 
 C-G, penetrating anti-congestive current, used in 
 connection with B-D and C-D currents, for fevers, 
 tumors, and sprains. 
 
 C-If, disintegrating current, applicable to cancers, 
 tumors, and all morbid growths. 
 
 D-E, warming and digestive current, used in con- 
 nection with D-G current, for indigestion, ague, etc. 
 
 D-F, excito-motor stimulant current, for paraly- 
 sis, also tumors. 
 
 D-G, liver-tonic current, used for morbid liver, 
 indigestion, dyspepsia, ague, etc., in connection with 
 B-D and D-E currents. 
 
 D-H, powerful general tonic current.
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. 
 
 99 
 
 E-F, eye and ear nerve-tonic current, used for 
 defective vision, deafness, catarrh, etc. 
 
 E-G, nerve-stimulant current, used in depletion 
 from overwork or anxiety, hysteria, sensory paraly- 
 sis, etc. 
 
 J5-J7, antispasmodic current, used for chorea, 
 nervous chill, etc. 
 
 F-G, mild general tonic current, used to com- 
 mence the building up of the system after continued fe- 
 vers, long illnesses, the removal of cancers, tumors, etc. 
 
 F-ff, paretic, nutritive current, its use is indicated 
 in all inactive, paralyzed parts, from debility. 
 
 GH, antiseptic current, used for suppuration and 
 ulceration, external and internal, also in cutaneous 
 affections. 
 
 The recently-patented SILVER HELIX (producing an 
 electric current through a silver wire) is contained only 
 in the author's No. 4 Battery, and invariably benefits 
 special nervous disorders, such as rheumatism, neuralgia, 
 etc., and its use is indicated in all cases where a calma- 
 tive is necessary to control pain. It will be found espe- 
 cially useful to the practitioner in the disintegration 
 of tumors and in paralysis. 
 
 MANIPULATIONS PARTICULAR MALADIES. 
 
 Treatments are to be repeated as needed : acute cases 
 every half to three hours until better ; chronic cases, 
 at first daily or oftener, afterwards less often. 
 
 It is a mistake, sometimes made, to suppose that 
 either pole may be applied indifferently to a diseased 
 part, or that the direction of the current is of no con- 
 sequence, or that the variety of currents here insisted
 
 100 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 on is unreal, or is a mere difference of strength ; the 
 selection of the current is of PRIME IMPORTANCE. 
 
 It is only necessary to add, as a general rule, that 
 the positive pole, whether in a sponge, plate, or 
 electrode, should be always above the negative in 
 point of position on the body. A descending current 
 is thus obtained, and this may be regarded as the 
 normal action of the currents in imitation of the 
 nervous flow determined by the brain, the highest por- 
 tion of the structure. There are many cases, as in 
 paralysis, hemorrhage, the dispersion of tumors, the 
 contraction of the cords, etc., where a reverse current is 
 necessary, and the positive pole should be placed below, 
 the negative above, in position on the body ; but this 
 treatment should never be attempted indiscriminately, 
 nor without special instructions from an attending 
 physician, or some competent person directing the 
 application. With the same urgency I would enforce 
 a charge never to apply the fluid over the surfaces of 
 the lungs, whether back or front of the body, nor yet 
 to the head, except as directed, to the base of the 
 brain, or in making the cranial diagnosis; an act which 
 of course depends on the skill, care, and experience of 
 a person instructed in my own method, when the appli- 
 cations will be made with such precautions as will in- 
 sure the subject from all danger. 
 
 Various electrodes (flat appliances made of three 
 metals so combined as to produce in themselves a 
 silent electric current) may be used as the cases re- 
 quire. About eight of different dimensions being 
 necessary. These the operator attaches, by means of 
 the small groove on the under side, to one end of each
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. 101 
 
 conducting cord ; the other ends are inserted in the 
 posts of the battery. Two electrodes of some descrip- 
 tion must be used, as it is necessary the circuit should 
 be closed between the positive and negative poles be- 
 fore the electric current from the battery flows. These 
 electrodes should ALWAYS be covered with heavy linen 
 towelling bags or cases, thoroughly wet with warm 
 water on the side to be placed next the patient. 
 
 GENERAL TREATMENT. 
 
 No. 5 electrode from base of brain down the spine 
 in A, No. 8 electrode on the abdomen, short point down 
 in Z>, fifteen minutes. Change to No. 6 electrode 
 across the lower part of back in A, No. 7 electrode 
 under the feet in H, fifteen minutes. 
 
 NARCOTIC POISONING. 
 
 Administer an emetic. Place No. 4 electrode di- 
 rectly on pit of stomach in A, No. 5 electrode below 
 the lungs, on the spine in D, vibrating the cylinder 
 until vomiting is induced. Then place an electrode 
 at lower end of spine ip C, and one between the hands 
 in A, five minutes. 
 
 If symptoms of sinking or faintness occur, place A 
 at base of brain and E a.\. feet, and prevent the patient 
 sleeping. 
 
 MORBID LIVER. 
 
 First. No. 6 electrode across the lower part of back 
 in 2?, No. 8 electrode, covering liver and spleen in D, 
 long point over the stomach, twenty minutes. 
 
 Second. No. 6 electrode around the right side, just 
 above the hip, in Z>, No. 5 r jectrode between the kid- 
 neys in G, ten or fifteen minutes. The current from 
 9*
 
 102 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the SILVER HELIX may also be administered in this way ; 
 then to relieve any soreness which would naturally re- 
 sult from this, change to A-C current. 
 
 HEADACHE NERVOUS, GASTRIC, ETC. 
 
 Place No. 2 electrode at the base of brain in A, 
 round electrode between the hands in C, ten to fifteen 
 minutes. Treatments may be taken hourly. 
 
 Temporary relief from headache. The round elec- 
 trode in A held in each hand alternately. Holding 
 the sponge-cup in the disengaged hand at the base of 
 brain in C or D as can be borne, stroke slowly from 
 three to five minutes up the back of the neck, on either 
 side or centre, the hair at the base of brain being thor- 
 oughly wet. The treatment may be administered by 
 an operator, the patient holding the round electrode 
 between the palms of the hands. 
 
 NEURALGIA OR TOOTHACHE. 
 
 No. i electrode at base of brain in C, the sponge- 
 cup stroked backward or downward over the face in E, 
 or the current maybe given through the operator, using 
 the hand instead of sponge-cup. If no better in five 
 minutes, change C to A, and E to C, for five minutes. 
 Applications may be made at intervals of half an hour. 
 
 MEASLES. 
 
 When the first symptoms, watery eyes, rasping cough, 
 and fever, appear, regulate the temperature of the pa- 
 tient's room to about seventy-five degrees, avoiding 
 draughts. 
 
 Place No. i electrode at base of brain in B, and No. 
 5 electrode on the lower ; r art of spine in C, fifteen min- 
 utes ; then place No. i electrode on throat in A, and
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. 
 
 103 
 
 No. 6 electrode under feet in C, strong enough to be 
 felt by patient, fifteen minutes. Repeat this treatment 
 three times daily. Alternate with B-D and C-E in 
 the same manner. 
 
 SORE THROAT DIPHTHERIA. 
 
 Sponge-cup or No. i electrode base of brain in B, 
 No. 2 electrode front of throat in Cor D. In violent 
 attacks, use A instead of B, and increase length of ap- 
 plication from twenty minutes to one hour. Administer 
 frequently. 
 
 RHEUMATISM. 
 
 First. (Of upper extremities.) The cylinder-elec- 
 trode in a basin of water, the hands immersed, or No. 
 7 electrodes under the hands, in D. Sponge-cup 
 stroked downward over affected region in B, twenty 
 minutes. 
 
 Second. (Of the Spine.) Place a sponge containing 
 electrode at the coccyx, or held for the upper spine in 
 the hands in D ; No. 5 electrode on the spine, extending 
 over the affected region in B ; or, if necessary, use the 
 sponge-cup, moving from above downwards repeatedly, 
 fifteen to twenty minutes. 
 
 Third. (Of the lower extremities.) No. 4 electrode 
 across small of back in B, and No. 7 electrode under 
 feet in Z>, for twenty-five minutes ; then change to 
 A-C Tor ten minutes; also use D-F, or E-G currents, 
 for this affection. 
 
 NUMBNESS AND HEAVINESS OF THE LEGS. 
 
 No. 6 electrode over one hip, then the other, ten 
 minutes each in B. No. 7 electrode under the feet in 
 D, twenty minutes. Also use D-F\\\ the same manner.
 
 104 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 LARYNGITIS AND CROUP. 
 
 First. Sponge-cup upon larynx in B, No. 4 electrode 
 across the lower part of back in D, strong, fifteen min- 
 utes, eight or ten times daily when the case is severe. 
 Gargle the throat with a weak solution of bichromate 
 of potassium two or three times a day. 
 
 Second. No. i electrode base of brain in A, B, or C, 
 as can be borne, No. 4 electrode across the stomach in 
 D, ten minutes. Change No. 2 electrode to the front 
 of throat in B, No. 6 electrode across the lower part 
 of back, or to the feet in D, ten minutes. Use C-E 
 current in the same manner. 
 
 WHOOPING-COUGH. 
 
 No. i electrode base of brain in A, No. 4 electrode 
 across the stomach in C, fifteen minutes; then change 
 No. i to throat in B, No. 4 or 6 across the liver, 
 stomach, and spleen in D, ten minutes. Repeat. 
 
 INFLUENZA COLD IN THE HEAD. 
 
 First. No. i electrode base of brain in A, No. 4 elec- 
 trode across stomach in C, ten minutes. 
 
 Second. No. 5 electrode from base of brain, on the 
 spine, downward in B, No. 6 electrode across the 
 liver, stomach, and spleen in D, fifteen minutes. 
 
 Third. No. i electrode on the throat in C, No. 2 
 electrode back of neck in E, ten minutes. 
 
 BLEEDING OF THE NOSE. 
 
 The round electrode or sponge-cup between the hands 
 in A, No. i electrode at the base of brain in C. If 
 not relieved in five minutes change to EF current, 
 holding the hands over the head.
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. Ic >5 
 
 SLEEPLESSNESS. 
 
 For sleeplessness, the electric vapor-bath will prove 
 most efficacious, or lacking this, when organic affec- 
 tions are not the manifest cause, use the following 
 treatment : No. 5 electrode from base of brain down- 
 ward on the spine in B, No. 6 electrode under the 
 knees, or across loins below kidneys, in E, fifteen 
 minutes. A more simple method is from the base of 
 brain in A, to the hands in C, fifteen minutes. 
 
 BURNS, BRUISES, SPRAINS, CUTS, AND GATHERINGS. 
 
 Place No. 3 or 5 electrode above the affected part 
 in J3, the sponge-cup stroked downward over the part 
 in Z>, fifteen minutes. Repeat as needed, using C-D 
 and A-D currents also. If it is possible to place the 
 affected part in a basin of water with the negative, do 
 so; if not, a very wet sponge will answer. 
 
 CONSTIPATION. 
 
 First. Place the cylinder-electrode enclosed in a 
 wet sponge at the anus in D, the sponge-cup, in B, 
 used to manipulate the bowels with a kneading motion 
 systematically along the course of the large bowel from 
 the right groin upward across the abdomen and down 
 to the left groin, twenty minutes ; alternate with A-D, 
 No. 6 electrode over the bowels in A, D as directed 
 before, twenty minutes. 
 
 Second. The spatula-electrode on the tongue in A, 
 the cylinder-electrode enclosed in a sponge at the anus 
 in D, ten minutes. 
 
 DIARRHCEA AND DYSENTERY. 
 
 First. No. 8 electrodes on the abdomen in 2), No.
 
 106 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 3 or 4 electrode on the lower part of spine in B, 
 fifteen to thirty minutes. 
 
 Second. No. 5 electrode on the lower part of spine 
 in A, No. 6 electrode from the groin upward on one 
 side of the abdomen in G, ten minutes, then on the 
 other side ten minutes longer. 
 
 COLIC OR CRAMPS IN THE STOMACH. 
 
 Apply hot compress over the abdomen, on which 
 place No. 7 electrode in D, No. 8 electrode on the 
 back, long point between the kidneys in J3, ten to 
 thirty minutes or more, very strong. 
 
 PILES HEMORRHOIDS. 
 
 The cylinder-electrode enclosed in a wet sponge at 
 the anus in A, No. 4 electrode across the lower part of 
 back in D, twenty minutes ; alternate with D-F. 
 
 In the few directions given above I have furnished 
 a plan of treatment which, with judgment and care, 
 may be used in every family where the aid of a good 
 electrical practitioner cannot be obtained. I have 
 mentioned only such simple cases as may be of most 
 frequent occurrence, and such as can be treated with 
 safety and effect. It is needless to reiterate my deep 
 conviction of the necessity for all persons of mature 
 years becoming acquainted with their own structures 
 and the general principles of electrical applications. 
 
 In chronic cases, whether of tumors, cancers, 
 fevers, internal or external injuries, in fact, as before 
 stated, in all serious and complicated conditions of 
 disease, no general directions will apply, and nothing 
 short of long experience and scientific skill will
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. 107 
 
 justify the use of the battery. Again, there are 
 many diseases and weaknesses incidental to the female 
 organism for which general directions cannot safely be 
 given, and in the treatment of which special and most 
 careful methods should be used. A reference to the few 
 cases which the limitations of this volume will permit 
 me to introduce, will show what fearful and compli- 
 cated diseases in the female organism can be cured by 
 electricity. Chronic conditions, internal tumors, dis- 
 placements, cancerous and fibrous growths, and states 
 of suffering which have baffled all other forms of treat- 
 ment, have yielded rapidly, surely, without pain or 
 exposure, to the action of electricity scientifically 
 applied. Some of my records in this volume, and 
 others withheld from lack of space, are startling in 
 their minutiae of suffering, hopeless agony, and the 
 triumphs wrought by the marvelous action of elec- 
 tricity. The number of respectable names which I 
 am permitted to cite in evidence of the truth of these 
 narratives, but, above all, the living testimony of the 
 multitudes who have passed from my operating-rooms 
 made whole, when all hope had failed, and the fresh 
 -cases which every day's experience presents, justify me 
 in making the broadest claims for my system, and 
 insisting that it can master every form of disease that 
 is curable. 
 
 I am now about to close my treatise on disease by 
 prescribing a remedy for one of the most baneful, and, 
 as it has hitherto appeared, one of the most hopeless 
 conditions in which humanity can be plunged : I refer 
 to the taste for intoxicating liquors. 
 
 Intemperance may arise from the evil influence of
 
 Ib8 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 loose associations ; the baneful practice of taking 
 stimulating liquors at social gatherings, or in what has 
 been most erroneously called "good-fellowship." It 
 may be the result of inherited tendencies, or the fatal 
 desire to drown care, grief, disappointment, or any 
 kind of physical or mental pain, in the fever of unnat- 
 ural excitement; but from whatever cause it may arise, 
 at the point where it masters the reason and becomes a 
 habit it is also a disease, and either in the shape of an 
 unconquerable yearning for excitement, or a wretched 
 sense of morbid depletion, forces its miserable victim 
 on the downward course, into the frenzy of delirium 
 tremens, and the final degradation of a drunkard's 
 grave. In whatever stage we find the man or woman 
 in whom the passion for drink has grown to be a habit, 
 we shall invariably realize that the stomach is either 
 in a condition of inflammatory fever or partial paraly- 
 sis. In these alternating states of misery, the digestive 
 apparatus offers a fresh stimulus to urge the unhappy 
 inebriate on his course of destruction. To him it 
 seems that he must drink or die. In this deplorable 
 condition of the organism the reader will recall my 
 theory of disease and cure, and ask whether any other 
 remedial agent but the great motor, which is itself the 
 life, can restore the lost equilibrium, reduce the in- 
 flammation, and quicken the paralyzed muscles into 
 fresh action. What else, indeed, can neutralize the 
 poisonous canker of the mucous membrane, and restore 
 the healthful flow of the life currents when they have 
 been forced into unnatural channels? 
 
 Whether there is any other cure for this worst form of 
 physical and mental degradation, I am unable to affirm;
 
 SPECIFIC TREATMENTS. JO9 
 
 but this I do know: that having been all my life in- 
 terested in the temperance cause, I have never known 
 my method to fail in effecting a cure. 
 
 That similarly good results may flow out of every sin- 
 cere attempt to substitute health and blessing for dis- 
 ease and cursing, and the pure lightnings of nature for 
 the impure fires of alcohol, is the aspiration with which 
 I now make known my remedy to the world. 
 
 INTEMPERANCE. 
 
 In whatever state the man or woman is in whom the 
 passion for drink has grown to be a habit, invariably 
 the stomach is either in a condition of inflammatory 
 fever or partial paralysis. In these attending states of 
 misery the alimentary canal, covered with poisonous 
 canker, offers continually renewed promptings to drink. 
 In the author's experience with such cases the following 
 treatment has proved almost infallible : 
 
 Place No. 4 electrode vertically over stomach in B, 
 the sponge-cup pressed against base of brain in D, ten 
 to fifteen minutes, strong as can be borne ; change from 
 base of brain to between the hands five minutes, not 
 too strong, alternate, using E for B, and H for D, elec- 
 trodes to be placed as above. Let the patient eat dry 
 cracker during treatment, and carry crackers to eat 
 whenever thirsty. At meals drink little or no water, 
 but take a cup of strong coffee, sweetened to taste, but 
 without milk. Eat bread toasted very brown, and ab- 
 stain from every stimulant but coffee. Continue treat- 
 ments twice a day for a week, or until strength is felt in 
 the personal resistance, then less frequently until cured.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HYGIENE. 
 PART I.- GYMNASTICS THEIR USE AND ABUSE. 
 
 THE plea which I have so often urged for the ob- 
 servance of hygienic practices cannot be too earnestly 
 insisted on by those who love their kind, and would 
 disinterestedly save them from the long and dismal 
 catalogue of diseases for which the physician's art has 
 become so fatally indispensable. If we were writing a 
 book" in the interests of the medical profession, we 
 could act no better part towards our clients than to 
 put the world upon just such methods of life-practice, 
 diet and clothing, as conform most closely to the cus- 
 toms of modern fashion, such as late hours, crowded 
 assemblies, apartments lighted by gas and overheated 
 by crowds, ill-ventilated dwellings, tight lacing, heavy 
 skirts, bare arms and necks, unnatural weights imposed 
 upon the aching head by chignons ; stimulating drinks, 
 and ill-cooked meats. Civilization is often charged 
 with the onus of originating diseases which never ap- 
 pear in the primitive conditions of savageism ; but we 
 may assure ourselves it is through the abuses of civiliza- 
 tion, not in its uses, that the human organism becomes 
 deteriorated ; also, that the careful observance of hygienic 
 no
 
 HYGIENE. 1 1 1 
 
 laws would be amply sufficient to maintain the race in 
 the finest conditions of physical health, at the same 
 time that civilization was working its highest refining 
 processes upon the intellect and manners. 
 
 Let us commence our reformatory methods of living, 
 then, by a careful study of hygienic laws, remembering 
 always that the time we allow to the preservation of 
 health we shall more than regain in the increased 
 amount of strength and vital energy with which we 
 shall be enabled to fulfil whatever life-duties belong 
 to us. 
 
 One of the most essential methods of preserving 
 equilibrium in the circulatory system is the occasional 
 performance of such movements as will bring the whole 
 of the nervous and muscular apparatuses into play. 
 
 Even in ancient times, when there was no such ex- 
 cessive demand upon men's brains as our present high- 
 strained civilization imposes, gymnastic exercises were 
 considered a healthful and necessary concomitant of 
 educational systems, and their practice was enjoined 
 upon the male population of Greece and Rome as a 
 means of maintaining sound health and mental equi- 
 librium. 
 
 In this age, when physiological science has taken 
 such a deep hold upon the popular mind, it would be 
 superfluous to dwell upon the necessity of engrafting 
 physical culture upon our educational systems; and yet 
 men and women of high intelligence, fully informed 
 of the physiological results accruing from excessive 
 mental action, and the imperative demand for some 
 compensative system of physical culture, continue to 
 preach physiology, but to neglect one of its most im-
 
 112 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 portant items, and too often stimulate the intellect to 
 the very verge of insanity, and wholly neglect the ob- 
 servance of those exercises that would act as a safety- 
 valve for the excessive tension of the brain and 
 nerves. 
 
 Walking in the open air is of course a healthful and 
 invigorating exercise, and should be practiced both by 
 young and old ; but the act of walking, only sets the 
 lower extremities in motion, and, as they have to carry 
 the whole weight of the body, the consequent fatigue 
 of this process in many instances counterbalances the 
 good which would otherwise be effected. 
 
 As to dancing, although it calls into play a larger 
 proportion of nerves and muscles than walking, its 
 hygienic results are so often counteracted by the ad- 
 juncts, which fashion necessitates, in the shape of crowded 
 ill-ventilated ball-rooms and the pernicious custom of 
 undressing, instead of dressing, for the dance, that the 
 motions which favor health are more than neutralized 
 by the evils attendant on their performance. 
 
 Plato informs us that gymnastic exercises were uni- 
 versally practiced about the time of Hippocrates, as a 
 part of medical treatment; also that they were pre- 
 scribed by the laws of the various states of Greece, as 
 a means of counteracting the tendency to effeminacy 
 which rapidly grew upon such nations as were rich and 
 luxurious in their habits. Public buildings were erected 
 at the expense of the government in many of the Gre- 
 cian states for the practice of gymnastics. The first of 
 these was built at Lacedoemon, and several of a still 
 more magnificent character were erected at Athens and 
 Rome.
 
 HYGIENE. 113 
 
 The Romans, whose gymnasia were more splendid 
 and commodious than those of any other people, intro- 
 duced the custom of erecting baths in connection with 
 their halls for exercise ; and this desirable addendum 
 was subsequently adopted in other countries and all 
 the buildings devoted to physical culture. 
 
 The exercises of the classic gymnasia included wres- 
 tling, boxing, running, dancing, the enactment of pan- 
 tomimic plays, leaping, hurling, and playing a game 
 called quoits. 
 
 The object of these exercises, and the high estimation 
 in which physical strength and agility were held by the 
 ancients, may be learned from the fact that many of 
 the highest offices and places of distinction were con- 
 ferred upon those who excelled in the performance of 
 athletic sports. 
 
 The Olympian Games and other public fields of com- 
 petition were undoubtedly established by the legislators 
 of Greece and Rome for the purpose of preserving 
 among the youth of those nations that just equilibrium 
 of mind and body which health, promoted by physical 
 culture, is so efficacious in insuring. 
 
 The diminution of gymnastic exercises in popular favor 
 by the Greeks and Romans arose at last from the abuses 
 which excessive devotion to their performance origin- 
 ated. Physical culture prevailed over mental. Muscle 
 was developed at the expense of brain. Athletes and 
 gladiators were preferred to statesmen and thinkers, and 
 in process of time the reaction of popular opinion set in, 
 and restored mind to the seats of power, and the cul- 
 ture of physique to its true status of a hygienic neces- 
 sity. 
 
 10*
 
 H4 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The only legitimate object of gymnastic exercises 
 is to call into play the entire set of nerves, muscles, 
 and joints, and that without exaggerating any part 
 by unnatural tension, strain, distortion, or excessive 
 fatigue. 
 
 Ten minutes is a sufficient amount of time to devote 
 each day to such light, graceful, and healthful move- 
 ments as are best calculated to call into action the 
 whole frame and stimulate it without injury. The gym- 
 nastics, or I should say the well-studied movements, 
 practiced under my own supervision by my classes, have 
 invariably been found to promote health, develop 
 strength, and impart graceful action, and that without 
 exceeding a ten minutes' limit of time, including too, 
 when expedient and attainable, the use of the sponge- 
 bath. I cannot, in this treatise, pretend to give a man- 
 ual of the movements best calculated to effect these 
 desirable results. There are always sufficient oppor- 
 tunities open for the practice of light gymnastics, 
 movement-cures, etc., and it only requires the com- 
 munity to appreciate thoroughly their valuable results 
 to insure their universal exercise. 
 
 PART II. FOOD AND DRINK. 
 
 To offer any remarks to intelligent men and women 
 upon the necessity of regulating the quantity and quality 
 of the food they consume, or to recommend special. ob- 
 servance of the times and seasons when they should 
 refresh their appetites with food, would be as super- 
 fluous as to insist on the value of physical culture. It 
 is universally admitted that quite one-half of the dis-
 
 HYGIENE. H 5 
 
 eases that afflict the race, originate in dyspepsia, whilst 
 dyspepsia itself is but the pathological indication of 
 un physiological methods of dieting. 
 
 Whilst the truth of these positions is so universally 
 felt, it seems almost paradoxical to see rational beings 
 perpetually living against knowledge, and continuing 
 to indulge in the very practices which above all others 
 their reason would most condemn. 
 
 The truth is that physiological methods in eating 
 and drinking are so simple, natural, and easily under- 
 stood, that astute persons are apt to deern them beneath 
 their notice, think there is no science about them, and 
 hence they become the most neglected of all the laws 
 of our being. True, they are simple, but their very 
 simplicity renders their observance imperative. They 
 are natural, but they are also stern, and will not brook 
 any unnatural interference in their action. 
 
 To lay down arbitrary rules as to what we should 
 eat, drink, and avoid, would be as fallacious as to lay 
 down rules for one kind of costume for all sorts of 
 climates and occupations. Diet, like sleep, must first be 
 adapted to the soil and climate in which we reside, 
 and next, to the habits of life and temperaments of 
 different individuals. 
 
 In cold climates there is greater demand for oleagi- 
 nous food than in the tropics, and that because there is 
 a greater proportion of combustible action required in 
 the system to promote animal heat, and animal heat 
 depends much upon the quality of the food we con- 
 sume, and whether there is an adequate supply of 
 oleaginous or fatty matters to promote combustion. In 
 warm climates, where the evaporation is rapid and
 
 Ii6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the atmosphere more than supplies the demand of the 
 system for vital heat, thirst is excessive, and there is 
 an urgent desire to compensate for excessive evapora- 
 tion by the imbibition of large quantities of liquids. 
 Now, it is a well-known fact that this urgent desire for 
 drink, so prevalent in hot countries, cannot be quenched 
 by pouring fluids into the system. 
 
 These are taken up in the general circulation, and, 
 as they retard rather than promote digestion, their 
 tendency is to create feverish conditions, which increase 
 rather than diminish thirst. To meet this distressing 
 paradox, the kindly dispensations of a beneficent Provi- 
 dence supply the inhabitants of tropical climes with a 
 profusion of those nutritious and succulent fruits which 
 restore the healthful juices of the body without weak- 
 ening the digestion by introducing too much fluid into 
 the stomach. It has been proved, as a general rule, 
 that the inhabitants of special climates are surrounded 
 by just those articles of consumption which are best 
 adapted to the conditions in which they live. The 
 fruits, vegetables, cereals, and animal productions of 
 every land are in strict harmony with the soil and 
 climate that produce them, and those who live in 
 normal accordance with their natural surroundings 
 are generally found to present the best evidences of 
 physical strength and healthful balance. 
 
 In Europe and America the generally temperate 
 character of the climate, together with the varieties of 
 natural productions, in the shape of fruit, vegetables, 
 and animals, that are offered for man's consumption, 
 suggest the propriety of using a mixed diet; and in this 
 respect, as indeed in every other, physiological results
 
 HYGIENE. 1 1 7 
 
 are most surely obtained by respecting Nature's prompt- 
 ings, receiving all her bounties thankfully, and appro- 
 priating them temperately to the use of the organism 
 which she has surrounded with its most appropriate 
 means of nourishment. 
 
 In a previous chapter, we have offered a sufficient 
 number of arguments in favor of a mixed diet, or one 
 that includes animal, vegetable, and some small propor- 
 tion of mineral substances. 
 
 The formation of our three kinds of teeth, the com- 
 pound nature of our organisms, made up of such a 
 variety of tissues, and so many different primitive sub- 
 stances, all imply that an equal variety of elements are 
 necessary to supply the waste and keep up the repair 
 of our wonderfully constituted structures; and these 
 theories are so far sustained by practice, that we find 
 the highest types of the race existing in those lands 
 where the inhabitants feed upon such a mixed character 
 of diet, as is common in Europe and America. 
 
 Different organisms should always be considered irre- 
 spective of general rules, and individual temperaments 
 should have the privilege of dictating the choice of 
 such articles of food as experience proves to be most 
 easily assimilated, and rejecting others obnoxious either 
 to the taste or well-being of the individuals. 
 
 Notwithstanding the outcry that has been raised by 
 some physiologists against tea and coffee, I cannot deem 
 their moderate use objectionable, nor except them from 
 the list of nourishing dietetics. "The cup that cheers, 
 but not inebriates," must be admissible as a nervine in 
 conditions of the organism that require acceleration of 
 nervous power to enable Nature to perform her functions ;
 
 Ii8 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and in this category both tea and coffee, carefully pre- 
 pared and used in moderation, are valuable accessories 
 to the tables of civilization. There are more reasons 
 than mere taste why tea should not be legislated out of 
 fashion by the asceticism of physiological reform. 
 
 It lessens the wear and tear of the system, and the 
 experience of many is, that tea assists digestion, helps 
 to dissolve the food in the stomach, and thus obtains 
 from a given amount, a larger proportion of nourish- 
 ment. This is the rule in the use of tea. With plenty 
 of food, tea is beneficial, because it is a powerful di- 
 gestive agent ; but where tea is taken without corre- 
 sponding food to digest, it wastes the tissues of the body 
 and lowers the vital powers. 
 
 Coffee is, in my experience, a still more beneficial 
 beverage, used in moderation and prepared judiciously, 
 than tea. And here let me remark that my advocacy 
 of the use of coffee is always accompanied by the un- 
 limited qualification that it shall be prepared in a por- 
 celain and never in a metal vessel. The French, whose 
 penchant for coffee, and skill in its preparation, have 
 become proverbial, now admit that the use of metals in 
 connection with coffee prejudicially affects its chemi- 
 cal properties ; and I have found, by many carefully 
 conducted experiments, that the most beneficial effects 
 of coffee are prejudiced, if not actually neutralized, 
 by the use of metal vessels in which to prepare or 
 serve it up. These remarks apply measurably to tea 
 also. 
 
 On the question of alcohol we cannot present the 
 same palliatives, or indeed any at all; for whether we 
 regard its use as the stepping-stone to the ruinous and
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 119 
 
 degrading vice of intoxication, or simply limit our view 
 in respect to the physiological effects it produces on the 
 system, we can find nothing to commend, and every- 
 thing to deter us from classing it among the articles of 
 consumption fit for civilized beings. Hardening to the 
 coats of the stomach, totally indigestible, drying and 
 consuming, although temporarily exciting, to the brain 
 and nerves, inflammatory to the blood, and far too stim- 
 ulating in its temporary effects upon the muscular sys- 
 tem, we cannot point to one good effect in the use of 
 alcohol. 
 
 Whilst volumes might be written on the evils of in- 
 temperance, far too little notice is taken of the per- 
 nicious effects of the use of alcohol, in any quantity or 
 any form. In connection with this subject, we may 
 call the reader's attention to a few quotations from the 
 prize essay on the use of alcoholic liquors, written 
 by Dr. Wm. B. Carpenter, the now acknowledged 
 leader of physiological science in Europe and America. 
 
 This great authority says, "The most important 
 physical change which the contact of alcohol effects in 
 the softer tissues is that of corrugation, which change 
 is entirely due to the difference in the capillary attrac- 
 tion of the tissue for alcohol and for water respectively. 
 If animal membranes, etc., be placed in alcohol in a 
 fresh state, thoroughly charged with water, there are 
 formed, at all points where water and alcohol meet, 
 mixtures of the two; and, as the animal texture absorbs 
 much less alcohol than pure water, the first result is a 
 shrinking of the animal substances." Again: "Dr. Percy 
 found that when animals are poisoned by alcohol intro- 
 duced into the stomach, the coats of that organ become
 
 120 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 so thoroughly imbued with it that no washing or ma- 
 ceration can remove it. 
 
 " The physical change just described must have an 
 important influence upon the chemical relations of 
 the tissues, since it is impossible that alcohol can be 
 substituted, in however small a proportion, for their 
 constituent water without producing a decided altera- 
 tion in their chemical properties, which must disturb 
 the normal series of changes involved in nutritive 
 operations 
 
 " No considerable change can take place, of a physi- 
 cal or chemical nature, in any of the animal tissues 
 without disordering their vital properties also ; and we 
 have now to inquire into the mode in which these 
 properties are affected by contact with alcoholic 
 liquids." 
 
 Without entering further on the ground so ably and 
 thoroughly traversed by the learned physiologist, it is 
 enough to say that he completely routs the army of 
 "moderate drinkers" at all points, and shows conclu- 
 sively that injury, alike to nerves, muscle, strength of 
 mind, and vigor of body, must result from the use of 
 alcohol and fermented liquors in any quantity, how- 
 ever small. 
 
 On the proper modes and best seasons for consuming 
 food, all intelligent physiologists must be agreed. In 
 the first place, then, we must deprecate the custom of 
 drinking quantities of any kind of fluid at meals. 
 
 On this point we refer the reader to our treatise on 
 the digestive apparatus, and proceed to insist that from 
 three to at least four hours should be allowed to inter- 
 vene before one meal succeeds another, and food should
 
 HYGIENE. 12 i 
 
 never be permitted to enter the stomach until it has 
 been thoroughly masticated, to effect which process 
 requires time, and that time should be given without 
 stint and without interruption. A vast amount of 
 nervous power is called into play in the processes of 
 mastication, deglutition, and digestion. 
 
 If these are hurried through, and the stomach has 
 to perform the process of reducing the food to chyme, 
 as well as digesting it, this organ, faithful to its one 
 function, will refuse the work, and cast the half-masti- 
 cated food into the alimentary canal in an unprepared 
 state. 
 
 The functions of the alimentary canal cannot be ex- 
 ceeded any more than those of the stomach, neither 
 will or can do the work of the mouth, teeth, and 
 salivary glands; hence a mass of half-masticated food 
 is submitted to the action of the liver, pancreas, gall- 
 bladder, and lacteals, wholly unfit for blood-making 
 purposes. The stomach becomes languid, the aliment- 
 ary passages overcharged with bile, the lacteals weak- 
 ened, the blood poor, the whole system degenerated, 
 and finally given up to the demon of dyspepsia, and 
 its long list of attendant ills. It is easy enough to see 
 why our people, in their devotion to business pursuits 
 and eager haste to accomplish so much in so little time, 
 manufacture the demons of indigestion at every hasty 
 meal they consume ; nor can all the remedial arts they 
 bring to bear upon themselves, restore to its normal 
 condition of equilibrium a digestive apparatus once 
 assailed by a regular fit of dyspepsia. 
 
 Another source of injury to the process of digestion 
 arises from a system of bad cookery. Undignified as
 
 122 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 we may consider the subject of cookery to be, and 
 philosophical as we may deem ourselves when we affect 
 to treat the details of cooking with indifference, we are 
 proving in this country by sad and fatal experience, 
 that our physical systems are degenerating under the 
 compound action of many bad practices, among which 
 we may fairly reckon the consumption of overdressed, 
 hard, stringy meat, half-cooked vegetables, greasy 
 gravies called dip, and quantities of half-baked hot 
 bread, washed down by still greater quantities of in- 
 digestible ice-water. We cannot fail to notice the 
 prevalence of dyspepsia and the early decay of the 
 teeth in America : why then should we pass over in 
 scornful silence the causes that lead to these deplorable 
 results ? 
 
 The French, with all the frivolity of which we accuse 
 them, are surely more philosophic in regarding cook- 
 ery in the light of a chemical science, than we are in 
 disregarding it as a subject unworthy of attention, or 
 delegating its performance to ignorant and careless 
 hirelings. 
 
 I am well convinced that the haste, silence, and 
 gloom in which we consume our meals, the utter want 
 of chemical knowledge which we display in preparing 
 them, and the unnatural haste with Avhich we rush away 
 directly we have swallowed them, and use up the nervous 
 force essential to the process of digestion in all sorts 
 of other directions, are influential causes in promoting 
 that baleful condition of dyspepsia with which our 
 people are fast becoming proverbially afflicted. 
 
 Still more injurious is the disgusting habit of chew- 
 ing the foul poison called tobacco, with its debilitating
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 123 
 
 and unclean accompaniment of expectoration ; added 
 to this the pernicious custom of sealing every bargain 
 or settling every argument over the fiery alcoholic cup, 
 and we find causes enough which taken separately would 
 readily account for the physical degeneracy of any 
 nation, especially when they are practiced as universally 
 as in America ; but when we remember that bad food, 
 bad cookery, the habit of hasty eating, cutting off all 
 time and rest for digestive action, the custom of chew- 
 ing and often of smoking in addition, spitting inces- 
 santly, and drinking in proportion, are so often com- 
 bined in the practice of one individual, our astonishment 
 should not be to see so many ailing, but to find any 
 constitutions strong enough to resist the influence of 
 such pernicious customs for any extended period of 
 life.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HYGIENE CONTINUED 
 PART III. ABLUTIONS. 
 
 IT would be impossible to overestimate the value of 
 ablutions as means of promoting health, to say nothing 
 of the influence such practices exert upon beauty of 
 personal appearance. 
 
 " Hydropathy" may be regarded as an extremism in 
 the use of water, and although the system is by some 
 highly commended as a curative art, there are others 
 who regard it (and not without good cause) as a dan- 
 gerous method of practice. Without entering into the 
 merits or demerits of hydropathy in its remedial action 
 as it is commonly applied, we may commend the use 
 of water for the purposes of cleanliness, not only as a 
 necessary adjunct of civilization, but as one of the most 
 essential features of hygiene, and one which claims an 
 important place in this manual of health. 
 
 One very essential part of the life-processes is absorp- 
 tion, another evaporation. Both these procedures are 
 vital portions of the. economy of life, and both are 
 perpetually transpiring in every living organism, whether 
 animal, vegetable, or human. 
 
 The plants absorb dew, moisture, air, light, and heat, 
 as means of repairing and building up their tissues, in 
 124
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 125 
 
 compensation for which evaporation is carried forward 
 through appropriate conducting vessels. In the human 
 organism, the skin is the special instrument through 
 which these dual processes are carried on, and here too 
 a wonderful array of conducting channels, or pores, 
 pierce the cuticle in every part, for the purpose of pro- 
 moting evaporation and absorption. 
 
 Experiments upon living animals have proved that 
 any obstacle which intervenes to arrest the action of 
 evaporation and absorption is fatal to life. 
 
 Does it not follow, then, that even a slight interrup- 
 tion of the processes whose suspension is death, must 
 prove injurious to the integrity of the body in exact 
 proportion to the extent in which it is permitted to 
 act? If this is true, the necessity for promoting the 
 healthy secretions and excretions of the body by ample 
 and regular ablutions is at once demonstrated. To 
 supply the waste of the tissues by food and promote the 
 necessary act of carrying off effete matters through the 
 ordinary channels of excretion, have become such 
 established points in physiological practice that the 
 first inquiries which the skillful physician institutes into 
 the condition of his patient relate to his appetite on 
 the one hand, and the regularity and abundance of 
 the excretory functions on the other. 
 
 If the medical profession had but condescended to 
 stoop to the combination of hygienic with therapeutic 
 practices, it would have been an established item of 
 the physician's duty to inquire if the scalp of the head 
 was clean and its pores unobstructed by dandruff or 
 other extraneous matters; if the skin were thoroughly 
 cleansed every day, and every tiny perspiratory duct 
 n*
 
 I 2 6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 was permitted free access to the outer air, both as a 
 mouth to receive atmospheric influences and expel by 
 exhalation the effete matters. constantly accumulating 
 in the system. 
 
 To whatever part of the skin we direct our attention, 
 we shall find that kind nature has provided millions of 
 little mouths for this mode of dual action. In what- 
 ever direction these avenues of ingress and egress are 
 choked up by dirt, perspiration, or any extraneous 
 matter, there the intentions of nature are defeated, and 
 some kind of physical disability may be expected to 
 ensue. 
 
 Hence the value of frequent ablutions; hence the 
 duty of the physician to insist upon absolute personal 
 cleanliness as a means of health, and the equally urgent 
 necessity of individuals to practice it as a part of the 
 law of self-preservation. 
 
 The wise ancients, especially in the East, where a 
 tropical climate induces a quick and abundant evapor- 
 ation, engrafted systems of cleanliness and purification 
 even upon their religions. In India, Egypt, Arabia, 
 Greece, and Rome, all the religious systems abounded 
 with directions for the use of ablutions, as well as 
 anointings and perfumes. 
 
 The followers of Moses and Mahomet may be cited 
 as especial examples of the religious duty which was 
 enjoined upon them in the practices of cleanliness and 
 periodical purifications. 
 
 Why we should be behind our venerable forefathers 
 in these most necessary and healthful processes, it is 
 difficult to conceive; the fact is patent, however, that 
 we who call ourselves civilized are far more lax in
 
 IIYGIEXE. 
 
 127 
 
 respect to systems of regular ablution than those whom 
 we contemptuously style "the heathen." Without 
 seeking to account for this strange anomaly, we merely 
 notice its existence, and, since we are no longer com- 
 pelled to keep ourselves clean as a religious duty, let us 
 take care to do so in a physiological sense, assured that 
 though a cleanly body may not always be a healthy 
 one, an uncleanly skin can never be healthy, no matter 
 how coarse and seemingly vigorous the constitution may 
 otherwise appear. Cutaneous disorders are sure to 
 arise in connection with foul skins, and sooner or later 
 the same irruptive conditions that were exaggerated 
 under the burning skies of the East into leprosy and 
 other terrible conditions of skin-disease, will find out 
 and infect the forms of all who neglect the duty of 
 personal cleanliness. If we are asked what kind of 
 ablution we should most recommend, we should say, 
 the use of a sponge-bath, or the careful removal of all 
 cutaneous accretions, once at least every day, by the 
 application of soap, water, and a good rough towel. 
 
 Bathing is not always expedient nor invariably 
 strengthening, and, unless accompanied by smart fric- 
 tion, it is as liable to debilitate the frame as to cleanse 
 its surfaces. 
 
 We have already spoken at large of the use nay, 
 the necessity of the electric vapor bath as a cura- 
 tive agent in disease. It is also a valuable purifier, 
 penetrating the pores of the skin with much more 
 completeness than water, and carrying off its impu- 
 rities with a more direct action than any other kind of 
 bath. 
 
 Russian, Turkish, air, water, and fumigated baths
 
 128 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 generally have all their special advocates; and sea- 
 bathing, to those whose constitutions are vigorous or 
 especially adapted to bear it has been found an effica- 
 cious stimulant and a promoter of health; but as a 
 simple article of hygienic practice, necessary to the 
 processes of life, and attainable in every family under 
 any circumstances, the use of good pure water, soap, 
 and a daily sponge-bath, exceeds all other hydropathic 
 practices in universal value. 
 
 PART IV. VENTILATION. 
 
 The imperative necessity for fresh air, pure air, and 
 air sufficient in quantity as well as good in quality, is a 
 demand which has been instinctively acknowledged 
 as essential to the maintenance of human life and 
 health in every age, whether savage or civilized ; but 
 it remains for modern science to demonstrate what are 
 the circumstances under which airs are changed from 
 their life-giving properties to poison; what are the 
 constituent elements necessary to sustain life and pro- 
 mote health; and what physiological results are effected 
 by the exclusion of pure air and the inhalation of that 
 which is vitiated. 
 
 Atmospheric air is composed of one-fifth of oxygen, 
 nearly four-fifths of nitrogen, a very slight but appre- 
 ciable fraction of carbonic acid gas, and a trace of 
 ammonia. The amount of oxygen thus inhaled is not 
 only an essential element in changing the character of 
 the blood in the lungs from venous to arterial, but it is 
 also so important to the very existence of animated 
 beings that to lessen its proportion is to deprive man
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 129 
 
 of health, and to abstract it in toto from the atmos- 
 phere would be to cause instant death. It is evident, 
 then, that the nearer we can approach nature's wise 
 provisions, and make such arrangements in our mode 
 of living as will give us air to breathe as nearly re- 
 sembling the combinations of the atmosphere as possi- 
 ble, the more surely we shall maintain the integrity of 
 health and the soundness of intellect. 
 
 To diminish the quantity of oxygen in the atmos- 
 phere is to promote languor and debility. To increase 
 it beyond its natural or normal admixture with nitrogen 
 is to create excitement, insanity, or even death. 
 
 So to organize our dwellings and places of resort as 
 to provide an atmosphere as nearly as possible at blood 
 heat, and combining the same proportion of elements 
 as is found in atmospheric air, should be the aim of 
 social science and hygienic practice. 
 
 Every philosophical treatise of modern times on the 
 subject of hygiene has recorded at sufficient length 
 the evils arising from the lack of ventilation in our 
 public and private buildings, ships, and churches. 
 The worst effects, however, that can be produced on 
 the lungs arise from the necessity of breathing over 
 and over again the airs and exhalations that proceed 
 from the human body. 
 
 It is a well-known fact that the poisonous effluvia of 
 coal or coke gas, tobacco, the fumes of heated metals, 
 or mephitic vapors, are all less pernicious in their 
 effects upon the system than the accumulated emana- 
 tions given off from a dense crowd of human beings. 
 Besides the waste matters exhaled from the body through 
 watery vapors, the expirations of every breath, as we 
 F*
 
 i jo 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 have shown in our anatomical treatises, are-loaded with, 
 carbonic acid gas, and this, it is well known to every 
 school-boy, is fatal to life in any great quantity. 
 
 To all other pernicious exhalations, provided they 
 are not inhaled to excess, the lungs may ultimately ad- 
 just themselves; and it is proved by the example of 
 miners, charcoal-burners, engineers, stokers, and me- 
 chanics working over heated furnaces, that the suffering 
 lungs may in time adjust themselves to these unhealthful 
 conditions, and life, although vitiated and poisoned 
 with different forms of disease, may be prolonged even 
 to old age ; but this is not the case with exhalations 
 evolved from the human body. The experiences of 
 the dreadful slave and convict ships, the horrors of the 
 black hole of Calcutta, and numerous other historical 
 tragedies of a similar kind, tend to prove that the 
 darkest, most fatal, and rapid poison that can sap the 
 source of life, or suddenly extinguish it, is manufactured 
 in the human body; that is, when it is condensed in 
 over-crowded apartments or closely-packed assemblies, 
 in any condition, in fact, where the needful supply 
 of pure atmospheric air is unnaturally withheld. 
 
 As it is needless to point further to effects which 
 history has recorded so abundantly and physiological 
 observation demonstrates with each hour's experience, 
 we shall close our subject by pointing out the best 
 methods of ventilation. 
 
 As a general rule, every apartment, large or small, 
 crowded or empty, public or private, by night or by 
 day, should have some direct vent for the admission 
 of atmospheric air. As hydrogen gas ascends and car- 
 bonic acid gas descends, and as these two elements
 
 HYGIENE. I3 t 
 
 constitute the poisons most injurious to human life, 
 every apartment should also be provided with two 
 vents for the escape of these impure airs, one near the 
 ceiling, the other near the floor. 
 
 There are many objections urged against every known 
 method both of heating rooms in winter and of cooling 
 them in summer, but the admission of some propor- 
 tion of atmospheric air, obtained directly from without, 
 and not merely filtered in from chinks and crannies, 
 should be held as one indispensable feature of life, 
 whilst the provision for expelling foul airs both from 
 above and below, in any room tenanted by one or 
 more persons, is another equally imperative item of 
 hygienic law. In factories, school- and work-rooms, 
 and machine shops, still more stringent provisions 
 should be made for ventilation, whilst in the sick-room 
 and sleeping-apartment the most careful arrangements 
 for changing the air and vitalizing the atmosphere 
 with oxygen are requisite. 
 
 We find in every school-book now printed on the 
 subject of hygiene, as well as in an abundant supply of 
 treatises continually issuing from the press, fully suffi- 
 cient suggestions for special methods of airing our 
 chambers, dwellings, and public buildings ; nor need 
 we add, to the stock of literature with which the age 
 is supplied, any particular directions on this subject. 
 We may, however, with advantage quote a few lines 
 of a popular, though anonymous, treatise on domestic 
 hygiene. Our common -sense matter-of-fact author 
 says, 
 
 "It is of great importance that sleeping-rooms 
 should be frequently and thoroughly ventilated. There
 
 1 32 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 are many European practices, which in this particu- 
 lar are superior to our own. In Italy, for example, it 
 is the custom to take care that a separation of all the 
 clothes that have been used during sleep be effected, 
 and thus separately suspended from the windows, so 
 as to get the benefit of free and full exposure to the 
 purifying influence of the atmosphere. Many are the 
 contrivances of modern ingenuity for the purpose of 
 insuring an unobstructed circulation of air in rooms, 
 but where there is a door, a window, and a chimney- 
 place, all these contrivances may be dispensed with. 
 Let the windows of the bedroom, however, be so con- 
 structed that they can be drawn down as well as pushed 
 up, and remember that a sick-room should be kept 
 very sweet and airy ; there should never be a close 
 smell in it ; if the weather is warm enough, let the 
 door or window be open ; if cold, let there be a small 
 fire; the chimney should never be stopped up." 
 
 Another hygienic rule, which we may suggest in this 
 place to advantage, will be found in the following 
 quotation from my own lectures on the subject of 
 popular customs in dress, ventilation, etc. : 
 
 " Never retire to rest in any of the under-garments 
 that have been worn during the day. Spread out and 
 divide separately each article of clothing, and expose 
 them all to the action of the air. To change them 
 every day, or too often, debilitates the system ; to wear 
 the same garments night and day is an equally un- 
 cleanly and unhealthful custom. Let it be most care- 
 fully avoided." 
 
 Commonplace rules of this kind seem scarcely to 
 comport with the dignity of a medical treatise, but we
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 T 33 
 
 can never too strongly insist on the fact that hygiene 
 is prevention, medicine not always cure. If prevent- 
 ive systems were as freely adopted as medical arts, the 
 latter would soon cease to be called into requisition. 
 As the true dignity of life, therefore, consists in its use, 
 we do not deem the smallest item which contributes to 
 promote that use an undignified subject for live men 
 and women to study, or the good physician to write 
 about. 
 
 It
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 HYGIENE CONTINUED. 
 
 PART V. DRESS. 
 
 As an article of hygiene, dress exercises a far more 
 important influence than we are commonly aware of. 
 
 Fashion of course must be respected, so far as the 
 painful impressions produced upon the eye by marked 
 and obvious departures from her arbitrary rules are 
 concerned : but fashion is seldom a good physiologist, 
 and one thing is quite certain, that she issues her man- 
 dates and imposes her commands totally irrespective 
 of physiology ; and whether the two accord, is a mere 
 matter of accident, not a question of design. 
 
 Allowing, then, that the prevailing taste of the day 
 should be so far consulted as not to offend the eye by 
 any abrupt or violent infractions of popular custom, 
 dress should be arranged upon physiological principles, 
 just as strictly as diet. Our first care should be to 
 adapt clothing to the seasons, so as to avoid undue ex- 
 cess of heat or cold. We should next observe that the 
 skin requires a special covering in its direct proximity, 
 calculated to absorb the perspiration and exclude the 
 air from striking upon its sensitive surfaces. 
 
 For this purpose woolen garments, spun or knitted, 
 have generally been used in the shape of under- 
 >34
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 '35 
 
 vests and drawers. Instead of woolen, I would sub- 
 stitute canton flannel, or, where practicable, spun 
 silk, the latter material being a non-conductor of elec- 
 tricity, and therefore better calculated to maintain 
 the electric forces of the body than any other fabric. 
 To mothers having the care of infants, no less than to 
 fashionable ladies, whether young or advanced in life, 
 I would urge the danger of exposing the neck and arms 
 to the direct action of the air without some interposing 
 covering. 
 
 So necessary do I deem caution in this respect, that 
 I constantly advocate in my physiological lectures the 
 use of a chest-protector, made of wash-leather or some 
 soft marterial of a similar character, placed over the sur- 
 faces of the chest and back, both of which should be 
 worn from the fall of the year to the early spring. 
 Where these chest-protectors are adopted as a regular 
 article of dress during the winter, a large percentage 
 of the throat and pulmonary complaints that prevail to 
 such a destructive extent are avoided. Common sense 
 assures us that a custom directly opposed to this pro- 
 tective mode of covering the chest must be productive 
 of the most fatal consequences. 
 
 The surfaces of skin over the chest, leading directly 
 to the lungs, are the most vital portions of the organ- 
 ism ; and to expose them, and thus check the important 
 processes of evaporation, is a sacrifice to fashion which 
 cannot be too severely censured. I once had occasion 
 to remonstrate with a young mother on the imprudence 
 of exposing the tender surfaces of her little one's neck 
 and arms to the air when " full dressed." and carefully 
 excluding it from the mouth and face by veils and shawls
 
 136 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 when taken out into the atmosphere. She answered me, 
 "it looked so pretty," and "its neck and arms were so 
 like wax it was a shame to hide them, but as to the 
 open air blowing into its lungs when out of doors oh, 
 of course, that must be dangerous," etc. When that 
 young mother laid away her little girl in the grave, 
 robbed of life by the action of a severe cold falling 
 upon the lungs, she could not be made to comprehend 
 that she had herself been instrumental in its premature 
 decease, that the air which she had so unwisely re- 
 strained from entering in by legitimate channels to the 
 throat and lungs had been absolutely necessary to vi- 
 talize its fading life, that the lungs had been poisoned 
 and become shriveled for the want of it, and that the 
 muffling veils and shawls that had driven it back were 
 so many fragments of its shroud. This is the action 
 which, measurably, every fashionable female induces 
 when she goes out muffled up to the eyes to keep away 
 the healthful air from the interior of her lungs, and 
 returns to the heated ball-room or fashionable assembly 
 with neck and shoulders stripped bare, and alternate 
 waves of heat and streams of cold striking upon her 
 with deadly though insidious force. The face, throat, 
 hands, and even feet, may be bared with impunity, but 
 the surfaces which cover deep muscles or vital organs 
 should never be exposed to the direct action of the 
 air; and it is from the wanton neglect of this impor- 
 tant item in hygienic practice that so many females fall 
 victimsto consumption, bronchial affections, and lung- 
 diseases. 
 
 Another dangerous violation of hygienic law is the 
 use of elastic bands around the arms or knees for
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 '37 
 
 the purpose of confining under-sleeves or stockings. 
 The rubber fabrics used for this purpose not only com- 
 press the limbs injuriously, but seriously affect the 
 circulation and render the wearers liable to paralytic 
 and other retarded conditions of the circulatory flow, 
 the full extent and danger of which seem to bear but 
 slight proportion to the insignificance of the producing 
 cause. When it is remembered that straps attached to 
 the stockings and fastened to a band worn about the 
 waist will answer all the purposes of neatness without 
 any of the dangers or inconveniences of elastic com- 
 pressions at the knees, the maintenance of this practice 
 by well-informed persons seems almost inexcusable. 
 
 Still another pernicious custom imposed by fashion, 
 is the use of tight compressions round the waist, so 
 common in the costume of fashionable females. To 
 insist that the skirts shall be cut short, and the garments 
 worn loosely dependent from the shoulders alone, is 
 neither necessary nor philosophical. A moderate 
 amount of support given to the ribs at that portion of 
 the female organism called "the waist," is not in the 
 least degree injurious; on the contrary, by confining, 
 without undue pressure, such garments as depend 
 from the neck and shoulders about the body, the weight 
 is more equally divided, and both thorax and abdom- 
 inal regions are better protected than by simply hang- 
 ing clothes around the form ; but the source of all 
 injury in this direction is first the unnatural and closely- 
 drawn compression of the waist, to the manifest injury 
 of the respiratory and digestive organs, and next the 
 custom of imposing upon the hips and body the ex- 
 cessive weight of a great number of heavy skirts. 
 
 12*
 
 138 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 No matter what fashion dictates, the compression of 
 the ribs, in order to produce the effect of a small waist, 
 is fatal either to lungs or stomach, or both. The 
 simple view of the organism in its natural state will 
 bear sufficient testimony to the injurious effect of com- 
 pressing the waist. The lungs are squeezed together, 
 the action of the heart must be labored, the diaphragm 
 cannot move freely, and the stomach, with all its 
 attendant viscera, is forced out of place. Does it re- 
 quire any treatise to predicate the results of such an 
 insane and pernicious custom? So long as it prevails, 
 look to see our young women pale, emaciated, and 
 consumptive; our mature women dyspeptic and vic- 
 timized by all sorts of internal difficulties; and the 
 rising generation afflicted with a set of hereditary 
 diseases entailed upon them by the pernicious influ- 
 ences of unphysiological customs in dress. 
 
 The same remarks apply to loading the head espe- 
 cially the back brain with masses of false hair. Be- 
 sides the injurious weight imposed upon a part of the 
 body which should be kept as free as possible from all 
 extraneous matters, the heat thereby produced is fatal 
 to the integrity of the organism ; the scalp, too, be- 
 comes clogged, the evaporating processes hindered. 
 Cleanliness is wholly incompatible with such a custom, 
 and it is nine chances to one but diseases of the brain 
 will ensue from its long continuance. 
 
 No word need be written against the use of cos- 
 metics. Anything which chokes up the pores of the 
 skin must be injurious ; hence all pleas urged for the 
 "harmless" nature of the cosmetic employed are at 
 once quenched, and every application made to the
 
 HYGIENE. 139 
 
 skin, except pure water and soap, must be included in 
 the category of unphysiological offenses. 
 
 I must here add a few words on the preservation of 
 the teeth. We have already suggested that dyspepsia 
 is one of the most fruitful sources of injury to the 
 teeth, and the unphysiological methods of diet prac- 
 ticed among us are quite enough to account for their 
 early decay. We must remark, however, that in 
 Europe, where persons, even of advanced age, often 
 present the pleasing spectacle of a fine set of teeth, it 
 is an invariable custom among well-bred people to 
 charge upon their children the use of the tooth-brush 
 night and morning. Besides the charm which clean 
 teeth present to the eye, besides the improvement it 
 must impart to the breath and digestive apparatus, 
 there can be no doubt but that the act of removing the 
 animal matter which adheres to the sockets of the 
 teeth must be instrumental in preserving their integrity 
 and keeping them sound and white. Americans are 
 not sufficiently careful in this respect, and many a 
 young girl, whose countenance would otherwise be 
 beautiful, is only tolerable when her mouth is shut, 
 and a set of yellow, unclean teeth are hidden from 
 view. 
 
 I have only to add that thick-soled boots, without 
 being too weighty, are far more conducive to health 
 than thin. Woolen socks or stockings are better cal- 
 culated to preserve the feet from chafing than cotton ; 
 but silk, as being non-conductors of electricity, should 
 be only worn when mixed with cotton, in the fabric 
 commonly called spun-silk. Fine thread, however, is 
 a fai better article for wear on the feet than silk at all.
 
 1 40 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Veils, though agreeable to shade the face, should never 
 be pressed over the mouth so as to repel or drive the 
 breath back upon the breather. 
 
 Such simple directions as these, small and unimpor- 
 tant as they seem to the more momentous issues of life 
 and death, are all and each sand-grains, essential in 
 the structure of life and instrumental in promoting or 
 retarding the approach of death. Let no one despise 
 the day of small things, for of such are the grand 
 totalities of being made up. 
 
 PART VI. LATE HOURS. 
 
 I cannot sufficiently deprecate the custom of turn- 
 ing night into day, or remaining longer in bed than 
 the absolute demand for rest and recuperation of body 
 requires. There can be no doubt but that nature de- 
 signed man to conform to the habits of the lower 
 creatures in respect to employing the hours of darkness 
 for rest, and of light for activity. It may be argued 
 against this position, that the seasons of winter and 
 summer are so unequal that it would be impossible to 
 conform to this rule without an entire change in all 
 our social systems; but this argument might be at once 
 met with the question, why we ever organized social 
 systems that were not in harmony with nature? 
 
 Not to enter upon useless and speculative theories, 
 however, and taking society as it is, not as it should be, 
 we find that the conditions of darkness are unfavor- 
 able to growth, activity, or any great tax upon the 
 system, mentally or physically. Light is the result of 
 a galvanic action going on between the terrestrial and
 
 HYGIENE. 
 
 141 
 
 solar atmospheres. Darkness is the suspension of that 
 action. 
 
 No kind of artificial light, however brilliant, can 
 affect the atmosphere generally, or replace the healthful 
 vitalizing activity of the sun's influence ; hence, we 
 repeat, the condition of darkness is unfavorable for 
 human action, and the more we can shorten the period 
 during which we employ it the better. Let the 
 extreme languor and lassitude which palsy the frames 
 of those who rise after any efforts prolonged into the 
 night hours, bear witness of my position. 
 
 The custom of remaining in bed whilst the busy 
 particles of the atmosphere are circling beneath the 
 influence of light, is equally unnatural and injurious. 
 Besides enervating the frame by the heat of the bed, 
 whatever habit is opposed to natural law must be more 
 or less injurious. The activity of nature manifest in 
 the very fact of light, and its origin in motion, implies 
 that it is the season most favorable for human effort, 
 and therefore the sooner we can leave our bed, and bathe 
 ourselves in the morning light after it has dawned, the 
 more naturally we shall live and the more healthfully 
 we shall maintain life. 
 
 Did the limitations of our space permit, we should 
 have much to say about the employments of life, and 
 the necessity of alternating amusement with business, 
 practicing social virtues, social habits, and recreative 
 enjoyments. We should urge upon all persons the 
 culture of plants, both as a healthful act and a beauti- 
 ful source of psychological enjoyment. We should 
 advocate the practice of music whenever attainable, as 
 an element in social life, impressive for good, and
 
 142 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 therefore for health ; but all these subjects, although 
 comprehended in the laws of social science, belong 
 rather to the relations of mind with matter than of 
 matter with mind. That a contented mind, an even 
 temper, and a spirit disciplined into the subjugation of 
 every passion to the rule of reason, are all essential 
 features of healthful existence, every day's experience 
 demonstrates to every rational creature. 
 
 That a large percentage of our physical evils are the 
 results of ill-balanced minds, violent tempers, and 
 mental sufferings, are axiomatic facts which none can 
 deny. The specialties of this treatise, however, do 
 not permit us to enlarge upon these most important 
 themes beyond a mere hint as to their influence. The 
 best, and indeed sole conclusion to which we can at 
 present arrive is, that TEMPERANCE in all things, whether 
 physical, dietetic, emotional, passional, intellectual, or 
 spiritual, is the golden mean of a true life ; that its 
 neglect is crime, disease, and misery; its observance, 
 health, wisdom, and happiness.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
 ITS ANTIQUITY AND PROGRESS. 
 
 FROM the earliest ages it has been found that in pro- 
 portion to the increase in man's artificial demands, so 
 has his physical system retrograded from the condition 
 of rude health to one of disease and degeneration. 
 Whilst the mind grows and expands under the influ- 
 ences of civilization, the body becomes obviously dis- 
 turbed, so that some ancient philosophers have not 
 hesitated to affirm that it was the unnatural tension 
 that education imposed upon the brain that changed 
 the normal condition of health, so invariably found in 
 the savage, to those complicated states of disease which 
 ever prevail in connection with civilization. To this 
 sweeping proposition, however, I do not believe our 
 sage ancestors will find many adherents. That an 
 undue amount of mental labor must at all times prove 
 prejudicial to the physical system is an axiom which it 
 requires no special degree of philosophy to compre- 
 hend, but that the normal exercise of the brain, and 
 the direction of the faculties to the acquisition of 
 knowledge, can ever operate unfavorably upon the 
 body, no rational observer of human life and its func- 
 tions can believe.
 
 144 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Other causes must be sought for, then, to account for 
 the degradation of the physical system which ensues in 
 the change from savage naturalism to civilized artificiali- 
 ties, and these are easily enough discovered when we 
 begin to analyze the unhealthful methods of living which 
 the conventionalities of society impose upon us. 
 
 Crowded cities, filthy streets, undrained waste places, 
 ill-ventilated dwellings ; the unnatural habit of turn- 
 ing night into day, and spending long hours which 
 ought to be devoted to rest and recuperation in heated, 
 over-crowded places of amusement, where the exhala- 
 tions of a heterogeneous assembly combine with the 
 effluvia of gas to poison the air ; the over-exercise to 
 which the poor are condemned, the excessive indolence 
 which debilitates the bodies of the rich ; bad and un- 
 wholesome food taken in too little or too much quan- 
 tity; the varieties of stimulating drinks, spices, and 
 condiments introduced by modern luxury ; the absurd 
 compressions and exposures which fashion dictates in 
 costume ; all these, and hundreds of other pernicious 
 customs originating in what is called civilized life, are 
 more than sufficient to account for the gradual degen- 
 eracy which possesses the physical systems of those who 
 live under its institutions. 
 
 Without attempting to discuss the means by which 
 the abuses of civilization might be separated from its 
 splendid uses, it is enough that we simply allude to 
 their existence by way of introducing that system of 
 remedial art which has been deemed necessary to coun- 
 teract their evil effects, namely, the practice of medicine. 
 
 In all savage nations, health is found to be the 
 normal condition of life ; nevertheless, as there are
 
 MEDICAL PRACTJCE. 
 
 145 
 
 always a set of accidents liable to result from contact 
 with wild beasts, noxious reptiles, and intestine wars, 
 so we generally find the "medicine-man," or healer, 
 an appendage even to the rudest forms of aboriginal 
 man's associations. In the lowest conditions of savage 
 life, the attempts to repair the wrongs inflicted on the 
 body by accident or violence are, for the most part, 
 superstitious rites of the fetish character; and where 
 these fail, the victim is left to perish, or offered up as 
 a propitiatory sacrifice to some hideous fetish deity; 
 but among the more intelligent tribes of wild men, 
 such, for instance, as the North American Indians, a 
 regular system of healing by herbs and medicinal plants 
 is practiced with good effect. 
 
 Disease per se, we again repeat, is unknown among 
 savage tribes, except as derived from contagious contact 
 with civilized men. 
 
 Even the ordinary processes of parturition are at- 
 tended with so little pain or inconvenience that no 
 medical skill, and scarcely any cessation from the daily 
 duties of daily life, is demanded. The wild woman, 
 living purely under simple and natural influences, 
 brings forth her child one hour, and rejoins her com- 
 panions, partaking of their meals and sharing their 
 labors, the next. 
 
 Thus it is that the simple surgery which the medi- 
 cine-man of the tribe applies, in the form of herbs and 
 roots, for the cure of wounds, bruises, bites, stings, etc., 
 bears no resemblance whatever to the complex and 
 elaborate methods by which the scientific physician 
 is called upon to treat the various forms of disease 
 unknown in natural conditions of life. It is to the 
 r. 13
 
 I4 6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 history of civilization, therefore, that we must look to 
 trace the history of medicine. There is no doubt 
 but that we should find the first records of medical 
 skill existing cotemporaneously with the first record of 
 a demand for its exercise ; but, not being in possession 
 of any vestiges of this very primitive state of society, 
 we must content ourselves with noting the character of 
 the remedial arts practiced by the historical ancients. 
 
 Among the Hindoos, Egyptians, Arabians, and 
 Eastern nations generally, therapeutic art consisted of 
 a mixture of animal magnetism, accompanied by su- 
 perstitious rites, such as prayers, ceremonials, the con- 
 secration and wearing of amulets, charms, and sacred 
 objects. Ablutions and purifications were abundantly, 
 and, of course, beneficially, practiced in these methods. 
 Herbs, roots, and waters of known medicinal quality 
 were also parts of the ancient pharmacopoeia ; but, above 
 all, the temple, sleep procured by aid of the priests, 
 and assisted by narcotics and the influence of soothing 
 music, were means of restoration abundantly sought for 
 by those who were able to pay for them. There are 
 constant evidences in ancient history to prove that 
 magnetism as evolved from the loadstone, minerals, 
 metals, and crystals, no less than from the healthful 
 manipulations of the priests, formed a large part of 
 Eastern therapeutics; but, as we have before dilated on 
 these subjects in earlier chapters, it would be needless 
 to dwell upon them now. 
 
 The first clearly-defined account we have of regular 
 medical practice among the Egyptians is supplied by 
 Herodotus, who writes that there were physicians be- 
 sides the priests, and that these devoted themselves to
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 147 
 
 the cure of special ailments and organs ; so that there 
 were professors of the healing art who dealt only with 
 diseases of the eye; others who administered to the 
 stomach, and whose system consisted mainly of purging 
 and emetics. Some mediciners treated solely the teeth, 
 others the head, and others, "mysterious complaints, 
 which had no visible source." 
 
 The Greeks soon outstripped their Egyptian teachers 
 in the practice of medicine, and it is from them that 
 we derive the most prolific accounts of the state of 
 medical science in the periods of antiquity. 
 
 The practice of medicine in these remote periods is 
 chiefly traceable through the renowned personages with 
 whose names it is associated. One of the earliest and 
 most famous mediciners in classical lore was ^Esculapius, 
 so ofteJi mentioned as the god of medicine, and even 
 mistaken by the unlearned for a mythical personage 
 altogether. 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact, however, that classical 
 writers assign to this celebrated individual a deific 
 origin, representing him as the son of Apollo, with a 
 history full of miraculous events, the real ^Esculapius 
 was a mere mortal, with human parents and a human 
 posterity, that is, if we can credit the testimony of 
 Homer and Pindar, both of whom make mention of 
 Machaon and Podalirus, sons of ^Esculapius, who 
 fought in the Trojan war, and, like their father, acted 
 the part of healers to the sick and wounded. 
 
 The practice of y^sculapius and his sons was only in 
 accordance with the knowledge of the times, and con- 
 sisted of a strange mixture of psychologic, magnetic, and 
 therapeutic remedies, commingling prayers and incan-
 
 I 4 8 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tations with drugs, herbs, and draughts in which pearls, 
 corals, and precious stones had been ground up ; 
 also an important part of their system was gymnastic 
 exercises. That ^Esculapius was considered more 
 than ordinarily inspired is proved by the fact that 
 after his death he was deified as a god, and numer- 
 ous temples were erected in his honor, the most famous 
 of which, at Epidaurtis and Rhodes, became renowned 
 for the curative marvels performed by the priests, sup- 
 posed to be instructed in the mysteries of healing by 
 the direct presence and communion of " the god." 
 
 The practice of medicine as a science seems to have 
 made but little progress until the time of Hippocrates, 
 a learned Greek physician who flourished 460 years 
 B. c., and whose attainments in his art were so far in 
 advance of all his predecessors that he has justly been 
 styled "The Father of Medicine." 
 
 The knowledge which Hippocrates acquired of the 
 human system, and his treatment of disease, were truly 
 marvelous, considering the age in which he lived. 
 Dissections of the dead at that time would have been 
 considered the last, worst crime of which mortals could 
 be guilty; yet this learned man had acquired such 
 a fair knowledge of the human frame that his 
 treatises are far in advance of his age. He describes 
 many of the bones correctly, and gives valuable 
 accounts of the arteries, trachea, chest, the nature of 
 inflammation, fevers, and the leading symptoms of 
 different diseases. In his methods of treatment, Hip- 
 pocrates seems to have been the first physician of 
 antiquity who insisted on the value of appropriate 
 diet and the necessity of attending to the temperature
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
 
 149 
 
 of the sick-chamber. Although his remedies are the 
 corner-stones of the " heroic school " of practice, such 
 as violent purgatives, bleedings, scarifications, cup- 
 pings, etc., his whole system is such an improvement 
 upon the superstitious arts of priestly therapeutics that 
 next to yEsculapius of whom he and his ancestors 
 were, for many generations, devout followers Hip- 
 pocrates may truly be regarded as the best of all the 
 ancient mediciners. 
 
 The next important era in the progress of medical 
 art dates from the beginning of the second century, 
 about which time there appeared two of the greatest 
 lights that had shone on this department of science 
 since the days of Hippocrates. These were Aretasus, 
 the Cappadocian, and Galen of Pergamus. Aretseus, 
 the senior of these great Therapeuts, seems to have 
 been rather the founder of a new school than the 
 follower of any predecessor. His writings are largely 
 intermixed with opinions concerning the deep influence 
 which the pneuma, or soul, exercises on the body. He 
 assumed the heart to be the central seat of soul, whilst 
 the liver he designated as the centre of the blood- 
 currents. He describes correctly the functions of the 
 spleen, stomach, and colon ; paid much attention to the 
 kidneys; accurately defines the nature of glandular 
 bodies and secretions; and, remembering that the 
 superstitious reverence paid by the Greeks to the dead, 
 prevented all chance of attaining anatomical knowl- 
 edge through any other channels than observation, his 
 scientific perceptions of the human structure, like those 
 of Hippocrates, were truly wonderful. 
 
 Aretaeus was the first physician who distinctly stated 
 13*
 
 I5 o ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 that sensation and motion resided in the nerves. 
 Moreover, he showed that nerve-fibres in the brain 
 crossed each other, decussating, as he described it, like 
 the Greek letter X, whilst the fibres of the spinal cord, 
 he taught, proceeded at once to the particular organs 
 they supplied. He assumed that all the white tissues of 
 the body were nerves, and thus he failed to recognize 
 the true character of tendons and ligaments. Although 
 he still adhered to the heroic practice of his predeces- 
 sors, Aretaeus urges upon physicians the necessity of 
 taking hints from nature, and modifying systems to 
 suit particular temperaments. 
 
 In Galen, the true and noble founder of the eclectic 
 school, the world found at once a philosopher and a 
 physician. Although a profound student of all the 
 then known systems of medicine, Galen adhered rigidly 
 to none, but contented himself with appropriating the 
 best of each and adding thereto such new ideas as he 
 derived from deep study and extensive experience. 
 His knowledge of anatomy was obtained in part from 
 dissections of apes and other animals, but he also en- 
 joyed some opportunities of examining the human 
 system, since he describes his delight at finding the 
 body of an unburied criminal, and a skeleton which he 
 could possess himself of at Alexandria. His definitions 
 of muscular action were wonderfully correct. He 
 made many discoveries, too, on the passage of the 
 blood through the veins, and taught that the opinions 
 of old anatomists were at fault when they assumed 
 that "animal spirits," rather than functional motions, 
 propelled the fluids of the body. Galen made many 
 valuable physiological discoveries, and though there
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. I5I 
 
 existed rumors that his operations on his patients, in 
 surgical cases, were frequently conducted for the sake 
 of experiment rather than cure, the world profited by 
 his daring; and medical, as well as surgical science, 
 received an impetus from this great man for which his 
 name deserves to be immortalized. It would be useless 
 now to analyze the theories of Galen, advanced, as they 
 were, beyond all his predecessors, for, whilst his ideas 
 concerning the different functions of motor and sensory 
 nerves were correct, his descriptions of the cranial 
 nerves were confused and imperfect, and his ideas 
 about the vital and animal functions partake of the 
 transcendentalism of his time, referring all unknown 
 movements to elemental and spiritual causes. His 
 lectures on anatomy, at Rome, produced such a furore 
 that the jealousy of the Roman practitioners eventually 
 compelled him to quit that city. 
 
 His written treatises were most voluminous, and for 
 centuries after his death were accepted as authority, 
 even by scientists far in advance of himself. 
 
 From the days of Galen to the tenth century the 
 Greeks continued to maintain their influence over the 
 civilized world in the department of medical science. 
 After that era, the Arabian physicians took the lead in 
 general estimation, and many of them, especially those 
 who devoted themselves to the study of alchemy, ac- 
 quired wide renown for their scientific knowledge and 
 practices. 
 
 The speciality of the Arabian school might justly be 
 termed chemistry. Their researches into the chemical 
 properties of drugs and minerals were carried forward 
 into the human organism and the vital changes which
 
 152 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 there transpire. They introduced many new and valu- 
 able remedies; discovered many important functional 
 changes in the-body; and enlarged the circle of medi- 
 cal knowledge in every direction. 
 
 The history of the Arabian school of medicine and 
 chemistry is so frequently obscured by the dreams of 
 the alchemists and the mystery which was thrown 
 around their researches for the "philosopher's stone," 
 that the world is scarcely aware how much medical 
 science really owes to the discoveries of Arabian sages. 
 From the twelfth century, the Italian and Spanish 
 mediciners to a great extent superseded the Orientals, 
 and the fact that the dissection of the human body was 
 first publicly allowed and practiced at Bologna, in the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century, tended to give 
 the Italian school a pre-eminence above all others. 
 
 The first well-recognized medical school that flour- 
 ished in Europe was founded in the seventh century, 
 at Salerno. Many others soon followed, and the study 
 of medicine acquired such a rapid popularity that fine 
 schools of medicine were attached to many of the 
 European universities. In the fourteenth century there 
 were collegiate institutions of this character at Mont- 
 pellier, Vienna, Bologna, Paris, Rome, Padua, Pavia, 
 and many other seats of learning throughout Europe. 
 
 Up to the time when the physician's art became 
 secularized and recognized as a special branch of 
 study by the foundation of these schools, the care of 
 attending the sick had chiefly devolved upon the 
 clergy. In Greece, Rome, and Oriental lands, the 
 offices of priest and physician were often, but not in- 
 variably, united; but in Europe, during the first few
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 153 
 
 centuries, medical art and its practices were confined 
 almost entirely to monks and ecclesiastics. As these 
 sacred orders, however, were forbidden to interfere 
 with any operations that involved the shedding of 
 blood, a separate branch of the art was formed, in- 
 cluding cupping, bleeding, the setting of bones, reduc- 
 tion of fractures, etc. ; and these practices, when not 
 of a very dangerous or elaborate character, were com- 
 monly intrusted to the barbers, who, by their famili- 
 arity with the lancet and cupping-glass, acquired a 
 considerable share of skill and repute. 
 
 It was from the distinctions growing out of sacred 
 and secular practice that the offices of the surgeon and 
 physician became separated. A third class was formed 
 also by the apothecary, or compounder of drugs, and 
 this speciality took rise from the Arabians, who were 
 often known as skillful chemists and good druggists, 
 yet they did not always possess the requisite knowledge 
 to become physicians to the sick, or perform surgical 
 operations. Thus, then, the offices of physician, sur- 
 geon, and apothecary became distinct from each other, 
 and this custom, originating in the specialities of primi- 
 tive conditions, has continued in force unto the present 
 day. 
 
 It is not accurately known when the title of Doctor 
 of Physic was first used. We find it commonly applied 
 to physicians in the fourteenth century, and degrees at 
 that time were regularly conferred. It was in 1422 
 that the English universities obtained a decree from 
 government that "no one should use the mystery of 
 physic who had not studied it in an university, and 
 taken at least a bachelor's degree, under a penalty of 
 
 G*
 
 154 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 forty pounds." The same fine was inflicted on any 
 woman attempting to practice the " mystery of physic." 
 
 From the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, a set 
 of men arose who were vaguely known as alchemists, 
 rosicrucians, mystics, etc. These persons, who were 
 often skillful chemists and profound students, unfortu- 
 nately served to retard the practice of medicine as a 
 science by mixing it up with their own transcendental 
 claims to have discovered, in the occult realms of na- 
 ture, profound secrets, the application of which would 
 far exceed in results all the routine practices of the 
 schools. Among these men were many famed for their 
 chemical discoveries and spiritualistic writings. 
 
 Such was Cornelius Agrippa, the famous magician, 
 in reality a skillful physician and an expert chemist. 
 Thomas Aquinas and Albertus Magnus were of the 
 same school, and the wonders of magic attributed to 
 them were obviously results obtained by their chemical 
 knowledge. The most famed of these middle-age 
 wonder-workers, however, was Paracelsus, a native of 
 Berne, who was born in 1493, and practiced his art as 
 a regular physician for many years at Zurich. There 
 can be no doubt but that Paracelsus, during the pro- 
 gress of his alchemical pursuits, to which he was pas- 
 sionately devoted, succeeded in making some valuable 
 discoveries concerning the virtues of stones, crystals, 
 and metals. That he already perceived those indica- 
 tions which in subsequent generations led to the con- 
 struction of galvanic batteries and electrical machines, 
 is evident to any one who will take the trouble to 
 peruse his voluminous writings, and endeavor to dis- 
 entangle amidst the mass of verbiage in which his
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
 
 155 
 
 ideas are obscured his imaginings concerning his 
 favorite pursuit of alchemy from his really valuable ob- 
 servations on the galvanic forces existing in the mineral 
 world, and their susceptibility to evolution in certain 
 skillful combinations. Paracelsus, despite his incom- 
 prehensible claims to occult science, was unquestion- 
 ably an accomplished chemist, and in the progress of 
 his researches hit upon many valuable indications of 
 the hidden forces of galvanism and electricity. 
 
 His bold assumptions and certain successes he 
 achieved in the healing art, procured for his system of 
 practice many followers, who for two centuries after his 
 death continued to have faith in him as the founder 
 of a " new school." In the year 1526, Paracelsus was 
 elected Professor of Physics and Natural Philosophy at 
 the University of Basle, and here he became so popular 
 by his eloquent lectures and voluminous writings that 
 his system bid fair to supersede all others then known 
 in Europe. By way of showing his contempt for older 
 authorities, the great mystic publicly burned the writ- 
 ings of Galen and Avicenna. In violent terms he 
 denounced all other practitioners than himself, and all 
 other arts than his own, affirming " that there was 
 more knowledge in his shoe-strings than in all the 
 practitioners' heads of all the European universities." 
 
 It was Paracelsus that brought into repute the use 
 of mercury and opium, two drugs which had hitherto 
 been regarded with fear and used with extreme caution, 
 but which under his advice were largely administered 
 in various conditions of disease. 
 
 Unfortunately the man that mixed up astrology and 
 medicine, the influence of "legions of spirits" with
 
 156 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 blue pill and the elixir vitas, however he might in his 
 own person succeed in temporarily impressing his ad- 
 mirers, could not fail in time to lose his hold upon 
 the really scientific and judgematical ; hence it is that 
 we find his career as an acknowledged leader of art 
 soon sinking into obscurity, and his only following 
 confined to the weak and imaginative, and especially 
 to such as still clung to the dreams of alchemy. 
 
 It is true that Paracelsus gave some check to the 
 fossilization of old and conservative ideas in medical 
 practice. Still he bequeathed to mankind nothing 
 more really valuable than suggestions of the intimate 
 though mysterious relations subsisting between the 
 worlds of visible and invisible existences. In later 
 years, "mystics" of a still more exalted character and 
 less arrogant pretensions than Paracelsus assumed to 
 cure diseases by occult means, and the aid of invis- 
 ible forces and powers. Probably the succession of 
 these persons would have increased and continued to 
 the present day, had not the really scientific acumen 
 of Mesmer resolved the problem of the "philosopher's 
 stone," by the discovery of mineral and animal mag- 
 netism. 
 
 To return, however, to my review of the actual pro- 
 gress of medical science in the direction of material facts. 
 
 Perhaps the most important era that ever dawned 
 upon medical art was the end of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, when a bold and learned anatomist named Vesa- 
 lius arose, who, despite the obloquy that still attached 
 to the study of the human structure from dead matter, 
 pursued his researches in the dissecting-room so thor- 
 oughly that many of the most important functions of
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
 
 '57 
 
 the human body were brought to light, and a rapid 
 imjx^tus was communicated to the progress of anatom- 
 ical knowledge. The most stupendous discovery of 
 this kind, however, that the period chronicles, was that 
 of William Harvey, of England, the celebrated physi- 
 ologist, who first arrived at the conclusion of the cir- 
 culation of the blood. 
 
 Harvey was born in the year 1578, and having been 
 carefully educated in a fine school of medicine at 
 Padua, and acquired an excellent reputation for his 
 skill as an anatomist and lecturer in his own country, 
 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Phy- 
 sicians, and received the honorable appointment of 
 chief physician to Bartholomew's Hospital in London. 
 
 It was in a lecture on anatomy given before the 
 Hospital Faculty, in 1615, that Harvey brought for 
 the first time to public notice his famous theory of the 
 circulation of the blood, and the functions of the heart 
 as the centre of the circulatory system. 
 
 According to the highest authorities of the day, the 
 opinions of anatomists before Harvey's time were 
 these. It was assumed that the blood was distributed 
 to various parts of the body by the veins, whilst the 
 arteries were only the passages for "vital spirits" 
 formed of the air and blood transmitted from the lungs 
 to the left side of the heart. How the blood passed 
 from one side of the heart to the other, got into the 
 lungs, or became propelled through the veins, were 
 points of opinion disputed with great vehemence by the 
 advocates of conflicting theories. Harvey seems to 
 have favored none of the views of the popular theorists, 
 borrowed from none, disputed with none. 
 1 4
 
 158 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 His opinions were derived solely from his own care- 
 fully-conducted observations and dissections. 
 
 Experiments also on living animals were then, as 
 now, a means of informing the scientist of the motions 
 transpiring in vital organs, and from all these sources 
 Harvey evolved his famous theory of fluidic circulation. 
 In conversing with Boyle, a celebrated medical writer 
 of the day, Harvey is reported to have said that his 
 belief in his circulatory theory was first suggested to his 
 mind by speculating upon the uses of the valves of 
 the heart. The more he considered their nature and 
 functions, the more apparent it seemed that they were 
 designed to permit the passage of the blood one way, 
 but to impede its return by the same channel. Harvey 
 explains, with all the candor of true science, the meth- 
 ods of observation by which he arrived at his conclu- 
 sions, and the various premises on which they were 
 founded. His researches were conducted on both warm- 
 and cold-blooded living animals, besides which, this 
 careful student drew deductions from dead matter, 
 speculating on the obvious uses for which certain parts 
 and organs seemed to be designed. He compared these 
 with living structures, found them to agree, and hence 
 evolved a theory whose completeness is now acknowl- 
 edged by every true scientist to be little short of a 
 revelation. 
 
 Notwithstanding the immense value of Harvey's 
 great discovery, and the frank and irresistible proofs 
 with which he sustained his positions, the bigotry of 
 old conservative modes of thought, and the pitiful 
 jealousy which ever seems to arise in the minds of rival 
 practitioners, combined to crush the great scientist, and
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 159 
 
 cloud his theories with distrustful whispers and con- 
 temptuous denials. Superstition, too, lent her baleful 
 aid to darken the path of knowledge which the pro- 
 found physician had opened up. Old friends forsook 
 him his ; practice fell off; a popular impression pre- 
 vailed among the vulgar that he had purchased unlaw- 
 ful secrets from evil sources, and among the better edu- 
 cated it was currently reported that he had tortured 
 his patients, and resorted to the most unscrupulous 
 practices to arrive at the hidden mysteries of the life- 
 processes so strangely revealed by him. It was difficult, 
 too, to shake the long-cherished opinions which had 
 been traditionally held as correct by the medical faculty, 
 and Harvey himself declares, in his writings, that after 
 the publication of his famous treatise on the circulation 
 of the blood " there was not a practitioner of more 
 than forty years old who credited him." For some 
 time Harvey felt too much disgusted with the igno- 
 rance and ingratitude of the race he sought to benefit 
 to communicate more of his valuable discoveries to the 
 world ; but the afflatus of true genius was upon him. 
 He must think, write, and publish, as a part of the usury 
 required for the possession of every great talent. The 
 irresistible pressure of ideas compelled still further 
 efforts and still more sacrifices. 
 
 He gave to the age his remarkable treatises on 
 generation, illustrated by the embryonic life and 
 development of certain animals, and again the theorist 
 who dared to advance one step out of the beaten tracks 
 of thought became the subject of vituperative attack 
 and unworthy criticism. 
 
 William Harvey acted in the capacity of physician-
 
 160 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in-ordinary to James the First and Charles the First 
 of England, and when the dethronement and death of 
 his last royal master threw him out of office, his house 
 was plundered and many of his valuable writings sacri- 
 ficed in flames to the intolerant zeal of political 
 factions. 
 
 Retiring at last to a peaceful retreat in the country, 
 the fine old scientist closed his long and useful life at 
 the age of eighty years, leaving behind him an immense 
 collection of published works, and ONE IDEA, at least, 
 which in point of physiological importance surrounds 
 his name with a halo of well-earned and undying 
 fame. 
 
 The history of medical science in the eighteenth 
 century presents us with such an illustrious record of 
 great names and personages whose services to the 
 scientific world demand honorable remembrance, that 
 we are obliged to select, from the many, two or three 
 representatives only. We shall speak, then, of three in 
 particular to whom the progress of medical science is 
 largely indebted, and whose labors made a special 
 mark upon the age. 
 
 The first of this celebrated trio is Albert von Haller, 
 a physician, born at Berne, in Switzerland, in the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century. The speciality of 
 this great man's industrious researches was physiologi- 
 cal discoveries concerning muscular contractility and 
 nervous irritability. 
 
 Besides his medical skill, Haller was a man of the 
 most profoundly scientific attainments, and had 
 mastered many branches of natural philosophy. To 
 him the subject of vital phenomena and the problems
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. X 6i 
 
 connected with the mysterious functions of life were 
 themes of all-absorbing interest. He brought to bear 
 on these questions all the knowledge of the natural 
 sciences which he had gathered up in other studies, and 
 though we cannot now, perhaps, point to any work of 
 Haller's which is accepted as a medical text-book, his 
 influence in disabusing the age of many popular errors, 
 and explaining multitudes of the mysteries which had 
 heretofore obscured the study of anatomy and physi- 
 ology, conferred upon all time a lasting benefit, and 
 aided, far beyond our limited chances of acknowledg- 
 ment, the better understanding of medical science, 
 especially in the department of physiological knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 The two next and last worthies of this period of 
 whom our space will permit us to speak in this chapter 
 were the brothers William and John Hunter, names 
 clear to every lover of science, and honored in every 
 society where the beneficent uses of medical skill are 
 fairly appreciated. These men were both natives of 
 Scotland, and born in the early part of the eighteenth 
 century. William, the elder, was first educated for the 
 church, but turning his attention to medicine, and 
 being found by his instructors endowed with remark- 
 able talents in this direction, he was permitted to follow 
 the bent of his inclinations and pursue the medical 
 profession. In the course of his collegiate career, he 
 formed a life-long friendship for the celebrated William 
 Cullen, who was established as surgeon and apothecary 
 at the University of Edinburgh, where Hunter was a 
 student. On the completion of his studies, Hunter 
 was taken into partnership with Cullen, and the two, 
 14*
 
 162 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 each in their different branches of practice, attained to 
 the highest celebrity of their time. Hunter selected 
 for his specialty the department of midwifery, and as 
 a discoverer, writer, and practitioner in obstetrics, it 
 is said that no man ever equaled or has since exceeded 
 him. Honors were showered thickly upon him, and 
 a large fortune accrued from the wonderful successes of 
 his practice. His works are still text-books on the 
 subject of obstetrics, the value of which have not 
 diminished by age. 
 
 John Hunter, the younger brother, commenced his 
 career in the humble capacity of assistant to Dr. William 
 in the dissecting-room. Pursuing his studies with inde- 
 fatigable diligence and research at many of the London 
 hospitals, and subsequently going abroad to serve as an 
 army surgeon, he ultimately became no less famous 
 than his elder brother, although in a different depart- 
 ment of medical practice. 
 
 After his return to England, John Hunter was elected 
 a Fellow of the Royal Society, and subsequently be- 
 came surgeon to St. George's Hospital. In the zenith 
 of his reputation the most distinguished scholars re- 
 sorted to him for opinions, and his pupils were num- 
 bered among the most aristocratic families in the land. 
 The celebrated Edward Jenner and Sir Everhard Home 
 studied with John Hunter, and the sister of the baro- 
 net subsequently became the great surgeon's wife. 
 
 Although Mr. Hunter achieved an immortal reputa- 
 tion as a practitioner and the author of many valuable 
 works on anatomy, surgery, etc., his chief benefaction 
 to the world at his death was a superb anatomical 
 museum, containing upwards of ten thousand prepara-
 
 MEDICAL PRACTICE. 163 
 
 tions, illustrative of medical science and natural his- 
 tory. 
 
 It would require far more space than we can allot 
 even to enumerate the treasures of art bequeathed to 
 the world by the two Hunters. It had been the aim 
 of Dr. William to found a national anatomical museum, 
 and besides tendering to the government his splendid 
 collection of models, preparations, etc., he had offered 
 to contribute seven thousand pounds sterling in money. 
 The parsimony of those in office would not allow them 
 even to grant the noble old man a piece of land on 
 which to build his proposed museum. He purchased a 
 place for himself, therefore, built a museum and dis- 
 secting-room at his own expense, and furnished it with 
 the rarest specimens of art that the age could show. 
 Thirty years after his death this grand repository of 
 treasures was removed by the terms of his will to the 
 University of Glasgow, where it remains the gift of a 
 private individual to a nation not magnanimous enough 
 to acquire it at its own expense. John Hunter's mu- 
 seum, which is, in itself, a gigantic monument of talent 
 and industry, was sold, at his death, to defray the 
 enormous expenses of its collection, and in aid of his 
 family's support. It was purchased by the Royal Col- 
 lege of Surgeons, London, at an outlay of fifteen 
 thousand pounds, and in this establishment it remains 
 a wonderful testimony of the power of one individual 
 to contribute stores of useful knowledge enough to 
 bless and enlighten many generations of men. 
 
 NOTE TO CHAPTER IX. 
 
 It will be remembered that we have pointed in this chapter to the 
 distinctions drawn by the force of circumstances between the thre^
 
 1 64 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 classes of medical practice, entitled, Physician, Surgeon, and Apothe- 
 cary. In England, and indeed throughout Europe generally, the title 
 of "doctor" only accompanies the physician's degree, and surgeons 
 and apothecaries (unless they have taken that degree) are only called 
 "doctor" by courtesy. The reader will remark that the title of 
 " doctor" was not given in the text even to the renowned surgeon, Mr. 
 John Hunter, nor would any truly scientific practitioner in Europe 
 deem himself honored by the acquisition of any title which did not 
 legitimately apply to him. These points of professional etiquette are 
 commended to the notice of the American medical faculty, especially 
 to those whose " doctors' degrees" are so often self-imposed, and not 
 unfrequently upon the ground of selling quack nostrums or peddling 
 about patent pills.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE FROM 1750 TO 1873. 
 
 THERE are many noble names necessarily omitted in 
 our former chapter on the medical profession, from the 
 total impossibility of crowding up a work of this lim- 
 ited character with any records but those which are 
 essential to the unfoldment of the principles on which 
 it is written. As this and the last chapter is all the 
 space that we can allot to such a record, we must con- 
 tent ourselves with adding but a few more sketches of 
 eminent medical practitioners to the list already given. 
 Having mentioned the name of Dr. Edward Jenner as 
 a pupil of Mr. John Hunter, it may not be out of 
 place to offer some remarks on the peculiar nature of 
 the discovery with which his reputation is always asso- 
 ciated, namely, the practice of vaccination. 
 
 Dr. Jenner was born in Gloucestershire, England, in 
 the year 1749, and, after studying surgery with Mr. 
 John Hunter, took his degree as a physician at St. 
 Andrew's University. 
 
 Dr. Jenner's specialty being so marked, however, 
 as the author of the vaccination practice, we may con- 
 fine our attention to the circumstances in which his 
 great discovery originated. 
 
 It is said that whilst Dr. Jenner was practicing at a 
 village called Sudbury, he heard a country-woman 
 
 165
 
 c66 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 observe that she could not take the smallpox, as she 
 had already received it from a cow which she had been 
 milking. Struck with the singularity of this remark, 
 the physician pursued his inquiries among the people 
 of that district, and found that the opinion prevailed 
 universally, that whenever any one imbibed a certain 
 form of irruptive disease to which cows are subject, 
 they would thereafter be free from all liability to suffer 
 with smallpox. Following up the ideas thus curiously 
 received, Dr. Jenner pursued a long and patient course 
 of experiments, the results of which were conclusive to 
 his mind that one particular kind of irruptive disease 
 to which cows are subject could be communicated to 
 the human body, and that its action would thereafter, 
 as he deemed, prevent the liability to smallpox. It is 
 quite needless in this place to contend for or against 
 the value of Dr. Jenner's discovery, nor yet to argue 
 on the successes or failures of its practice. It is 
 enough that it has been more widely received and 
 stringently enforced than any other medical theory 
 that the annals of history record. 
 
 If the plague entitled the smallpox had indeed been 
 effectually subdued by vaccination, and again, if it 
 were an ascertained fact that no other forms of disease 
 had been engrafted on the human structure by the act 
 of vaccination, Dr. Jenner's name might well stand 
 foremost in the list of earth's benefactors; but as 
 opinions are by no means unanimous on these most 
 important points, it is enough that we leave to time 
 the touch-stone of truth the final decision of the 
 question, and simply advert to Dr. Jenner as the author 
 of a system which maintains such a deep and wide-
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. ^7 
 
 spread hold upon the customs of civilization to this 
 day. The high estimation in which Dr. Jenner's dis- 
 covery was held by government is testified to by the 
 fact, that grants of ten, and subsequently of twenty, 
 thousand pounds were voted to him in Parliament, and 
 that his name is cited by a large majority of the civilized 
 world as one of the greatest benefactors to the human 
 race that ever lived. If contrary and very antagonistic 
 opinions on the value of his discovery are now becom- 
 ing widely prevalent, Jenner himself did not live to 
 realize them, as he died in 1823, in the full tide of a 
 world-wide popularity. 
 
 The path of discovery in science is not always that 
 of progress, nor are the progressionists of life invariably 
 the outworkers of new ideas. Hahnemann, Mesmer, 
 Gall, Spurzheim, Galvani, Volta, Franklin, and many 
 others, too illustrious to be forgotten, but too numerous 
 to mention, all stand forward in bold relief in the 
 history of ideas as original discoverers. In this cate- 
 gory Jenner himself may take his place with propriety, 
 but in the mean time the gradual and beneficent unfold- 
 ments of practical science in medicine owe quite as 
 much to the talented men who utilize and apply ideas, 
 as to those who first discover them. Among these 
 practical benefactors to the race we may class the 
 venerable Abernethy, Sir Astley Cooper, the celebrated 
 brothers Charles and John Bell, Bransby Cooper, Sir 
 Benjamin Brodie, Listen, and hosts of others scarcely 
 less distinguished. 
 
 None of these eminent gentlemen can be termed 
 discoverers in the strict sense of the term, that is, they 
 invented no new system, made no startling revelation
 
 1 68 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of new truths in their several departments of science, 
 yet each of them wrought marvels for the advancement 
 of their art, and left the world so much better than 
 they found it, that they are well entitled to the highest 
 place in human appreciation. Sir Astley Cooper in 
 especial, retains his hold upon the grateful remembrance 
 of his age. 
 
 His works, entitled " Medical Records and Re- 
 searches," his great treatise on " Hernia," his bold, ori- 
 ginal, and magnificent new operations, the many in- 
 stances in which his excellent treatments superseded 
 the use of the knife, and the invariable kindness, cour- 
 tesy, and humanity of his beneficent nature, endeared 
 him to all his cotemporaries, and procured him honors 
 and distinctions almost unparalleled in his profession. 
 It is said that at one time his income, derived from his 
 immense reputation as the most original and yet suc- 
 cessful surgeon that ever lived, exceeded twenty-one 
 thousand pounds per annum. 
 
 George the Fourth employed him to perform a diffi- 
 cult and dangerous operation, which having been at- 
 tended with his usual success, caused the monarch to 
 confer upon him the unprecedented and distinguished 
 title of a baronetcy, a dignity now enjoyed by his 
 nephew and heir, Sir Astley Cooper the younger. Many 
 literary works of the highest excellence were given to 
 the world by Sir Astley Cooper, but the specialty of 
 his life was his own splendid success as a surgeon. 
 
 Dr. Forbes, an eminent medical writer, says of 
 Cooper: "Before his time operations were too often 
 frightful alternatives or hazardous compromises, and 
 they were not seldom considered rather as the resource
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. iCg 
 
 of despair than as a means of remedy. He always 
 made them follow, as it were, in a natural course of 
 treatment : he gave them a scientific character, divest- 
 ing them of their terrors by performing them unosten- 
 tatiously, simply, confidently, and cheerfully, thereby 
 inspiring the patient with hope of relief where pre- 
 viously resignation had been all that the sufferer could 
 command." 
 
 Of all the modern celebrities whose name is most 
 frequently cited to point an anecdote or illustrate a 
 quaint saying, none is more frequently in men's mouths 
 than the eccentric Aberncthy. 
 
 This distinguished surgeon was a pupil of John 
 Hunter's, and flourished at the same epoch with his 
 great teacher. His qualities as a successful operator, 
 fine surgeon, and profound writer are unquestionable. 
 He is also said to have been remarkable for the dignity 
 of his bearing in the lecture-room, his great learning, 
 and uncommon lucidity as a teacher of anatomy and 
 physiology. Dr. Latham, one of his most enthusiastic 
 followers and biographers, says: " He so eloquently ex- 
 pounded some of the highest truths of science, so nicely 
 disentangled the perplexities of abstruse subjects, and 
 made that so easy which was before so difficult, that every 
 man who heard him feels, perhaps, to this day that for 
 some of the most important points of his knowledge he 
 is indebted to Mr. Abernethy. It seems strange that 
 in connection with a public life of indefatigable uses 
 and a private character held in the highest estimation 
 by all his friends and acquaintances, Mr. Abernethy 
 should seem to have studied how to succeed best in 
 making himself personally disagreeable to his patients. 
 " '5
 
 170 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 The many anecdotes current of his rudeness and 
 brusquerie may be, and in all probability are, much 
 exaggerated ; but it is quite certain that he took pains 
 to veil the real excellencies of his character by a coarse, 
 rude exterior to his patients; indeed, his abrupt man- 
 ners seemed to have had their influence in setting an 
 unfavorable example to many of his successors, and to 
 have started the paradoxical idea that to be a great sur- 
 geon it is necessary to be a great brute, and to obtain 
 a reputation for skill in medicine it is advisable to go 
 to school to a bear. In these respects no two human 
 beings seem to have formed a stronger contrast than 
 the amiable Sir Astley Cooper and the ungenial Mr. 
 Abernethy. Both, however, made a deep and important 
 mark upon their time and generation, and the world of 
 medical science is vastly indebted to both for their 
 achievements in art, their admirable teachings, and 
 valuable writings. 
 
 Physiological students remember with ever-increasing 
 gratitude and interest the names of Bichat, an eminent 
 French physiologist, born in 1771, and Sir Charles 
 Bell, the illustrious Scotch physiologist, born in 1774. 
 
 To both these great observers, writers, and thinkers 
 medical science owes revelations concerning the brain, 
 nervous system, and the functions of human life which 
 can never be too highly appreciated. 
 
 Without entering in detail upon the physiological 
 researches of Bichat and Sir Charles Bell, it is enough 
 to say that, since their writings and teachings were given 
 to the world, much of the mystery of the nervous appa- 
 ratus and its functions has been cleared away, and with- 
 out them the physiologist would still be in profound
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. 171 
 
 darkness concerning many most important branches of 
 knowledge in regard to nervous action and other impor- 
 tant physiological movements of the human structure. 
 John Bell, the brother of Sir Charles, acquired a great 
 reputation as a surgeon, and his anatomical treatises are 
 highly esteemed by scientists, but the brilliant lustre 
 of his brother's renown as a physiologist serves to ob- 
 scure rather than to illuminate the services of this really 
 profound and talented surgeon. 
 
 It is now time that we should make mention of one who, 
 though by no means connected with the progress of med- 
 ical science, has developed a theory which cannot fail to 
 throw light at some future time upon the mysterious re- 
 lations between mind and matter, and contribute valu- 
 able suggestions to the realm of physiological as well as 
 psychological science. 
 
 We speak of the phrenological discoveries of Dr. 
 Gall, a great and learned scientist, who was born in 
 Suabia in the year 1758. 
 
 Dr. Gall commenced his remarkable observations 
 upon the association of special characteristics of mind 
 with certain cranial developments in his earliest school- 
 days. He often used to describe in later years how 
 invariably he was beaten in his studies by those of his 
 school companions whom he called "bull-eyed fellows." 
 His wonderful tact in describing character, and associ- 
 ating its indications with facial and cranial peculiarities, 
 procured for him quite a reputation, whether at school, 
 college, or wheresoever he went. 
 
 Studying medicine at Vienna, he became alternately 
 feared and applauded by all his associates for his 
 invaluable exactitude in the delineation of character.
 
 172 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Following up his experimental observations from living 
 faces and heads to the dissection of human and animal 
 brains, Gall at length evolved a system which, in his 
 own experience at least, proved as correct as it was 
 wonderful to all who heard his lectures and followed the 
 course of his astonishing delineations. 
 
 In 1800 Dr. Gall received as a pupil Dr. Spurzheim, 
 and the extraordinary capacity of this great scientist 
 for mastering and enlarging upon his instructor's views 
 rendered their names a synonym, so invariably associ- 
 ated together that it is difficult to say to which the 
 most elaborate treatises upon phrenology are really due. 
 
 The new science was at first received with immense 
 enthusiasm by all classes, and the learning of Spurzheim 
 and the fascinating eloquence of Gall succeeded in win- 
 ning converts among the most profound thinkers, as well 
 as in the salons of fashion. The tide of popular favor, 
 however, received a temporary check from the adverse 
 report pronounced against phrenology by the savants 
 of the French Institute, whom Napoleon Bonaparte 
 most unwisely commissioned to inquire into its merits. 
 
 As this Institute, like other learned bodies, had most 
 commonly pronounced against all new ideas which did 
 not originate from its own members, the dictum did 
 not annihilate the claims of Gall and Spurzheim, nor 
 long continue to dim their reputation, and in all prob- 
 ability, at this day, nobody knows or nobody cares 
 whether the Institute indorsed or denounced them at all. 
 The learned Germans kept their onward course, and 
 though the science of medicine has not as yet benefited 
 by their suggestive theories, that of psychology has, 
 and in some more fully unfolded condition of the art,
 
 THE STATUS Of MEDICAL PRACTICE. 
 
 173 
 
 there can be no doubt that important results to physi- 
 ological diagnoses will arise from a connection of this 
 and all other kindred forms of science. It only remains 
 for us now to notice the entrance upon the scene of 
 the learned Hahnemann, whose system of homoeopathic 
 practice almost divides the palm with that of allopathy. 
 
 Dr. Samuel Hahnemann was born in Upper Saxony, 
 in 1755. He was educated for the medical profession 
 at Leipsic, and practiced for many years with distin- 
 guished success and high repute. It is confidently 
 affirmed that Dr. Hahnemann had long cherished a 
 feeling of deep dissatisfaction with the practices of allo- 
 pathy before he chanced upon his own great discovery. 
 
 Report also alleges that he felt deeply the responsi- 
 bility which belongs to the medical practitioner, and 
 so keenly realized the failure of drugs to restore the 
 disturbed system in disease that he was accustomed to 
 put on mourning whenever a patient died, and accuse 
 himself of every failure in his treatment, as if he were 
 responsible for the lives of those under his care. 
 
 As it would not be possible in this place to give any 
 extended account of homoeopathy, whilst the system 
 itself is too widely accepted to be dismissed with a 
 mere passing notice, we shall add an extract from Dr. 
 Stratten's preface to the first edition of the English 
 translation of Hahnemann's "Organon." 
 
 Speaking of the illustrious founder of the system, 
 Dr. Stratten says, 
 
 "A most accurate observer, a skillful experimenter, 
 
 and an indefatigable searcher after truth, he appeared 
 
 formed by nature for the investigation and improvement 
 
 of medical science. On commencing the study of 
 
 15*
 
 174 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 medicine, he soon became disgusted with the mass of 
 contradictory assertions and theories which then existed. 
 He found everything in this department obscure, hypo- 
 thetical, and vague, and resolved to abandon the med- 
 ical profession. Having been previously engaged in 
 the study of chemistry, he determined on translating 
 into his native language the best English and French 
 works on the subject. Whilst engaged in translating 
 the Materia Medica of the illustrious Cullen, in 1790, 
 in which the febrifuge virtues of cinchona bark are 
 described, he became fired with the desire of ascertain- 
 ing its mode of action. Whilst in the enjoyment of 
 the most robust health, he commenced the use of this 
 substance, and in a short time was attacked with all 
 the symptoms of intermittent fever, similar in every 
 respect to those which that medicine is known to cure. 
 Being struck with the identity of the two diseases, he 
 immediately divined the great truth which has become 
 the foundation of the new medical doctrine of homoe- 
 opathy. 
 
 " Not contented with one experiment, he tried the 
 virtues of medicines on his own person, and on that of 
 others. In his investigations he arrived at this con- 
 clusion : that the substance employed possessed an in- 
 herent power of exciting in healthy subjects the same 
 symptoms which it is said to cure in the sick. He 
 compared the assertions of ancient and modern physi- 
 cians upon the properties of poisonous substances with 
 the result of his own experiments, and found them to 
 coincide in every respect ; and upon these deductions 
 he brought forth his doctrine of homoeopathy. Taking 
 this law for a guide, he recommenced the practice of
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. 175 
 
 medicine, with every prospect of his labors being ulti- 
 mately crowned with success. 
 
 " In 1796 he published his first dissertation on homoe- 
 opathy in Huf eland' 's Journal. A treatise on the vir- 
 tues of medicines appeared in 1805, and the ORGANON 
 in 1810. Hahnemann commenced as a public medical 
 teacher in Leipsic, in iSn, where, with his pupils, he 
 zealously investigated the effects of medicines on the 
 living body, which formed the basis of the Materia 
 Medica Pura, which appeared during the same year. 
 Like many other discoverers in medicine, the author of 
 the ORGANON has been persecuted with the utmost rigor ; 
 and in 1820 he quitted his native country in disgust. 
 In retirement he was joined by several of his pupils, who 
 formed themselves into a society for the purpose of 
 prosecuting the homoeopathic system of physic, and 
 reporting their observations thereon. Several fasciculi 
 detailing their labors have since been published. 
 
 " Of the doctrine of homoeopathy generally, I have 
 little more to add in this place ; time will develop the 
 truth or fallacy of the principle on which it is founded ; 
 but, in the meantime, let us not lose sight of the fact 
 that this new system of physic is spreading throughout 
 the continent of Europe with the rapidity of lightning. 
 Germany, Austria, Russia, and Poland have already 
 done homage to the doctrine, and physicians have been 
 appointed to make a specific trial of its effects, the 
 results of which are unequivocally acknowledged to be 
 of a favorable nature. The writings of the illustrious 
 Hahnemann have appeared in five different languages, 
 independent of the present version of his ORGANON ; 
 and in France alone, a translation of this work, from
 
 176 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the pen of A. J. L. Jourdan, member of the Academic 
 Royale de Medecine, has reached a fourth edition. 
 
 " Convinced, from reflection and observation, of the 
 value of homoeopathy, the first step in the propagation 
 and dissemination of this doctrine, in Britain, was to 
 obtain an English version of the ORGANON." 
 
 It would be a work better suited to the genius of an 
 industrious cyclopsedist than the writer of a plain 
 manual like this, to attempt numbering up all the 
 "systems," so called, that have sprung into a tempo- 
 rary and fleeting popularity during the last century in 
 the direction of healing. Besides the well-known and 
 widely-practiced methods included in the general term 
 "allopathy" and the more special mode prescribed 
 by homoeopathy, there are hydropathists of various 
 descriptions, who place different degrees of curative 
 virtue in springs, baths, packs, hot and cold water 
 treatments, taken now internally, now externally, then 
 together and then separate; vegetarian healers, herb- 
 doctors, counter-irritation healers, and healers by jump- 
 ing, lifting, dancing, fencing, the practice of light 
 and heavy gymnastics, and movement curers; abstainers, 
 feeders, milk-diet doctors, fruit-diet doctors, psycho- 
 logic, psychopathic, magnetic, and every other imagin- 
 able kind of healing system that the diseased condition 
 of humanity and the easy character of its faith, or per- 
 haps we might more justly say the despair of its desper- 
 ate necessity, can suggest. To all and each, there have 
 been a sufficient number of adherents to confer upon 
 the passing experiment some interest ; but all except 
 the long-tried and deeply engrafted systems of allo- 
 pathy and the widely diffused methods of homoeopathy
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. i-j-j 
 
 appear destined to become the ephemera of the day, 
 and pass away like the fashion of the hour in vanity 
 and vexation of spirit. Our readers will doubtless ask 
 where in this long category of systems and claims for 
 systems do we place the subject of this book, namely, 
 electro-magnetism ? We answer, nowhere as yet, that 
 is, as a system. Electricity and magnetism are original 
 forces, or original parts of one universal force, and, being 
 as old as creation, their uses are simply dependent upon 
 the degrees of intelligence with which the age is pre- 
 pared to apply them. 
 
 We have already made claim for electricity as being, 
 if not the veritable life-principle in man, at least its 
 analogue, and the nearest approach to it we can ever 
 find in nature outside of man. We need not go over 
 the ground of these arguments again ; suffice it that, 
 being as we have claimed the life itself, it must be also 
 the restorer of life and the restorer of life's disturbed 
 functional activities. 
 
 Its application as a therapeutic agent is, however, 
 something very different from our recognition of its 
 inherent virtues and powers. How far we can com- 
 mand its agency as a successful healer must depend 
 upon how far we can learn to adapt it to the human 
 system, engraft upon it scientific modes of application, 
 and put it to its real use as a healing power. 
 
 That it can effect much in this direction has not 
 only been proved again and yet again, but the proofs 
 are multiplying daily on every side of us. Living 
 bodies are struck dead by lightning, and half-dead 
 bodies, as in paralysis, are restored by it. 
 
 Franklin, Galvani, Volta, Aldini, Colomb, Matteucci,
 
 1 78 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and hosts of modern scientists, pour in their wealth of 
 testimony to its powers and possibilities over the nerves 
 and muscles of the dead and living both. 
 
 Antoine Csesar Becquerel, the distinguished French 
 physician, naturalist, engineer, and electrician, has 
 written a vast number of fine treatises upon the nature 
 of electricity, and his researches in the direction of 
 electrical action as a motor in vital functions are 
 equally curious and suggestive. But, after all, experi- 
 ence is one of the best of discoverers, one of the most 
 convincing logicians, that the world has ever listened 
 to. Experience is more and more surely demonstrating 
 day by day that electricity is a great and a wonderful 
 therapeut, and that, when properly understood and 
 carefully applied, it must take rank as the world's best, 
 surest, perhaps only, healer, and that, just as soon as 
 science has mastered the rudimental laws by which it 
 operates on and through living tissues. 
 
 And now we bring our review to a close. Medicine 
 is at present hardly pursued as a system at all. It is 
 recognized to have been a long and hazardous succession 
 of experiments throughout its eventful history. No 
 infallible specific, either in medicine or surgery, has 
 yet been found, save now and then a healing herb, 
 balm, or drug, and that only in application to certain, 
 or rather uncertain, human temperaments. The poor 
 animals, who search for grasses and herbs as medicines 
 in special conditions of disease, act under the prompt- 
 ings of instinct with a wisdom which far exceeds our 
 blundering experiments. That food, choice of diet, 
 habits of life, clothing, airs, and all the details that 
 constitute hygiene, should have been taken into ac-
 
 THE STATUS OF MEDICAL PRACTICE. 179 
 
 count in far higher degrees than they have been, every 
 day's experience is helping to demonstrate. When, 
 therefore, we write slightingly of systems, methods, 
 and curative arts, we do so because we feel the impor- 
 tance of urging that they should one and all be treated 
 as matters of secondary and not primary moment, in 
 the preservation of human life and health. Hygienic 
 lives and hygienic systems first, and remedial arts next, 
 is our motto, and this on the principle that prevention 
 is better far than cure. If disease, however, supervenes, 
 and the functions of hygiene as a preventive are balked, 
 we should then seek for the best, most natural, reason- 
 able, and vitally assimilated methods of cure. Hitherto 
 we have only been experimenting in the hope of find- 
 ing this superexcellent mode. Great learning, world- 
 wide research, vast skill, genius, industry, long lives of 
 patient toil, whole generations of earnest devotion, and 
 centuries of ever-increasing light upon therapeutic 
 possibilities, have marked man's progress in the history 
 of medicine. Anatomy and physiology have mean- 
 while dawned upon the toilers of the ages, in compen- 
 sation for their vast expenditure of life-service ; and if, 
 at the close of all, the science of life and vital force 
 should reward them with another and grander revela- 
 tion, their labors will not have been undertaken in 
 vain, and the history of medical science will bring us 
 face to face at last with the solution of creation's pro- 
 foundest problem, namely, the mystery of the life- 
 principle and its application in the form of electricity 
 to the reduction of those disorders which, commencing 
 with a disturbance of electric force, can only be 
 conquered by electric force.
 
 CONCLUDING CHAPTER. 
 
 A REVIEW. 
 
 GLANCING back over the ground the author and 
 reader have traversed together in this volume, we see, 
 indeed, that "a new path in electrical therapeutics" 
 has been opened up before us, and the beginning of 
 possibilities incalculable in point of use, blessing, and 
 scientific discovery, are dawning upon us. 
 
 The theories of ancient philosophers, the specula- 
 tions of sages, and the chance discoveries of time- 
 honored scientists, all seem to have matured under the 
 sunlight of modern progress, until the indications 
 afforded by the half-mythical, half-real narrations re- 
 corded in the days of antiquity, take on substantial 
 forms, and the magnesian-stone of old becomes the 
 load-stone of to-day; the fabled deities of the skies 
 resolve themselves into impersonations of the powers 
 of nature; the dreams of the alchemists are realized 
 in the discoveries of electricians; and the therapeuts of 
 ancient Egypt build temples which Mesmer, Franklin, 
 Duchenne, Becquerel, and Morse convert into store- 
 houses for the conserved forces of life, health, science, 
 and mental power. 
 
 My claims as set forth in this volume are simply for 
 the discovery of a new application of a power recog- 
 nized in all ages, and in all ages indicative of this 
 same new path in electric therapeutics. The healers 
 i So
 
 A REVIEW. % iSl 
 
 or therapeuts of old perceived the possibility of using 
 magnetism as a remedial agent. Their followers have 
 ever turned with wistful eyes to the realms of the im- 
 ponderable to find that philosopher's stone, the exist- 
 ence of which has been so long felt yet so long hidden 
 from the eager researches of philosophy. 
 
 My electrical cranial diagnosis, and the application 
 of different currents to different forms and conditions 
 of disease, are but way-marks on the path of progress. 
 Both these methods of applying the force take the 
 uses of electricity out of the hands of unskillful char- 
 latans and unscrupulous experimenters, and prove that 
 the same mathematical precision in the adjustment of 
 means to ends, by which the Atlantic telegraph has 
 been successfully established, is equally necessary to 
 render electricity a safe and reliable remedial agent. 
 My system has proved also the great anthropological 
 fact that the brain is the chart of the body and the 
 correct record of all its complex motions and states. 
 
 By the protest I have herewith recorded against the 
 unscientific use of electricity, and by the proofs I offer 
 in well-attested cases of cure through the scientific use 
 of electricity, I cannot doubt but that I shall be at 
 least measurably instrumental in stimulating earnest 
 and capable minds to fresh research, and beneficent 
 medical practitioners to amended systems of practice 
 in connection with this great remedial agent. I have 
 often heard it alleged that John Wesley, the great and 
 good founder of Methodism, had not only directed his 
 attention to the uses of electricity as a remedial agent, 
 but also that he had frequently applied it with marked 
 success to numbers of suffering organisms. 
 16
 
 182 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 In reviewing some records wherein I expected to 
 find data for what I had been orally informed of on 
 this subject, I came across the following striking 
 excerpts from a fashionable and high-toned English 
 paper entitled JBelgravia, in which appear, under date 
 of December, 1872, these passages: 
 
 "And yet electricity is life! It is the very soul of 
 the universe ! It permeates through all space, sur- 
 rounds the earth, and is found in every part of it. 
 Unlike many human specimens, it never desires to 
 keep all its good to itself, but is ever ready to diffuse 
 its beneficence. It is only in abnormal conditions 
 and in unexpected rencontres that it displays itself in 
 that brilliant flash and that deafening roar with which 
 its majestic force yields up its great spirit. 
 
 "Two conditions of the human body also are illus- 
 trative of its varied action. A person who has the 
 smallpox cannot be electrified, while sparks of elec- 
 tricity may be drawn from the body of a patient dying 
 of cholera. In the first instance, it appears that the 
 body is fully charged with its own electricity, since it 
 is impossible to electrify a body beyond a certain de- 
 gree; in the latter there seems to be a tendency to part 
 with the electrical force which is essential to the sup- 
 port of life, and which may account for the distressing 
 and rapid weakness of cholera patients. 
 
 "Undoubtedly, however, the greatest marvels of 
 this beneficent agent are to be found in its influence 
 on the human frame and in the cure of disease. But, 
 like everything that is destined eventually to be ac- 
 cepted by the public, as a matter of course it has had 
 to pass through the usual three stages of contempt,
 
 A REVIEW. 183 
 
 controversy, and adoption. More than a hundred 
 years ago John Wesley said, ' How much sickness and 
 pain may be prevented or removed, and how many 
 lives saved, by this unparalleled remedy ! And yet 
 M-ith what vehemence has it been opposed ! sometimes 
 by treating it with contempt, as if it were of little or no 
 use ; sometimes by arguments, such as they were ; and 
 sometimes by such cautions against its ill-effects as 
 made thousands afraid to meddle with it.' And he 
 thus sums up his opinion of the medical profession and 
 their opposition to the use of electricity in disease: 
 'There cannot be in nature any such thing as an abso- 
 lute panacea, a medicine that will cure every disease 
 incident to the human body. If there could, elec- 
 tricity would bid fairer for it than anything in the 
 world. Mr. Lovett is of opinion that the electrical 
 method of treating disorders cannot be expected to 
 arrive at any considerable degree of perfection till 
 administered and applied by gentlemen of the faculty. 
 Nay, then, QUANTA DE SPE DECIDI ! all my hopes are at 
 an end. For when will it be administered and applied 
 by them? Truly, AD GRJECAS CALENDAS. Not till the 
 gentlemen of the faculty have more regard to the in- 
 terest of their neighbors than their own. Therefore, 
 without waiting for what probably never will be, and 
 what indeed we have no reason to expect, let men of 
 sense do the best they can for themselves, as well as 
 for their poor neighbors. I doubt not but more 
 nervous disorders would be cured in one year by this 
 single remedy than the whole English MATERIA MEDICA 
 will cure by the end of the century.' 
 
 "John Wesley was indeed prophetic when he wrote
 
 1 84 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in 1759: 'It is highly probable a timely use of this 
 means might prevent, before they were thoroughly 
 formed, and frequently even then remove, some of the 
 most painful and dangerous distempers, cancers and 
 scrofulous humors in particular, though they will yield 
 to no other medicine yet discovered. It is certain no- 
 thing is so likely, by accelerating the contained fluids, 
 to dilate and open the passages as well as divide the 
 coagulated particles of blood so that the circulation 
 may be again performed. And it is a doubt whether 
 it would not be of more use even in mortification than 
 any other medicine in the world.' ' 
 
 The above citations show how different is the senti- 
 ment among scientific minds in England concerning 
 this important subject from what it was in the days 
 of good John Wesley. Gradually, but certainly, the 
 wisest minds the world over, are growing into a settled 
 conviction as to the importance of the role played by 
 electricity in the animal economy. 
 
 My own practice, with the constantly increasing de- 
 mands upon me to furnish more light upon the methods 
 of my discovery, all tend to convince me of the great 
 anxiety on the part of the community to push on in 
 the new path of knowledge ; and although the inces- 
 sant demands that are made on my time forbid me to 
 devote my energies to fresh researches, or to extend 
 this simple domestic treatise into the broader fields to 
 which I find the science tending, I know that where I 
 leave off there are numbers of capable minds able 
 and, I trust, willing, to take up the unfinished work. 
 Every fresh revelation, however slight or simple, be- 
 comes a stepping-stone to a fresh ascent in the ladder
 
 A REVIEW. !85 
 
 of progression ; I know, therefore, that this unpretend- 
 ing volume and the revelation it contains will form a 
 part of the stepping-stones that will lead suffering hu- 
 manity into the temple of electrical therapeutics, and 
 though the architect may be forgotten, and the hands 
 that build may be bruised and wounded by the stones 
 which conservatism, learned ignorance, and pedantic 
 presumption hurl against them, if I can but feel that 
 the talent for dispensing light to the scientifically blind, 
 health to the sick, and life to the perishing, has been 
 returned by me with some usury to the great Giver of 
 all good things from whom I received it, my work will 
 be done ; this little volume will have fulfilled its mis- 
 sion, and I shall leave my footprints on the sands of 
 time, well satisfied that they have not been made in 
 vain. 
 
 16*
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES ON THE SUB- 
 JECT OF ELECTRICITY AND ITS IDENTITY 
 WITH THE "LIFE PRINCIPLE." 
 
 IN the main body of this work I have availed myself 
 but rarely, and in very limited quotations, of any 
 authoritative utterances in support of the various posi- 
 tions I have assumed. In contending for the identity 
 of electricity with the long-sought-for " vital principle" 
 in living organisms, I have, perhaps, been too reticent 
 in this respect, and failed to strengthen my case to the 
 extent of my ability, omitting the citation of opinions, 
 the force of which, if given in approximation with my 
 own experiences, might have proved unanswerable. 
 
 My chief aim in this little volume has been, how- 
 ever, to present my views in reference to electrical 
 action with all possible directness and simplicity, and 
 leave their reasonableness or fallacy to demonstrate 
 themselves. More especially have I observed this 
 course in reference to my opinions concerning the 
 "vital principle," because I deemed the best interests 
 of therapeutic science were at stake in the matter, and 
 that the identity of that same "vital principle" and 
 electricity should not be received as a mere matter of 
 opinion, but as an accepted fact, derivable from the 
 proofs which identity of phenomenal action between 
 the two elements furnishes us with. If I have succeeded 
 in impressing my readers with the truth of this posi- 
 186
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. i8j 
 
 tion, they, like myself, will be better prepared to re- 
 ceive and deal with electricity as the life of things. 
 Their confidence in its curative virtues will not only 
 be strengthened and confirmed, but their manipula- 
 tions with the force as evolved in the machines appro- 
 priate to healing purposes, will be conducted with all 
 the more care and reverence from their better under- 
 standing of its true value. 
 
 To such of my readers as may have failed to appre- 
 hend the force of the reasons I have offered in support 
 of my opinions, the facts and phenomena from which 
 I evolve them will remain inexplicable ; still, they are 
 facts, and as such will ultimately be appreciated at 
 their true value by the thinking part of the community. 
 Having endeavored to do justice to my own convic- 
 tions by basing them simply on reason, and ignoring 
 authority as the foundation on which to rest for their 
 acceptance, I shall now unhesitatingly present, by way 
 of appendix, a few citations of an authoritative char- 
 acter from a rare and very remarkable work written in 
 1846, by Mr. T. S. Mackintosh, an English scientist 
 of acknowledged ability, and entitled "The Electrical 
 Theory of the Universe." 
 
 The main feature of this treatise is its fidelity to the 
 idea that electricity is the great motor-power of the 
 universe, the life of all things, the source and centre of 
 motion, and the "vital principle" in man, animals, 
 plants, organic and inorganic matter, bodies in space, 
 etc. Among the mass of curious and suggestive mat- 
 ter contained in this work are numerous arguments, 
 strengthened by abundant quotations from esteemed 
 authorities, to prove the identity of electricity with the
 
 1 88 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 "life principle" in men, animals, and plants. As this 
 work is not likely to be attainable to the generality of 
 my readers, and the citations in ev'dence of the above- 
 named position are felicitous and interesting, I propose 
 to give one or two of these illustrations, confident that 
 their perusal will not be uninstructive or out of place. 
 
 The details of the first experiment will recall others 
 of a similar kind with which many of our readers must 
 be familiar; but we give it in this place chiefly be- 
 cause it bears with remarkable significance upon the 
 solution which electrical action affords us of many 
 phenomena hitherto deemed inexplicable. 
 
 We preface the narrative with Mackintosh's curt re- 
 marks on the opponents with whose opinions he, like 
 myself, has had to contend, doing battle, as I have, 
 by aid of facts versus theories. 
 
 " But it will be said that all this, though true, must be 
 viewed in connection with the 'vital principle.' And 
 what are we to understand by this expression, 'vital 
 principle'? If we consider it attentively, we shall 
 very soon discover that it is one of those vague, com- 
 monplace phrases that pass current among men, and 
 which serve rather to cover our ignorance than to ad- 
 vance our knowledge. When we endeavor to trace the 
 'vital principle' to the nervous energy, and the ner- 
 vous energy to electrical action, we at least endeavor to 
 put our system in a tangible form; but when we pro- 
 fess to explain the animal functions by a 'vital princi- 
 ple,' our explanation is mere verbiage. 
 
 " We have already said that the animal system is a 
 bundle of circles, each connected with the others like 
 the wheels of a watch, or like the different parts of the
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. iBg 
 
 steam-engine; and that the primary circle, the main- 
 spring, which may be said to originate the animal func- 
 tions, is the nervous, and that the nervous circle is 
 actuated by electrical agency. The proof of this is 
 derived from plain and simple facts. 
 
 "The following extract is from the letters of Sir 
 David Brewster on 'Natural Magic'; and, viewed in 
 connection with the generation of animal force in the 
 lungs, might furnish the basis of a curious and inter- 
 esting inquiry: 
 
 AN INDIVIDUAL RAISED ON THE FINGERS OF FOUR 
 OTHER PERSONS. 
 
 " 'One of the most remarkable and inexplicable ex- 
 periments relative to the strength of the human frame, 
 which you have yourself seen and admired, is that in 
 which a heavy man is raised, with the greatest facility, 
 when he is lifted up the instant that his own lungs and 
 of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. 
 This experiment was, I believe, first shown in England 
 a few years ago by Major H., who saw it performed in 
 a large party at Venice, under the direction of an 
 officer of the American navy. As Major H. per- 
 formed it more than once in my presence, I shall 
 describe, as nearly as possible, the method which he 
 prescribed. The heaviest person in the party lies down 
 upon two chairs, his legs supported by one and his 
 back by the other. Four persons one at each leg and 
 one at each shoulder then try to raise him, and they 
 find his dead weight to be very great from the difficulty 
 they experience in supporting him. When he is re- 
 placed in the chair, each of the four persons takes hold
 
 190 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of the body as before, and the person to be lifted gives 
 two signals by clapping his hands. At the first signal 
 he himself and the four lifters begin to draw a long 
 and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, 
 or the lungs filled, the second signal is given for raising 
 the person from the chair. To his own surprise and 
 that of his bearers, he is raised with the greatest facility, 
 as if he were no heavier than a feather. On several 
 occasions I have observed that when one of the bearers 
 performed his part ill, by making the inhalation out 
 of time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is 
 left, as it were, behind. As you have repeatedly seen 
 this experiment, and have performed the part both of 
 the load and the bearer, you can testify how remarkable 
 the effects appear to all parties, and how complete is 
 the conviction either that the load has been lightened 
 or the bearers strengthened by the prescribed process. 
 
 " ' At Venice the experiment was performed in a more 
 imposing manner. The heaviest man in the party was 
 raised and sustained upon the points of the forefingers 
 of six persons. Major H. declared that the experiment 
 would not succeed if the person lifted were placed on 
 a board, and the strength of the individuals applied to 
 the board. He conceived it necessary that the bearers 
 should communicate directly with the body to be raised. 
 I have not had an opportunity of making any experi- 
 ments relative to these curious facts; but whether the 
 general effect is an illusion, or the result of known or 
 of new principles, the subject merits a careful investi- 
 gation.' 
 
 " In the present chapter we propose to show that the 
 vital energy is to be ascribed to galvanic action ; and
 
 A UTHORITA TIVE UTTERANCES. 
 
 191 
 
 in doing so we shall confine ourselves chiefly to a state- 
 ment of facts. To enter into an inquiry concerning 
 the manner in which the electrical energy is transmitted 
 to the living animal function, would, from the nature 
 of the subject, require a long and elaborate train of 
 previous inquiry; we must, therefore, for the present, 
 be contented with bare facts, which are, after all, the 
 basis of science. 
 
 "According to Ritter, the electricity of the positive 
 pole augments, whilst the negative diminishes, the 
 action of life. Tumefaction of parts is produced by 
 the former; depression by the latter. 'The pulse of 
 the hand,' he says, 'held a few minutes in contact 
 with the positive pole, is strengthened; that of the one 
 in contact with the negative, is enfeebled; the former 
 is accompanied with a sense of heat; the latter with 
 a feeling of coldness. Objects appear, to a positively 
 electrified eye, larger, brighter, and red; while to one 
 negatively electrified they appear smaller, less distinct, 
 and bluish, colors indicating opposite extremities of 
 the prismatic spectrum. The acid and alkaline tastes, 
 when the tongue is acted on in succession by the two 
 electricities, are well known, and have been ingeniously 
 accounted for by Sir Humphry Davy, in his admirable 
 Bakerian lectures. The smell of oxymuriatic acid, 
 and of ammonia, are said by Ritter to be the opposite 
 odors excited by the two opposite poles, as a full body 
 of sound and a sharp tone are the corresponding effects 
 on the ear. But unquestionably the most precise and 
 interesting researches on the relation between voltaic 
 electricity and animal life are those contained in Dr. 
 Wilson Philip's 'Dissertations in the Philosophical
 
 192 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Transactions,' as well as in his 'Experimental Inquiry 
 into the Laws of the Vital Functions.' 
 
 "The eight pair of nerves distributed to the stomach, 
 and subservient to digestion, were divided by incisions 
 in the necks of several living rabbits. After the oper- 
 ation, the parsley which they ate was removed without 
 alteration in their stomachs; and the animals, after 
 evincing much difficulty of breathing, seemed to die 
 of suffocation. But when, in other rabbits, similarly 
 treated, the galvanic power was transmitted along the 
 nerve below its section to a disk of silver placed closely 
 in contact with the skin of the animal, opposite to its 
 stomach, no difficulty of breathing occurred. The 
 voltaic action being kept up for twenty-six hours, the 
 rabbits were then killed, and the parsley was found in 
 as perfectly digested a state as that in healthy rabbits 
 fed at the same time; and their stomachs evolved the 
 smell peculiar to that of a rabbit during digestion. 
 These experiments were several times repeated with 
 similar results ; hence it appears that the galvanic 
 energy is capable of supplying the place of the nervous 
 influence, so that, while under it, the stomach, other- 
 wise inactive, digests food as usual. Dr. Wilson Philip 
 concludes that the identity of galvanic electricity and 
 nervous influence is established by these experiments. 
 The general inferences deduced by him from his multi- 
 plied experiments are, that voltaic electricity is capable 
 of effecting the formation of the secreted fluid, when 
 applied to the blood in the same way in which the 
 nervous influence is applied to it; and that it is capable 
 of occasioning an evolution of caloric from arterial 
 blood. When the lungs are deprived of the nervous
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. I93 
 
 influence by which their function is impeded, and even 
 destroyed ; when the digestion is interrupted by with- 
 drawing this influence from the stomach, these two 
 vital functions are renewed by exposing them to the 
 influence of a galvanic trough. ' Hence,' says Dr. 
 Philip, 'galvanism seems capable of performing all 
 the functions of the nervous influence in the animal 
 economy.' ' 
 
 Then follovrs an account of the oft-quoted experi- 
 ments performed by Dr. Ure on the body of a con- 
 demned murderer hanged at Glasgow. This detail we 
 omit, both on account of its frequent citation in other 
 works, doubtless familiar to the reader, and also be- 
 cause its harrowing particulars are painful enough to ex- 
 cuse our dispensing with their reiteration. The author 
 of the treatise from which I quote winds up his narra- 
 tive with the following concise words of summary: 
 
 "These experiments are sufficient to satisfy any rea- 
 sonable mind that electrical action is the great moving 
 principle in the animal economy." 
 
 In this connection we feel impelled to republish once 
 more for the benefit of candid and unprejudiced minds, 
 a relation of those famous experiments concerning the 
 origin of animal life which some thirty years ago ex- 
 cited so much attention in the scientific world, and the 
 rationale of which has never yet been explained away, 
 although numerous attempts have been made to do so, 
 by the very unphilosophical and illogical methods of 
 ridicule and scoffing. We are again indebted to Mr. 
 Mackintosh for the narrative, which we extract verbatim 
 from his valuable work. 
 
 "'The public arc aware that Mr. Crosse has been 
 i '7
 
 1 94 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 recently pursuing a series of researches into the process 
 of crystallization, by means of his galvanic batteries, 
 and that he has made discoveries which have thrown 
 quite a new light upon science. Some weeks ago he 
 prepared a silicious fluid for the purpose of crystalliza- 
 tion. He heated a flint to a white heat, and then 
 plunged it in water to pulverize it. The silex, thus 
 reduced, was saturated to excess with muriatic acid. 
 The mixture was placed in a jar, a piece of flannel 
 was suspended in it, one end of which extended over 
 the side, and thus, by capillary attraction, the liquor 
 was slowly filtered, fell into a funnel, and thence 
 dropped on a piece of ironstone from Mount Vesuvius, 
 upon which were laid the two wires connected with 
 either pole of the battery. We should state that the 
 ironstone had been previously heated to a white heat, 
 so that no germs of life could have existed upon it. 
 Mr. Crosse made his daily observations of the wires, 
 to discover the beginning of the process of crystalliza- 
 tion. On the fourteenth day he saw some small white 
 specks upon the stone. Four days afterwards they had 
 elongated and assumed an oval form. He concluded 
 that they were incipient crystals. Great was his sur- 
 prise on the twenty-second day, to find eight legs pro- 
 jecting from each of these white bodies; still, he could 
 not believe that they were living beings. But on the 
 twenty-sixth day his surprise was complete; there could 
 be no doubt, they moved, they fed, they were perfect 
 insects. Eighteen or twenty of them have since ap- 
 peared. Many have seen them, but there is no record 
 of such an insect. It is in form something like a 
 mite ; it has eight legs, four bristles at the tail, and the
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. I95 
 
 edges of the body are very bristly; its motions are 
 visible to the naked eye ; its color is gray ; its substance 
 is pulpy. It appears to feed upon the silicious particles 
 in the fluid. 
 
 '"The most extraordinary circumstance in this phe- 
 nomenon is the nature of the fluid in which this insect 
 lives and thrives. The acid instantly destroys every 
 other living being. 
 
 " 'But a second trial has confirmed the fact beyond a 
 doubt. Another portion of silex was prepared in the 
 same manner, and reduced to a gelatinous form, but 
 without the acid. A coil of silver wire was suspended 
 in it from one of the poles of the battery, and the 
 other pole was also immersed, so as to send through 
 the mass an incessant stream of the electric fluid. 
 About three weeks afterwards, Mr. Crosse examined 
 the poles to search for crystals, and in one of the coils 
 of wire he found one of these strange insects. This 
 proves that it is produced from the silex, and not from 
 the acid. 
 
 " 'Mr. Crosse, with his usual modesty, has contented 
 himself with stating the fact, without attempting to 
 account for it. He is in correspondence with Professor 
 Buckland upon the subject, and the learned professor 
 has suggested an explanation, which it will be for future 
 observers, by repeated experiments, to confirm. We 
 should state that the insects were principally found at 
 the negative pole of the battery.' 
 
 "A great body of similar facts might be adduced, if 
 necessary, tending to show that all animal motion may 
 be traced to electrical action; enough has, however, 
 been advanced to satisfy those who are willing to be
 
 196 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 convinced ; those who are unwilling, may fall back 
 upon the 'vital principle,' or some ethereal or spiritual 
 essence, if to their minds such essence furnishes a more 
 satisfactory solution. We do not hope to convince 
 those who are stubbornly bent upon explaining the 
 mysteries of nature, by introducing other mysteries 
 still more incomprehensible than those which they pro- 
 fess to explain. We should not have entered upon the 
 subject but that we are firmly persuaded that before we 
 can hope to elevate the physical and moral condition 
 of man, we must carefully and minutely investigate the 
 laws by which his physical nature is governed, and 
 thereby we shall obtain a sound basis for our moral 
 structure." 
 
 The limitations of our space forbid any further ex- 
 tracts, either from the interesting work above quoted 
 or others in support of similar views. On the facts 
 presented we offer no comments ; they tell their own 
 story in sufficiently forcible language. Our purpose is 
 answered when we find ourselves in a position to gain 
 the confidence of those whom we most desire to in- 
 terest, namely, the patients whom it is our province to 
 heal by electricity ; and this we are far better able to 
 do when they themselves realize the true nature of the 
 force with which we deal, and esteem sufficiently the 
 curative virtues, renovating properties, and vital quali- 
 ties of the divine agent which a beneficent Creator 
 has disclosed to human ken for the upbuilding of the 
 suffering human structure.
 
 SUPPLEMENT TO AUTHORITATIVE UTTER- 
 ANCES. 
 
 SINCE the first edition of this volume I have been 
 very much interested in a desultory synopsis of Dr. 
 Ferrier's authoritative investigations and experiments 
 in the same paths which led me, as far back as 1848, to 
 conclude that the nature and seat of disease could be 
 correctly ascertained from Cranial Diagnoses with 
 Electricity as the searcher. As the brain is the great 
 nerve-centre and focal point to which all sensor and 
 motor nerves report themselves, should be the map on 
 which the organs and their special conditions are rep- 
 resented. Proving the correctness of this hypothesis 
 by my established system, notwithstanding the ridicule 
 pedants bestowed upon my empiricism, it is gratifying 
 to retrospect the familiar roadway of research and 
 empiricism leading to the goal the science of sciences 
 habitates with Dr. Ferrier. Although as yet Dr. Fer- 
 rier has not the temerity to assume the responsibility 
 of demonstrating his theory upon human beings, for 
 which I have won and worn the title of mad woman 
 in my claims as set forth in long years of practice as 
 the discoverer of an infallible method of Electrical 
 Cranial Diagnosis, I am honored when such an au- 
 thoritative personage as Dr. Ferrier should at the 
 instance of Prof. Huxley persuade the Royal Society 
 in England to come forward handsomely and vote a 
 17 197
 
 198 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 grant to carry out his experiments on monkeys, if not 
 on mankind, for the English scientists proclaim "the 
 monkey is the nearest approach to man in the animal 
 kingdom ; and as it is of course out of the question to 
 experiment on men, the monkey will form an adequate 
 substitute." Here it will be in order to reassert boldly 
 and fearlessly that Electrical Cranial Diagnosis is an 
 exact science applicable to the human organism be- 
 yond a doubt, as proven in my long years of practice 
 and instruction to others. 
 
 Electrical Cranial Diagnosis is one of the exact sci- 
 ences, elevating the system of therapeutics and pathol- 
 ogy beyond empiricism to the pedestal of mathematics, 
 far beyond half-formed speculations and symptomatic 
 indications, revealing the hidden mysteries of human 
 organisms to the searching eye of the realist, requir- 
 ing no adequate substitute for mankind in the form of 
 monkeys to asseverate the unerring determination of 
 electrical detection of disease and conditions of the 
 human organism, as mapped out on the chart formed 
 by the brain. 
 
 It seems the grandest achievement of a calumniated 
 career of over quarter a century, wherein I have fre- 
 quently been tabooed as mad when striving to bring 
 into popularity one of the greatest strides in anthro- 
 pology this age has recorded, that I have been the 
 pioneer for men of authoritative sense and acknowledged 
 scientific persuasion in this country and Europe. The 
 torch of a mad woman may have enlightened the 
 world, although the possibility that such a system of 
 diagnosis could be made through the agency of elec- 
 tricity has long and vehemently been denounced.
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. 199 
 
 Without further comment, I subjoin the following, 
 taken from the Dundee Advertiser's London corre- 
 spondent : 
 
 "For some time the scientific world has not been 
 startled and rejoiced by any very great scientific dis- 
 covery, but at the present moment we are on the eve of 
 the publication of one of the greatest scientific discover- 
 ies of the present age. The happy man who has struck 
 on a new and rich vein of scientific truth comes from 
 the Granite City, and is a very distinguished alumnus 
 of the university of Aberdeen. Dr. Ferrier, who was 
 some time ago appointed successor to Dr. Guy, in the 
 chair of Forensic Medicine in King's College, Lon- 
 don, has just crowned the study of years by a most 
 happy and brilliant series of experiments. Dr. Fer- 
 rier was a successful student of philosophy, and gained 
 the Ferguson scholarship in Glasgow before he studied 
 medicine. It was probably his acquaintance with Pro- 
 fessor Bain's psychology that led him to give special 
 attention to the physiology of the brain, and his gradu- 
 ating thesis on the brain, for which he obtained a gold 
 medal, proved that he had already entered on the study 
 in which he is destined to acquire enduring fame. He 
 has never lost sight of the object to which he attached 
 himself so early, and has been for a considerable time 
 thoroughly up to the most advanced knowledge. About 
 a month ago his plans were so far complete that he was 
 ready to begin his experiments with the Easter holi- 
 days. By the invitation of Dr. Crichton Brown he 
 went to Wakefield, and was amply provided with cats, 
 dogs and other animals for his experiments. The re- 
 sults astonished himself, and it is not too much to say
 
 200 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 that during the last month more has been discovered 
 regarding the action of the brain than all the preced- 
 ing knowledge. Physiology is, therefore, on the eve 
 of an extraordinary advance. What Gall and Spurz- 
 heim groped after in a. loose and empirical fashion is 
 now established on the sure ground of experiments. 
 The modus operandi is new and ingenious. The ani- 
 mal to be experimented on is first put under chloro- 
 form. The next thing is to clear away the skull and 
 expose the brain. This, it will be understood, is a dif- 
 ficult and delicate operation, and the animal may live 
 from three hours to four days. All this has been done 
 often enough before, but the difficulty was to get some 
 mode of rousing parts of the brain into activity with- 
 out injuring the parts. The process employed by Dr. 
 Ferrier is what is known as farad izing. After uncov- 
 ering the brain, he applies the point of an electrode to 
 the convolutus of the brain. Its effect is to excite 
 the functional activity of that part, and thereby to show 
 what its real work is. One of the first experiments dis- 
 closed the part that is employed in wagging the tail. 
 Soon after the centres engaged in supplying the limbs, 
 the mouth, head, etc., were discovered, and already 
 Dr. Ferrier has succeeded in almost completing a map 
 of the brain, with all its organs distinguished by the 
 sure and rigorous test of experiment. Nothing could 
 surpass the interest of those experiments. On the table 
 before you is the dog, with the skull removed. All 
 seems, but for the breathing and movement of the brain, 
 an inert mass of dead matter. The doctor applies the 
 electrode, and presently the tail begins to wag. All 
 else is motionless. Another touch, and its forepaw is
 
 AUTHORITATIVE UTTERANCES. 2OI 
 
 stretched out ; another, and its head is erected : an- 
 other, and its mouth opens. 
 
 "Again the magic wand touches the brain, and the 
 animal seems convulsed with fear and rage, and so on 
 the experiments go. Once the divining rod has been 
 discovered, it is comparatively easy for an expert vissica- 
 tor to use it. This discovery so simple, once known, 
 will effect almost a revolution in physiology. One of 
 the chief results attained by Dr. Ferrier is the belief 
 that each convolution is a separate organ, although 
 occasionally several may be conjoined for common 
 work. He also finds that the great motion centres are 
 collected in the front part of the brain a result that 
 shows the phrenologists were not far out in that quar- 
 ter. It has also demonstrated that the nerves moving 
 the muscles of the jaw are just above the ear, where the 
 phrenologists place gustativeness. But other experi- 
 ments make sad havoc with the locality of many of the 
 "bumps." The most singular of all the experiments 
 is one proving that one of the main uses, if not the 
 sole one, of the cerebellum is to supply the muscles of 
 the eye. This is an extraordinary confirmation of one 
 of Professor Bain's most characteristic views. But the 
 most important immediate effect of Dr. Ferrier's dis- 
 covery will be an improved treatment of diseases of the 
 brain. It has found out why considerable portions of 
 the brain may be diseased without interfering with 
 sanity, and why other lesions produce epilepsy. It has 
 succeeded in artificially producing epilepsy in a dog. 
 This is a most wonderful part of the discovery, and 
 proves the truth of the conjecture of Dr. Hewlings 
 Jackson, that epilepsy arises from a lesion between two
 
 202 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 convolutions of the brain. Dr. Ferrier has also found 
 out the origin of chorea, or ' St. Vitus' dance," and 
 has been able to make his animals show all the symp- 
 toms of the disease artificially. He has caused tetanus 
 and other peculiar and difficult states of the muscular 
 system. Curiously enough, Dr. Ferrier's discovery 
 coincides with another almost essential to its practical 
 success. Anatomists have warned phrenologists that 
 they erred in taking the outward shape of the skull 
 as indicating the shape of the brain. The skull varies 
 considerably, and it is impossible to say of any par- 
 ticular part that the brain is such a distance below. 
 Nevertheless, a young anatomist has recently shown 
 that there is a relation between the shape of skull and 
 of the brain, and that it is possible to know what is in 
 the inside of the head without breaking it open. This 
 is most opportune ; for when Dr. Ferrier has mapped 
 out the brain, it will be possible to diagnose a man's 
 faculties as easily as tell his shape. We are glad to 
 learn that at the instance of Professor Huxley the 
 Royal Society has come handsomely forward and voted 
 a grant to Dr. Ferrier to carry out his experiments on 
 monkeys. The monkey is the nearest approach to 
 man in the animal kingdom ; and as it is of course out 
 of the question to experiment on men, the monkey will 
 form an adequate substitute. Altogether, it is likely 
 that Dr. Ferrier's discovery, beyond any discovery of 
 the present generation, will enlarge the circle of human 
 knowledge and contribute largely to the happiness of 
 mankind."
 
 "IS MEDICAL ELECTRICITY A SCIENCE?" 
 
 A LECTURE DELIVERED AT COSMOPOLITAN HALL, PHILA- 
 DELPHIA, MARCH, 1873, BY DR. ELIZABETH J. FRENCH. 
 
 THE following extracts from a lecture delivered by 
 .myself on the above subject, will suffice to embody my 
 views on the plea which I feel bound to put in before 
 closing this volume, for the foundation of some school, 
 college, or institution, where the application of elec- 
 tricity to the cure of disease shall be scientifically 
 taught and demonstrated. 
 
 "I am aware that the question which forms the sub- 
 ject of this lecture will find an affirmative response in 
 the mind of every thinking man and woman. That 
 the application of electricity to medical uses is as much 
 a form of science as its application to telegraphy, no 
 rational being will attempt to deny; but that the laws 
 of medical electricity are as well understood or as uni- 
 versally practiced as those by which the telegraph is 
 worked, no one will pretend to affirm. 
 
 "The only question that remains then is, whether it is 
 as necessary to comprehend and apply the laws gov- 
 erning electrical action in the one case as in the other. 
 
 " The answer to this proposition might doubtless be 
 based upon the results, for example, it could with 
 truth be urged that unless the immutable procedures of 
 law were observed in the application of electricity to 
 the work of telegraphy, there would be no favorable 
 
 203
 
 204 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 effect produced ; but this stringency of action does not 
 become manifest, it may be added, in medical electricity. 
 Here the results are so varied, and range through so 
 many different gradations between absolute failure 
 and perfect cure, that we are not entitled to pronounce 
 upon what the law of electrical application to disease 
 really is. Electricity has been known to kill, as in a 
 stroke of lightning; electricity has been known to cure 
 also, as in the restoration of a paralyzed body, alluded 
 to in this volume; in fact, it is alleged and that with 
 truth that the laws which govern electrical action in 
 the realm of mechanics are known, and always found 
 practical and comprehensible, whilst those which 
 operate in therapeutics are comparatively unknown and 
 unmanageable. Then follow the questions, 'Must we 
 abandon the use of electricity altogether as a remedial 
 agent, or, if continued, must it not remain merely the 
 subject of experimental practice ?' 
 
 "I grant the proposition that electricity regulates 
 itself, and asserts its own authoritative laws in all 
 mechanical action; but in dealing with the human sys- 
 tem have we no standard quite as authoritative in the 
 forms of pain and the aggravations of diseased condi- 
 tions which result from malpractices? 
 
 "The telegraph, and every form of mechanical ap- 
 pliance in which electricity is used as a force, are but 
 means to minister to human comfort and convenience, 
 but health and disease are the elements of life and 
 death. Humanity lives and has its being, or perishes 
 and ceases to be, as health or disease wins the victory. 
 What a miserable fallacy is that attempt at logic, then, 
 that would place mechanical art in a higher category
 
 "IS MEDICAL ELECTRICITY A SCIENCE / 
 
 205 
 
 of importance than medical science ! Meantime I 
 claim that my thirty years' practice as a healer of the 
 sick, is full of the most direful evidences of the serious 
 injuries (injuries even to the very death) which the 
 hap-hazard application of electricity produces upon the 
 human frame. Conditions of induced paralysis, palsy, 
 loss of sight, hearing, nerve-power, brain-power, tetanus, 
 tumors, contractions, stiff joints, and even mental imbe- 
 cility, are effects which constantly arise from the merely 
 experimental use of electricity, and evidences of this, 
 constantly force themselves upon my notice from patients 
 who apply to me as a last and desperate resort, only 
 because they hear that I and my students apply electricity 
 on scientific principles, and not in the reckless and un- 
 scrupulous modes practiced by unthinking experiment- 
 ers. In the first place, then, I insist that the humnn 
 body and 1 the maintenance of its integrity in health is 
 a much more important object than the rapid communi- 
 cation of a message. 
 
 " The message may be sent to say that a human being 
 is perishing from malpractice, with the very force that 
 brings the intelligence. 
 
 " Better, methinks, care first for the integrity of that 
 human being's physical structure, and inform his mind 
 afterwards. 
 
 "The message conveyed to a dead man will not avail 
 much, but the life of the messenger avails everything. 
 Let us not attempt to evade the question at issue with 
 speculations concerning the relative importance of medi- 
 cal and mechanical science. These are points which 
 common sense pronounces upon without any argument 
 at all. 
 
 18
 
 206 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 " My position is definite, and limited to three propo- 
 sitions : i. Are there any laws governing the appli- 
 cation of electricity to remedial purposes, and, if so, 
 can we discover and use them ? 2. Are there any inju- 
 rious results produced upon human beings from the dis- 
 regard or ignorance of the laws of electrical appliances 
 to the cure of disease? and, 3. If medical science and 
 its practice in other departments than electricity, is 
 subject to the supervision of constituted authorities 
 and the restrictions of national and State laws, should 
 not the use of electricity, when applied so largely as it 
 is to the cure of disease, come under the same category 
 of restricted action, and be regulated, like other de- 
 partments of science, by duly constituted authority? 
 
 " Now, although in this lecture I am placing myself in 
 the position both of querist and respondent, and sitting 
 in judgment upon my own propositions, tha't which I 
 herewith submit I submit publicly, and simply place 
 it before the world for suggestion to others, who may 
 either be disposed to improve upon my affirmations, or 
 put them into such practical shape as will thoroughly 
 test their value. 
 
 "To query No. i, I unhesitatingly affirm that there 
 are not only laws governing the action of electricity 
 upon the diseased organism, but that those laws are so 
 comprehensible, exact, and practical, that I am enabled 
 always to say in dealing with my patients, ' I KNOW what 
 the applications I give, will do for you.' I cannot always 
 promise a cure all cases are not curable, and accidents 
 intervene : want of care on the part of my patients in 
 following out my instructions may interrupt the action of 
 the force I apply; but all things being equal, and my
 
 "/S MEDICAL ELECTRICITY A SCIENCE?" 207 
 
 directions in hygienic laws and other respects being 
 carefully followed out, I repeat, I am always in a posi- 
 tion to say, ' I know what electricity will do for you, 
 as I or my students administer it.' 
 
 " I know that such and such points of the body must 
 be dealt with such and such points avoided. I know 
 that such and such currents must be used, and for such 
 exact periods only no more and no less. All this I 
 KNOW. I do not believe, or guess at it, and though 
 there is a perfect ocean of unnavigated science yet to 
 sail over in this great realm of electrical force, as far 
 as I have ventured to steer my barque I have avoided 
 the reefs and shoals on which I have seen many a fine 
 constitution shipwrecked, and thus far carried scores of 
 suffering beings to the shores of health and the ports of 
 safety. I venture to affirm, then, that I am in a position 
 to answer the first query propounded, in the affirmative. 
 
 "To the second, I should have such a tale of suffering 
 and wrong-doing to narrate, so much ignorance and 
 charlatanism to expose, and so many individual char- 
 acters to assail, that I must content myself with another 
 affirmative, and that of a general though a most em- 
 phatic character. 
 
 " There are injurious results produced by ignorant 
 and unskillful applications of electricity to the cure of 
 disease. The evidences of this fact are presented to my- 
 self and the community at large every day. They are 
 multiplying around us, too, on every side, and as the 
 uses of electricity become more and more known and 
 more and more appreciated, so do the abuses increase, 
 and the errors of malpractice grow in proportion to 
 the growing popularity of the practice.
 
 208 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 "If the two preceding propositions can be accepted 
 by others with the same strength of affirmation as they 
 appear to my own mind, then my third position is 
 already established, and it becomes sufficiently clear 
 that we ought to protect the health and well-being of 
 the community by insisting that the use of medical 
 electricity shall no more be left in unskillful hands 
 than the administration of drugs or the application of 
 the surgeon's knife. 
 
 " I have frequently heard it alleged as a reason why 
 it was inexpedient to abolish capital punishment for the 
 crime of murder, that the profound wisdom of civilized 
 law courts could discover no other method of dealing 
 with murderers than by imitating their crime. Now, is 
 it possible that medical practice is reduced to the same 
 pitiful system of expediency, and declines to deal with 
 the pretenders who maltreat a suffering community by 
 the abuse of electricity, because they don't know of 
 any other way to stop the wrong, than by limiting its 
 use to legally qualified medical practitioners? 
 
 ' ' In order that my position may not be misunderstood, 
 and that I may not seem in one breath to be pleading 
 for a legally established right to practice electricity, 
 and in the next that I assume legally qualified practi- 
 tioners commit capital punishment upon the body of 
 electricity, when its use is confined to that distinguished 
 corps alone, I must be permitted to offer a few plain 
 words of explanation. The use of the battery and the 
 working of electric currents in the human system do 
 not form necessary parts of every legally qualified 
 medical practitioner's education. They may or may 
 not do so, but the matter is optional, not obligatory,
 
 "75 MEDICAL ELECTRICITY A SCIENCE r 
 
 209 
 
 with the teachers by whom medical students are pre- 
 pared, or else it depends upon how far electricity has 
 been admitted as a curative agent by the faculty with 
 whom the student is placed. A still greater drawback 
 to the successful use of electricity, even in hands strength- 
 ened by the careful study of anatomical and physiolo- 
 gical science, is the fact that the laws of electrical action 
 are not evolved from the routine studies of anatomy 
 and physiology at all. It is one thing to know the 
 place and functions of an organ, and another to de- 
 termine how it is going to be affected by the use of 
 electricity. 
 
 "Again, I am bound to add, and that with all candor 
 and yet respect for the medical profession in general, 
 that I am not aware that its professors have as yet 
 evolved any system in the application of electrical cur- 
 rents, or have given to the world any definite and de- 
 monstrable set of instructions concerning the patho- 
 logical workings of this wonderful force. I know that 
 elaborate treatises have been written on electricity as a 
 curative agent. Some of these I have read, and others 
 I have seen demonstrated in the pernicious and all but 
 fatal results that have accrued to different persons who 
 have followed out their directions ; but whether these 
 several treatises contain bane or blessing, whether they 
 are true or false to science, their total lack of agree- 
 ment, and the fact that the writers most commonly draw 
 their deductions from isolated experiments rather than 
 well-established principles, leave us no reason to de- 
 termine how far we are safe or otherwise in following 
 the instructions they contain. 
 
 " And this conclusion brings us at once face to face 
 1 8*
 
 210 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 with the fact that a public school or collegiate institute 
 of some kind, is absolutely necessary, where electricity 
 as a science could be studied and taught, and where the 
 teachings promulgated could become the subject of 
 demonstration by the results produced, or of public 
 criticism to all who felt interested in the matter. I 
 would not propose that such an institution should be- 
 come authoritative until it had proved its right to be 
 so by its successes and orderly methods of treatment ; 
 but that which I do claim is, that such an institution is 
 imperatively needed, and that it would form an admi- 
 rable stepping-stone to the great desideratum of the age, 
 namely, the discovery and application of a scientific 
 method in the use of electricity as a curative agent, the 
 principles of which could be taught and improved upon, 
 until medical electricity would be taken from the realm 
 of experiment and empiricism, and hold its own as the 
 curative science of sciences. It may be asked why I 
 make no effort to found such an institution as I hint at, 
 based on my own claims as a discoverer and practitioner. 
 " I answer, because my hands are already full to over- 
 flowing with the demonstrable facts of my practice ; 
 because, moreover, whilst I can teach and demonstrate, 
 I may not be gifted with the genius of organization, 
 whilst I know for a certainty I am not endowed with 
 the financial means necessary for the establishment of 
 such a work. Each craftsman to the accomplishment 
 of his special mission. Mine is to discover the path, 
 and point the way. If competent road-makers and 
 builders will work after me in the direction which it 
 has been my special privilege to find available for the 
 purpose, I do not doubt but that, ere long, Philadelphia
 
 "IS MEDICAL ELECTRICITY A SCIENCE?" 2 ll 
 
 may rejoice in being the first city of civilization to in- 
 augurate electrical medical colleges; the first pioneer 
 to open up to mankind the incalculable blessing of 
 having found, delineated, and crystallized into a 
 science, ' the way of the life-lightnings,' and pointed 
 humanity in the safe, reliable, and scientific 'New Path 
 in Electrical Therapeutics. 1 "
 
 LIST OF REFERENCES. 
 
 BEFORE calling the reader's attention to the few 
 remarkable cases of cure which I select from hundreds 
 of others, equally well attested and striking, I submit 
 for consideration the following list of eminent and 
 distinguished names, to any or all of whom I am per- 
 mitted to refer in evidence that either in their own 
 persons, or those of some members of their families or 
 social circle, I have effected, by my system, such cures 
 as command their esteem and kind acknowledgment : 
 in proof whereof, they cheerfully append this their 
 unqualified endorsement of the value of my treatment 
 and methods : 
 
 THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE EARL and COUNTESS 
 OF CAITHNESS, Portland Place, London, England, and 
 Barrogill Castle, Caithness County, Scotland. 
 
 THE COUNT Di MEDINA POMAR, Portland Place, Lon- 
 don, England. 
 
 A. L. WARNER, M. D., New York City. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. W. H. BURROUGHS, New York City. 
 
 J. GURNEY, Photographer, New York City. 
 
 FRANK H. NORTON, New York City. 
 
 IRVING VAN WART, New York City. 
 
 H. O. BAKER, New York City. 
 
 Rev. CHAS. HOUGHTON, Buffalo, N. Y. 
 212
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 213 
 
 WM. GARDNER WETHERBY, New York City. 
 
 General JOHN A. LEWIS, Buffalo. 
 
 Colonel Fox, Buffalo. 
 
 Mr. CHARLES RICHARDSON, Auburn, New York. 
 
 Captain SEABURY, Boston. 
 
 Dr. PATTEE, Boston. 
 
 DAVID THAYER, M. D., Boston. 
 
 Dr. GILBERT, Boston. 
 
 Mrs. N. W. C. GILSON, Boston. 
 
 Mrs. NELLIE SPRAGUE, Boston. 
 
 A. A. HATHAWAY, M. D., Boston. 
 
 Mr. DAVID NEVINS, Boston. 
 
 Mr. THOMAS WENTWORTH, Boston. 
 
 Mr. J. HARVEY YOUNG, Boston. 
 
 Rev. Dr. WARREN, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. EDWIN FAXON, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. GEORGE HALL, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 T. B. MCCLELLAND, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 HUGH McLEAN, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. LONGSTRETH, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mrs. BELROSE, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mrs. BERRY, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mrs. SISSENGER, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 JOHN C. MORGAN, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 J. MACLEAN, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 L. A. SAUNDERS, M. D., Philadelphia, Pa, 
 
 Miss ANNE McDowELL, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Mr. F. J. DREER, Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 Capt. CHAS. GOUPTILL, Winter Harbor, Maine. 
 
 Prof. S. MORRIS, Ann Harbor, Mich. 
 
 H. PHILLIPS, Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 Dr. SWAIN, Indianapolis, Ind.
 
 214 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Mr. ECKHART, Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 JOHN BLESSLEY, Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 JOHN BOYD, Wheeling, W. Va. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. MICHAEL SWEENEY, Martinsville, Va. 
 
 CHAS. HEMPEL, M. D., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
 
 Dr. THOMAS KISSNER, Martinsville, Va. 
 
 General POWELL, St. Louis, Mo. 
 
 Dr. SENTRE, Columbus, O. 
 
 Mr. CALVIN CARR, Cleveland, O. 
 
 Prof. VON TAGEN, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Rev. GEO. TUTTLE, Kalamazoo, Mich. 
 
 AGNES JOHNSON, M. D., Zanesville, O. 
 
 Mrs. DOUGLASS, Zanesville, O. 
 
 Mrs. BLACK, Zanesville, O. 
 
 Mrs. CHASE, Toledo, O. 
 
 Capt. COOMS, Prospect Harbor, Maine. 
 
 Mr. E. GOODMAN, Ed. Bapt. Standard, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Mr. E. JUDSON, Ed. N. W. Lumberman, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Mrs. HORACE WELLS, Van Wert, O. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. J. W. BULL, Fort Wayne, Indiana. 
 
 Mr. DUMM, Editor Fort Wayne Democrat. 
 
 C. E. BATTERSON, Columbus, O. 
 
 C. H. HERSHHEIGER, Columbus, O. 
 
 Rev. Dr. MULLER, D. D., Buffalo, N. Y. 
 
 Col. H. S. GREENLEAF, Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 P. L. F. REYNOLDS, M. D., Albany, N. Y. 
 
 A. SHEPHERD, M. D., Glendale, O. 
 
 Mr. GEORGE TROWBRIDGE, Glendale, O. 
 
 W. G. HALL, M. D., St. Joseph, Mo. 
 
 Mr. L. SWETT, Chicago, 111. 
 
 Mr. B. M. AUSTIN, Kalamazoo, Mich. 
 
 Hon. W. S. WILCOX, Adrian, Mich., 
 
 and many others.
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 TESTIMONIAL AND PRESENTATION BY LADIES OF BOSTON, 
 MASS., JUNE 15, 1871. 
 
 THE undersigned ladies of Boston, prompted by 
 gratitude, and a deep sense of human sympathy, de- 
 sire to tender a public note of thanks to Prof. Eliza- 
 beth J. French at the close of her last course of private 
 lectures and valuable conversations to ladies, in which 
 she has with so much skill reached the understanding 
 of her class, not only in the elimination of her speci- 
 alty, electricity applied as a remedial and curative 
 agency to the generic diseases of women, etc., but in 
 elucidating the laws of physiology governing health, so 
 that if her listeners improve her counsel they may 
 ameliorate their sufferings, prolong their lives, and 
 elevate their womanhood. 
 
 The result of years of study, the record of an ex- 
 tensive and successful practice, renders Prof. French's 
 parlor lectures of invaluable interest to all not too pre- 
 judiced or bigoted to be enlightened. And we urge 
 that one so proficient to instruct, and so conversant 
 with a mode of treatment which commends itself on 
 investigation to every thinking mind, should not be 
 permitted to leave our city without being publicly pre- 
 sented to our community, especially to women. Her
 
 216 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 cures are wonderful ; any one of which should place 
 her skill and efficiency beyond question. Many of the 
 undersigned are cheerful witnesses that electricity as a 
 therapeutic is not a "humbug" in the hands of this 
 eminently superior lady ; moreover, that it possesses 
 subtle power to eradicate diseases which have baffled 
 the skill of the most eminent physicians. 
 
 Many scoffers have come to her after all hope of re- 
 covery was extinguished, and have become her enthusi- 
 astic advocates after availing themselves of her scientific 
 treatment, and being restored to health and happiness 
 in a marvelously short space of time. 
 
 With the deep affection and respect which Prof. 
 French so richly merits as a physician, a woman, and 
 a benefactress, we feel it an honor to subscribe our- 
 selves her friends, and present her this testimonial : * 
 Mrs. EDWIN FAXON, Mrs. DAVID NEVINS, 
 " J. HARVEY YOUNG, " JAMES ATHERTON, 
 " Dr. MAYO, Miss H. A. McWAiN, 
 
 " W. H. CILLEY, Mrs. NETTIE N. WILDER, 
 " Dr. A. E. CUTTER, " Dr. L. A. BUSTEAD, 
 " NELLIE SPRAGUE, " J. C. PARKS, 
 Miss JENNIE COLLINS, " A. A. BOYNTON, 
 Mrs. C. SEABURY, " E. B. DUNBAR, 
 
 " L. S. EMERY, " M. S. BETTISON, 
 
 " N. J. CROSBY, " J. RICHARDSON, 
 
 " Dr. A. E. GILBERT, " Dr. MINNIE BAKER, 
 " CAROLINE FOSTER, " A. W. C. GILSON, 
 " H. C. LONG, " S. W. JOHNSON, 
 
 and others. 
 
 * The testimonial spoken of was in the shape of an elegant set of 
 Silver service, with a handsome inscription, finely engraved.
 
 TESTIMONIALS. 
 
 TESTIMONIAL FROM LADIES IN OHIO. 
 
 217 
 
 MOUNT VERNON. O., Aug. 18, 1870. 
 
 We, the undersigned ladies of Mount Vernon, Ohio, 
 desire to express our thanks to Mrs. Prof. Elizabeth J. 
 French in a more public manner than the vote of thanks 
 we tendered her at the close of her valuable hygienic 
 and physical culture lectures. We do herein offer to 
 Mrs. Dr. French our most sincere and heartfelt thanks 
 for the affectionate interest she has manifested in our 
 physical well-being, for the relief from suffering afforded 
 many, and for the important instructions imparted in 
 her lectures, which were based upon purely moral and 
 physiological principles. We desire to express our 
 highest appreciation of her unfailing skill as a medical 
 practitioner, and our utmost confidence in her ability 
 to sustain the position which she takes. 
 
 We most cordially and earnestly invite Mrs. Prof. 
 French to again visit this city at her earliest conve- 
 nience, hoping the ladies of Mount Vernon will then 
 have become acquainted with facts that stand out in 
 bold relief before us, making evident the utility of her 
 presence as it regards the use of electricity, and avail 
 themselves of her truly scientific practice, which so nat- 
 urally and freely meets the necessities of our sex. 
 
 Mrs. J. C. SAPP, Mrs. J. H. HAMPTON, 
 " L. N. NORTON, " H. S. PORTER, 
 
 " ALBERT ELLIS, " L. M. MITCHIEL, 
 
 " M. S. HYDE, " W. J. MORTON, 
 
 " N. BOYTON, " E. LANE, 
 
 " M. L. COHEN ; " N. TlLTON, 
 
 K IQ
 
 218 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Mrs. E. MCELROY, 
 " L. H. BENEDICT, 
 " S. W. LIPPITT, 
 " R. THOMPSON, 
 " J. M. RAWE, 
 
 " A. J. WlANT, 
 
 Miss LOUISA REEVES, 
 " ELLA COHEN, 
 " A. EVANS, 
 " M. HODGE, 
 " M. BEACH, 
 
 Mrs. S. BOWERS, 
 
 " J. C. SPENDLER, 
 
 " E. J. REESE, 
 
 " S. MARTIN, 
 
 " L. WARNER, 
 
 " M. R. NEIPRASCHK, 
 
 " J. RUSH, 
 Miss H. L. McKiBBEN, 
 
 " R. LIPPESK, 
 
 " L. BOWERS, 
 
 " L. GRAFF, 
 
 and others.
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 No. i. 
 
 CURE OF AN OVARIAN TUMOR OF THIRTEEN YEARS* 
 STANDING. 
 
 Case of Mrs. John C. Gay, of Prospect Harbor, Goulds- 
 boro, Maine. 
 
 THE particulars of the following wonderful and 
 interesting case of cure, under electrical treatment 
 scientifically applied, were furnished by the patient who 
 forms the subject of the narrative. The names of the 
 various physicians who were consulted in this case, and 
 who pronounced adverse opinions as to the possibility 
 of cure except through a painful and hazardous surgi- 
 cal operation, are purposely withheld, as the publisher's 
 desire is only to forward the interests of truth and sci- 
 ence, and to bear faithful witness to the value of elec- 
 trical therapeutics, without casting invidious reflections 
 on the advocates of other schools of practice. 
 
 Mrs. John C. Gay was first treated medically for 
 ovarian tumor in the year 1858, at which time the case 
 presented a well-defined evidence of its nature. From 
 that year up to 1866 the disease became more and more 
 painfully developed, and, notwithstanding the advice 
 of many well-skilled physicians in various districts. 
 
 219
 
 220 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 the sufferer continued to grow worse and the symptoms 
 to increase in dangerous and obstinate tendency. 
 
 In the fall of 1866, Mrs. Gay, acting under the 
 advice of those physicians in her own State who felt 
 themselves unable to afford her relief, went to Boston, 
 where she submitted her case to several of the most 
 eminent practitioners of the city. She was at length 
 induced to become a patient of the City Hospital, and 
 for three years of incessant suffering Mrs. Gay attended 
 constantly to the treatment prescribed by the hospital 
 faculty, but still without obtaining the long-sought-for 
 alleviation of her dreadful complaint. 
 
 During this distressing period, Mrs. Gay became 
 both an out- and in-door patient. She submitted to 
 many examinations, and followed faithfully the various 
 methods of treatment prescribed for her case. In con- 
 sequence of the continual state of suffering and great 
 mental anxiety which attended these long years of en- 
 durance, the general condition of the patient's health 
 was so reduced that the hospital surgeons, who pro- 
 nounced an operation the only available method of 
 cure, declined to perform it until the tone of the system 
 had been renovated by appropriate treatment. 
 
 During the various examinations to which Mrs. Gay 
 was subjected, the statement that she was suffering 
 from an ovarian tumor was constantly confirmed, and 
 the opinion reiterated that a surgical operation would 
 ultimately be the only method of removing it. 
 
 In March, 1867, Mrs. Gay returned to Maine, in the 
 hope that her general health might receive benefit from 
 the change. Failing in this expectation, she again re- 
 turned to Boston, and once more entered herself as an
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 221 
 
 out-door patient of the City Hospital. It was after 
 several additional months of fruitless medical treatment 
 that one of the consulting surgeons of the institution 
 frankly assured the patient that there remained for her 
 no alternative but to submit to the much-dreaded oper- 
 ation or prepare for death. Mrs. Gay herself relates 
 her interview with the doctor in question, in the fol- 
 lowing terms: 
 
 "Mrs. Gay," said her adviser, "it is useless to dis- 
 guise the fact that we consider yours a very bad case, 
 and whilst we may hope for a successful result from an 
 operation, the risk of a fatal termination would be very 
 great." 
 
 Mrs. Gay questioned this gentleman as to how many 
 chances of success there might be in a case as bad as 
 hers. 
 
 The doctor replied, "Not more than one in ten." 
 
 The patient adds : 
 
 " This one chance in ten I resolved not to hazard, 
 and feeling that I had exhausted the best skill at my 
 command, and that there was no more hope for me, 
 in April, 1869, I returned to my home to await, as 
 patiently as I could, the approach of death." 
 
 It was in July, 1871, that Dr. Elizabeth J. French, 
 professor of electrical therapeutics, went to Winter 
 Harbor, Maine, to attend an invalid with whom Mrs. 
 Gay was acquainted. The success which resulted from 
 Dr. French's treatment induced her patient to urge 
 Mrs. Gay to consult her likewise. Rather to satisfy 
 the entreaties of her husband than with any faith in a 
 successful issue, Mrs. Gay at length consented to visit 
 the professor. At that time the tumor had become so 
 19*
 
 222 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 large, and such a vast array of sympathetic evils had 
 become developed in the unfortunate patient's system, 
 that her appearance was as deplorable as her case 
 seemed hopeless. The form was bent over toward one 
 side, and the entire abdomen, especially about the 
 region of the tumor, was so frightfully swollen and 
 distorted that the sufferer moved with extreme difficulty, 
 and could by no possibility assume an erect attitude. 
 
 Dr. French, without inquiring into the details of the 
 case, diagnosed it by her usual method, applying the 
 battery to different points of the cranium; and after 
 pronouncing the chief source of difficulty to be a large 
 fibrous ovarian tumor, unhesitatingly declared her 
 opinion that it could be entirely cured by the scientific 
 application of electricity. 
 
 After thirteen years of incessant suffering and fruit- 
 less treatment, after exhausting, as the patient herself 
 alleged, "the best medical skill which she could com- 
 mand," and, upon the highest authority she could con- 
 sult, "having resigned herself to die," it is no wonder 
 if Dr. French's opinion at first had but little weight. 
 That she should have been pronounced incurable in 
 years past, when her system was far more liable to re- 
 cuperation, and curable at a period when, to use her 
 own expression, she was "almost dead," seemed to the 
 poor patient more like the utterance of presumptuous 
 ignorance than skillful science. Deeming, however, 
 that her miserable condition was not even susceptible 
 of aggravation, and that no new experiments could 
 add to the suffering she was then enduring, Mrs. Gay 
 at last consented to receive one electrical treatment, 
 the result of which encouraged her so highly that she
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 223 
 
 submitted to several succeeding treatments, and at the 
 end of ten days from the time of her examination she 
 found she was able to stand nearly straight, and the 
 size of the abdomen was reduced quite eight inches in 
 circumference. 
 
 After four weeks of treatment with Prof. French, 
 Mrs. Gay affirms that the tumor had almost entirely 
 disappeared, whilst her general health became so much 
 improved that she was able to dispense with the doc- 
 tor's attendance. Mrs. Gay then purchased a battery 
 and continued to treat herself in the manner pre- 
 scribed by Dr. French, and in the August of 1872 
 testified to the efficacy of the cure which had been 
 wrought upon her, in the following words : 
 
 "I have at this time no sign of tumor. I am as 
 well able to work, walk, run, and perform my house- 
 hold duties as I was twenty years ago, and I am en- 
 gaged in applying the same great remedial agent to 
 others as I have benefited from myself. I have now 
 the great satisfaction of relieving many from suffering, 
 and can truly say I thank God for electricity and Dr. 
 French. 
 
 " MRS. J. C. GAY, 
 " PROSPECT HARBOR, GOULDSBORO, ME."
 
 224 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 No. 2. 
 
 CURE OF SCROFULOUS SORE EYES, AND RESTORATION 
 FROM PARTIAL AND OCCASIONAL TOTAL BLINDNESS, 
 BY ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Testimony of H. W. Phillips, Esq., of Wheeling, West 
 Va., in the Case of his Child. 
 
 The following striking case illustrates most forcibly 
 the value of electrical treatment scientifically applied, 
 not only as a restorative under one of the worst calami- 
 ties that can afflict the race, namely, loss of sight, 
 but also proves how far such a method of practice be- 
 comes effective ; in fact, the last resort of science, when 
 all other curative means are at fault. As nothing can 
 add to the convincing character of personal testimony 
 in strange and unusual instances, we shall here subjoin 
 the candid and straightforward statement of the party 
 most nearly interested, namely, the father of the 
 afflicted child. It must be premised that the gentle- 
 man whose testimony is thus cited was not only a 
 stranger to Dr. Elizabeth J. French, but, in the com- 
 mencement of his little girl's treatment by that lady, 
 was prejudiced against her practice, and the child's ex- 
 amination in her initiatory visit was undertaken against 
 his wishes ; also, it should be remarked, that the little 
 patient's condition was one of several years' standing, 
 and that all attempts at alleviation by the regular fac- 
 ulty had been sought in many places, and through 
 many systems of medical practice, in vain.
 
 CASES OF CURE. 225 
 
 Extracts from a Letter, dated Wheeling, January 7, 1870. 
 
 "Our child, when first treated by Dr. Elizabeth J. 
 French last fall, had scrofulous sore eyes, and at times 
 was totally blind. She had been under the care of 
 some of the most eminent physicians, and they had 
 been unable to cure her after a trial of three years. 
 For several months previous to her treatment by Dr. 
 French, she had been totally blind. Even under the 
 first manipulation at the doctor's hands, the little suf- 
 ferer was enabled to dispense with her bandage, and 
 enjoyed a partial return of her eyesight." Mr. Phillips 
 continues : " In a short time she had her eyes opened, 
 with all the inflammation removed; a-nd in about a 
 month's time she was entirely cured. Ever since then 
 she has been able to bear her eyes exposed to the light, 
 which before she could not endure. For several months 
 previous to Dr. French's treatment, she had not only 
 been deprived of sight, but was obliged to be shut up 
 in a dark room with her eyes constantly bandaged. I 
 have no hesitation in saying that if we had not ap- 
 plied to Dr. French, and used her electrical treatment, 
 our child would now be blind." 
 
 Mrs. Phillips, the little girl's mother, who had also 
 been a great sufferer for many years, and sought relief 
 from many physicians in vain, at length became a 
 patient of Dr. French's; and in reference to the results 
 of her treatment, her husband writes thus in the con- 
 cluding part of the letter quoted above : 
 
 "Mrs. Phillips was also under Dr. French's treat- 
 ment for a combination of diseases, and was very 
 much benefited by her; but, as some of her diffi- 
 
 JC*
 
 226 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 culties were of long standing, Dr. French advised her 
 to purchase a battery and continue its use. Mrs. 
 Phillips still perseveres in the treatment prescribed and 
 directed by Dr. French, and improves so manifestly, 
 that I am in hopes she will be entirely restored. Dr. 
 French whilst here cured a number of other persons 
 of different complaints, to my certain knowledge. 
 "Respectfully yours, 
 
 "H. W. PHILLIPS. 
 
 " WHEELING, WEST VA., January 7, 1870." 
 
 In 1872, two years later than the date of the above 
 fetter, Dr. French revisited Wheeling, and found the 
 little girl's eyes still continued well ; in fact, per- 
 manently restored to their normal condition. 
 
 No. 3. 
 
 CASE OF COMPLICATED UTERINE DIFFICULTIES, AND 
 INTERNAL INJURIES OF EIGHTEEN YEARS* STANDING, 
 CURED BY ELECTRICAL TREATMENT. 
 
 If the claims set forth in this volume, for the superior 
 efficacy of electricity over all other known curative 
 agents, may appear liable to doubt, or susceptible of 
 denial, the reader is referred to the details of the follow- 
 ing highly important and interesting cases, the perusal 
 of which cannot fail to command attention even from 
 the most skeptical. 
 
 Although, for obvious reasons, the name of the lady 
 whose case is herewith detailed cannot be published, 
 the list of respectable referees attached to this work must
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 227 
 
 prove a sufficient guarantee for the strict authenticity 
 of every statement it contains. 
 
 Mrs. , formerly of Massachusetts, was endowed 
 
 with an exceedingly fragile temperament even from her 
 earliest youth. 
 
 Being developed into premature womanhood at the 
 age of twelve years, her own description of the suffer- 
 ings she subsequently endured in the form of female 
 weaknesses, renders it likely that some years antecedent 
 to her marriage she was afflicted with falling of the 
 womb. 
 
 The lack of physiological knowledge, so ignorantly 
 withheld in the education of our young women, ren- 
 dered the sufferer unaware of her condition, and prob- 
 ably tended to confirm it into a chronic malady. 
 
 About the age of twenty-four the young lady became 
 
 the wife of Mr. , and shortly afterwards miscarried 
 
 after only a few weeks' pregnancy. 
 
 From the effects of this sickness Mrs. did not 
 
 recover for several months, and when she again gave 
 promise of becoming a mother, her sufferings during 
 the whole period of gestation were most acute and con- 
 tinuous. 
 
 During the five months before the birth of her child 
 Mrs. was unable to rise from her bed, dress her- 
 self, or undertake the slightest amount of exertion. 
 
 Early in the eighth month of pregnancy the suffer- 
 ing lady gave birth to a child, after some thirty-six 
 hours of severe and unmitigated labor-pains. The 
 delivery was what is commonly called a cross-birth, 
 only effected at last by instruments, and the attending 
 physician declared, the fact that the lives of mother
 
 22 8 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and child were both preserved under these adverse cir- 
 cumstances was little short of a miracle. It has sub- 
 sequently been stated by the patient herself that no 
 bandages or compressions were applied to reunite the 
 parts torn, lacerated, and unnaturally distended by the 
 distressing conditions of such a delivery; and that 
 during the months of intense agony that succeeded, 
 the foundations were laid, from which arose a com- 
 plication of disorders, which became chronic, in the 
 regions of the uterus, bladder, liver, all the abdominal 
 organs, and, by sympathy, in the action of the heart 
 and respiratory organs. 
 
 For eighteen years Mrs. was a constant and 
 
 acute sufferer, whether from the effects of organic dis- 
 abilities peculiar to her system, whether from the want 
 of proper medical treatment immediately after the birth 
 of her child, or a combination of both circumstances, we 
 do not presume to say. Suffice it that after eighteen 
 years from the period of delivery the uterine passage 
 was still unclosed, and the laceration and exposure of the 
 maternal organs presented an appearance that might 
 well have resulted from a delivery of only a few hours. 
 
 In the mean time the unfortunate lady had become 
 the patient successively of several of the most eminent 
 physicians of Massachusetts, and the expenses attend- 
 ing the various experiments practiced upon her during 
 her eighteen years of incessant martyrdom amounted, 
 as we have her husband's warrant for asserting, to sev- 
 eral thousands of dollars. For the last five years of this 
 
 most painful experience, Mrs. was wholly confined 
 
 to her bed. Every part of her organism was afflicted 
 in sympathy with the main source of suffering. Utter
 
 CASES OP CURE. 
 
 229 
 
 prostration, agonizing pains in every orgart> disease in 
 almost every shape, seemed so entirely to possess the 
 frame, that the chief miracle of the whole narrative is, 
 that the vital forces could have been sustained at all 
 under such afflicting conditions. 
 
 In 1871, after eighteen years' experience of the above 
 
 character, Mrs. , yielding to the advice of a friend, 
 
 consented to receive a visit from Dr. French, then 
 entirely unknown to her, and submit to an examina- 
 tion by the doctor's method of electrical diagnosis. 
 
 In addition to several organic difficulties, arising in 
 part from functional obstructions and nervous sym- 
 pathy, Dr. French found in the case of Mrs. a 
 
 well-defined condition of prolapsus uteri, the body of 
 the uterus being enlarged to about six times the ordinary 
 size, and the os distended either way to an enormous 
 extent. There was a considerable enlargement and 
 advanced condition of fibrous tumor in the left ovary; 
 considerable inflammation of the bladder and kidneys; 
 general disarrangement of the digestive organs ; 
 highly inflamed condition of the liver and spleen ; a 
 considerable enlargement of the heart, and consequent 
 distress in the respiratory organs. There were three 
 large encephaloid tumors about the neck, and the whole 
 body was swelled to enormous proportions. 
 
 Dr. French made a diagnosis of this complicated 
 case on the loth of March, 1871. The patient was 
 then lying propped up in that bed to which she had 
 been imprisoned for upwards of five years. Dr. French 
 concluded her examination by unhesitatingly declaring 
 that she could put Mrs. - on her feet in less than 
 three months.
 
 230 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Dr. French's first electrical treatment was applied in 
 this case on the i2th of March, and continued steadily 
 every day for seven weeks, at the expiration of which 
 
 time Mrs. was so far recovered that she traveled 
 
 six miles to the city where Dr. French resided, to re- 
 ceive her treatment nearer the doctor's residence. On 
 the 26th of May, about ten weeks from the commence- 
 ment of Dr. French's treatment, the patient undertook 
 the journey from Boston, Mass., to Atlanta, Ga., 
 and not only performed it with ease and comfort to 
 herself, but her general health became benefited by the 
 change. The patient subsequently purchased a battery, 
 and in her absence from Dr. French, continued to use 
 it as directed. 
 
 These treatments, together with an occasional ap- 
 plication of electricity from the doctor, have completely 
 destroyed the tumorous condition of the ovary, re- 
 stored the uterus to its usual size, and reduced the 
 induration. The accompanying symptoms of acute 
 suffering and local distress in all the other organs have 
 disappeared ; the abdomen has become reduced at 
 least twenty inches in circumference. The encephaloid 
 tumors are reduced from a size which would have filled 
 a half-pint measure to mere kernel-like indurations ; 
 and now, in February 1872, the patient performs all 
 her usual household avocations, walks, travels, and 
 enjoys as fair a share of health as any lady with a 
 naturally delicate organism could be expected to do ; 
 and although continued treatments are still deemed 
 necessary to rebuild the organs that have been for so 
 many years abused by experimental practices and their 
 vitality sopped by disease, the lady herself passes among
 
 CASES OF CURE. 231 
 
 her acquaintance and friends as one restored from the 
 dead, and one of the most forcible living illustrations 
 that the world can produce of the efficacy of electrical 
 therapeutics scientifically applied as the last best resort 
 of those afflicted by disease. 
 
 No. 4. 
 
 MALIGNANT PUSTULE. 
 
 "This disease, fortunately, is of rare occurrence, 
 since, in a large majority of cases, it terminates fatally 
 in from twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The origin or 
 cause of the disease is not well defined or understood. 
 The French physicians, who term it pustule maligne, 
 had for a time the theory that it resulted from the bite 
 of a fly that had recently been feeding upon decom- 
 posed animal matter, since its action upon the system 
 so much resembled the poison communicated some- 
 times to medical students in the dissecting-room from 
 the cut or scratch of a knife. This theory was aban- 
 doned, however, when a case occurred where it was 
 known that by no possibility could a fly or flies have 
 approached the patient. All agree, however, in pro- 
 nouncing it a most virulent poison, soon entering the 
 circulation and terminating in death, unless arrested in 
 its first stages. It comes in the form of a small watery 
 pimple, exceedingly painful from almost the first mo- 
 ment, generally about the face, near the nose or on 
 the lips, but sometimes on other portions of the body.
 
 232 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 " In the autumn of 1859, about ten o'clock one night, 
 I felt a painful, pricking sensation in the middle finger 
 of the right hand, near the nail. I had been engaged 
 during the evening in some work, when I might have 
 driven a splinter into my finger, and, supposing I had 
 done so, took out rny knife to remove it. I found only 
 a small watery pimple, from which, upon pricking and 
 squeezing, a single drop of greenish water exuded. 
 My greatest surprise was in the exceeding painfulness 
 of so apparently small a matter; but not dreaming 
 there was any especial danger to be apprehended, I 
 wrapped around it a cloth saturated in a simple lini- 
 ment, and went to bed. 
 
 "In the morning it was very painful, the finger 
 swollen and stiff, and the pimple or spot about the 
 size of a large pin-head of a purple color. I applied 
 a poultice, and took no further notice of it until about 
 three o'clock in the afternoon, when my attention was 
 arrested by a strange, burning sensation running up 
 my arm in regular pulsations, and flashing to the heart, 
 followed immediately by a chill. The sensation was 
 so strange and painful that I felt, instinctively, danger 
 approaching in some form. I went immediately to 
 Dr. French, No. 8 Fourth Avenue, New York. She 
 seemed at once to apprehend the case, and ordered an 
 electric vapor-bath prepared instantly. I had been 
 seated perhaps three minutes when told my bath was 
 ready. I rose to go to it, took one or two steps, and 
 fell fainting to the floor; was told afterwards that I 
 had a hard fit, with frothing at the mouth. I am told 
 I was unconscious some ten minutes. I then, with 
 assistance, reached the bath, and had a strong current
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 
 
 2 33 
 
 of electricity applied down the arm. I remained in 
 the bath some fifteen minutes, and although the tem- 
 perature was much higher than I have ever taken it 
 before or since, viz., 140 Fahrenheit, I was chilly. 
 While I was in the bath, an eminent physician and 
 personal friend was sent for. He arrived soon after I 
 came out of the bath, and while reclining upon a 
 lounge and having electricity applied, he unhesita- 
 tingly pronounced it malignant pustule, and com- 
 menced cauterizing the sore with nitrate of silver as a 
 counteracting poison. Dr. French had prepared poul- 
 tices of bran and vinegar, and during the evening and 
 through the night electricity was almost constantly 
 applied, with poultices frequently changed and applied 
 quite hot, with occasional cauterizations. During the 
 night I was partially insane. Early next morning the 
 physician alluded to brought with him an old and emi- 
 nent practitioner. This physician saw no hope, and 
 felt that further effort was useless. My friend the 
 first physician then advised Dr. French to telegraph 
 at once to my brother, who was out of the city, that I 
 could not live many hours. Mrs. French replied, 
 'No, doctor, he will not die. Electricity will save 
 him.' 
 
 "During this entire day and until near midnight, 
 although the applications of electricity were almost 
 incessant, no positive evidence of a change occurred. 
 About this time, however, the rigidity of the muscles 
 began to relax; the color of the skin changed and 
 assumed a more life-like hue. I grew warm, and soon, 
 under the influence of electricity, a profuse perspira- 
 tion broke out, and by morning I was pronounced out 
 20*
 
 234 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 of danger by the physicians who had given me up the 
 day before. It was many days, however, before the 
 poison was entirely expelled from the system and I 
 was fully restored to health and strength. 
 
 "About the time of my attack two cases occurred, 
 one in the city of New York and one in Brooklyn ; 
 and both terminated fatally, although treated by un- 
 questionable medical skill. I have no hesitation, there- 
 fore, in asserting, as my positive conviction, that I owe 
 my escape from death with this terrible disease to the 
 scientific applications of electricity by Dr. Elizabeth J. 
 French. 
 
 "T. CULBERTSON. 
 
 " PHILADELPHIA, March 17, 1873." 
 
 No. 5. 
 
 From the Fort Wayne, Indiana, Democrat. 
 SUN-STROKE. 
 
 " Mrs. Professor French has met with no inconsider- 
 able success in her treatment of diseases by electricity. 
 We are handed the following, and can say in regard to 
 it, that we know the subscriber to be an actual resident 
 of this city, and a man that could not be influenced by 
 love or money to make a statement other than the truth. 
 (Editor ' Fort Wayne Democrat. ' ) 
 
 " I have been suffering intensely from a partial sun- 
 stroke, received some two years ago in Cincinnati, O., 
 and have applied to many physicians for relief without 
 avail. I commenced treatment with Mrs. Professor
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 2 35 
 
 French, May 17, 1870, and after three electric ap- 
 plications felt great relief, and am now (May 27) 
 almost entirely free from pain. I know that my case, 
 pronounced by some of our best physicians incurable, 
 has been greatly benefited, and I feel that this doctor 
 has done me more good in this short time than all the 
 rest put together for the last two years. 
 
 "A. J. PlCKINS, 
 
 "Fort Wayne, Indiana" 
 
 No. 6. 
 
 RHEUMATISM, RESULTING IN SEVERE MUSCULAR CON- 
 TRACTION OF THE LOWER LIMBS. 
 
 James Gordman, Canada West, had been a martyr 
 to rheumatism almost from childhood, and for eleven 
 years the muscles of his lower limbs were so contracted 
 and drawn that his heels rested upon his hips. He had 
 spent four years in the hospitals of Paris, and three 
 years in an English hospital, and was discharged as 
 incurable. In 1852, in his thirty-second year, he 
 was brought to me in New York City. In his case I 
 used the vapor-bath in connection with electricity, 
 treating him every day, one day electricity without 
 the bath, and on alternate days electricity in connec- 
 tion with the bath ; and I will here add that the elec- 
 tric vapor-bath, properly administered, is most valuable 
 in most cases, and in some almost indispensable. In 
 five weeks Mr. Gordman was so far restored that he 
 could walk quite well with the simple aid of a cane
 
 236 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 only ; was free from pain, and his general health quite 
 toned up. Through me he obtained a battery (not 
 nearly so effective as the present improved Kiddei 
 battery, but the best then in use), returned to Canada, 
 followed up the electric treatment in accordance with 
 written instructions from me, and has not only entirely 
 recovered, but has himself treated, cured, or relieved 
 many others. 
 
 E. J. FRENCH. 
 
 No. 7. 
 
 TESTIMONY OF MRS. EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN, THE 
 CELEBRATED LECTURER, ON THE CURE OF A THROAT 
 DISEASE AND THE RECOVERY OF HER VOICE. 
 [From the ''Philadelphia Press" of March 7, 1873.] 
 
 " PHILADELPHIA, March 7, 1873. 
 " To THE EDITOR OF THE ' PRESS' : 
 
 " SIR, Although a foreigner in your country, and 
 only a temporary sojourner in this city, I am suffi- 
 ciently acquainted with its journalistic literature to 
 appreciate the broad and catholic tone of ' The Press' 
 in relation to all the mooted questions of the day. 
 Believing that the editor of such a journal will accept 
 of such suggestions as tend to the evolution of new 
 ideas, uninfluenced by crafts, cliques, parties, or sects, 
 I earnestly solicit the use of your columns in calling the 
 attention of large-hearted and large-brained members 
 of the medical faculty to a phase of electrical science 
 calculated to unravel a profound problem, and present 
 an invaluable contribution to the realms of therapeutic 
 art. If I understand aright the position of medical
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 
 
 237 
 
 men, the chief obstacle to their success in ameliorating 
 the sufferings of the race are, first, the lack of a more 
 exact method in diagnosing disease than a reliance on 
 the superficial signs afforded by symptoms. Next, they 
 fail to arrive at any specific method by which they can 
 deal directly with the causes rather than the effects of 
 physical disturbances. For many years past I have 
 been interested in observing the efforts of the more 
 progressive members of the medical faculty in England, 
 France, Germany, and America to place therapeutic 
 science on the basis of reliable principles, both in the 
 diagnosis and treatment of disease. 
 
 " I know it is the popular belief that medical practi- 
 tioners desire to veil their art behind the mask of lingual 
 mystery, besides acting in sundry other ways more cal- 
 culated to extend the sphere of their practice than the 
 circle of their knowledge; but, on the other hand, I 
 know that there are many noble and progressive minds 
 in the medical ranks who have been long and faithfully 
 seeking to convert probabilities into certainties, and 
 symptomatic indications into infallible diagnoses. 
 
 "Among these progressionists I have noticed that 
 medical electricity has found much favor, and that 
 many of the most eminent men in the profession re- 
 cognize it as a valuable adjunct in their practice. I 
 presume there are many who have thus realized the 
 value of electricity in special cases, but who have felt 
 baffled by its uncertainty of action in others. 
 
 " I know that strenuous efforts have been made to 
 discover such varying currents of electricity as would 
 produce different results on different conditions of dis- 
 ease : and I also know how much the value of elec-
 
 238 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 tricity as a remedial agent has been lessened by the 
 unscrupulous practices of the ignorant and the hap 
 hazard application of the battery to all manner of dis- 
 eases by unscientific charlatans. As I have myself 
 'suffered many things at the hands of the physicians,' 
 and submitted to be experimented upon by French, 
 German, and English electricians, until the greatest 
 marvel of their unscientific practice is that I am now 
 alive to protest against it, so I respectfully submit that 
 I have some right to be heard when I affirm that this 
 beautiful Quaker City contains within its limits the 
 long-sought-for solution to the problem of medical 
 electrical science, and that here, in this great emporium 
 of therapeutic art, resides a comparatively unknown 
 practitioner, who, after twenty-five years of patient 
 study and constant experience in the application of 
 electricity as a remedial agent, has discovered the laws 
 which make its application a mathematical certainty, 
 whether in the diagnosis or treatment of disease. One 
 of the specialties of this lady's discovery is her remark- 
 able power to find ' all the diseases to which flesh is 
 heir 1 mapped out on the brain, so that by the applica- 
 tion of electricity to the cranium she describes the con- 
 dition of the organism with unfailing precision. Her 
 methods of treatment also are based upon the adapta- 
 tion of different currents to different tissues, organs, 
 and diseases, and, as far as I have been able to observe, 
 every disease that is curable can by this method be con- 
 quered. The fact that this lady can teach her method 
 to her pupils, in the form of a regular system, is a proof 
 that her claims are susceptible of demonstration, and 
 based upon the procedures of fundamental principles.
 
 CASES OF CURE, 
 
 2 39 
 
 "As the remarkable phase of therapeutics to which 
 I am calling attention involves the possibility of revo- 
 lutionizing the whole realm of science in that direction, 
 I will ask permission to add an item of personal expe- 
 rience which may serve to illustrate the working of the 
 system, and define the ground upon which I ask credit 
 for my statements. 
 
 "Some twenty years ago, whilst studying singing at 
 the Royal Academies of Music in London, Paris, and 
 Milan, my throat became seriously affected, and I was 
 compelled to relinquish my profession as a vocalist. 
 At the Royal Haymarket Theatre, London, where I 
 subsequently became a performer, I still found my 
 voice injured by the complaint with which I suffered. 
 As one of 'Her Majesty's servants,' I was entitled to 
 attendance from Mr. Liston, Sir Benjamin Brodie, and 
 other medical men eminent in their profession, to 
 whom my case became a subject of interest. 
 
 "After a succession of painful surgical operations, 
 none of which were effectual in restoring my voice, I 
 was advised, as the only means of checking the progress 
 of rapid pulmonary consumption, to take a long sea 
 voyage. Realizing the hopelessness of my case, and 
 the objection my medical attendants must feel to see a 
 well-known artiste die under their hands, I followed 
 this advice, and made a voyage to America. Shortly 
 after my arrival in New York, I attempted to resume 
 my profession by giving public readings; but the 
 difficulties in my throat, although temporarily modified 
 by my voyage, returned with such force that my physi- 
 cian, Dr. A. D. Wilson, of New York, decided that 
 any continuance of vocal efforts might terminate fatally
 
 240 
 
 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 in a few weeks. It was at this juncture that I was ad- 
 vised to consult an electric physician. Being imbued 
 with strong prejudices against electricians in general, 
 and female doctors in particular, I followed the advice 
 tendered me with great reluctance, and anything but 
 a predisposition in its favor. Before my examination 
 was ended, however, my unreasonable prejudices were 
 entirely removed. The lady I visited not only diag- 
 nosed my case with marvelous precision, but promised 
 me a cure. 
 
 "In one month after the prediction of my early 
 death and burial, my throat was sufficiently restored 
 by electric treatment to enable me to undertake long 
 and arduous representations at the Broadway Theatre, 
 and within three months from the time of my first 
 treatment, I commenced my career as a public lecturer, 
 in which capacity I have continued for the last sixteen 
 years, speaking, on an average, five times a week, and 
 filling your own Academy of Music, and many of the 
 largest halls in the States, without the slightest fatigue 
 or inconvenience. 
 
 "I would not be guilty of thus egotistically citing 
 my own experiences, did not my public position enable 
 me to refer to great numbers of well-known persons, 
 both in Europe and America, in verification of my 
 statements. My professional career in London and 
 Paris seemed to stereotype the circumstances of my 
 case upon the minds of many eminent medical men, 
 so that, when I returned to London some six years 
 since, and exhibited my recovered powers of voice in 
 public addresses to several thousands of people, ex- 
 pressions of astonishment greeted me from all who
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 241 
 
 remembered me, and had reason to believe those 
 powers had been sacrificed to unsuccessful surgical 
 operations. 
 
 "In my own person, then, sir, I am an illustration 
 of the beneficial effects of electricity scientifically 
 applied, and when others complain that they have 
 failed to improve, and some even affirm that they 
 have suffered injury from its use, could I feel jus- 
 tified if, from any feeling of personal reticence, I 
 withheld from the community the knowledge that the 
 clue was found which would make the application of 
 this force as certain as the working of the Atlantic 
 cable, and its action as reliable as the theorems of 
 mathematics ? 
 
 " Having devoted much time to the study of medi- 
 cine myself, I have frequently been urged by my 
 teachers to devote myself wholly to its practice; but, 
 like Hahnemann, I have 'felt despair at the total lack 
 of any reliable system of diagnosing disease,' and so 
 little faith in any modes of treatment which paltered 
 with the effects, rather than the causes of physical dis- 
 turbances, that, like that great philosopher, I should 
 infallibly 'have deemed it my duty to put on mourning 
 for every patient who might die under my hands.' It 
 was with these views that I, last summer, attended some 
 classes in Boston, where I found the lady to whom I 
 owed the recovery of my voice reading off, with un- 
 varying accuracy, the physical disturbances in her 
 patients' systems by cranial applications of electricity, 
 and through the same force producing cures which 
 were truly marvelous. At first I was disposed to 
 attribute these unusual powers to certain superterres- 
 L 21
 
 242 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 trial sources with which I am myself very familiar, but 
 on this point the lady soon convinced me of my error. 
 She not only claimed, but absolutely demonstrated, to 
 me the fact, that her methods are based upon purely 
 scientific principles and electrical laws which she has 
 discovered in twenty-five years of deep research and 
 patient experiment. She showed me that different 
 currents can be evolved from carefully-constructed bat- 
 teries, and adapted, with invariable results, to different 
 characters of disease. 
 
 "Some of this lady's methods I have myself studied 
 and verified. I have examined the improvements sug- 
 gested by her in the mechanism of the batteries she 
 uses ; proved the variety of the currents she claims, 
 and watched the success of their action upon different 
 organs and tissues. I have learned from her the law 
 by which we can discover all the conditions of the 
 organism, whether in health or disease, mapped out 
 upon the brain, and though it may take a lifetime to 
 arrive at the skill and precision achieved by the dis- 
 coverer of the system herself, I have seen enough to 
 assure me she has opened up a new path in electrical 
 and anthropological science, the end of which must 
 conduct us into fields of grand and untrodden dis- 
 covery. 
 
 " I have already trespassed too long upon your 
 columns, Mr. Editor, whilst dilating on the interesting 
 experiments in which I have been a favored partici- 
 pant ; but I have felt it incumbent on me to make 
 some effort to bring these profound indications of 
 progress in medical science before the community, and 
 I know of no method so effective as to lay them before
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 243 
 
 your numerous readers, and appeal to your generous 
 and candid spirit of journalism to enable me to do so. 
 
 "I am not now acting under the authority of the 
 lady, Mrs. E. J. French, whose discoveries I record 
 through your columns, nor do I know how far she 
 would care to subject her well-proven facts to the 
 denunciation of speculative philosophy or bigoted pro- 
 fessors of rival systems. 
 
 "I presume she has not forgotten, and would not 
 choose to repeat, the experiences of the magnetizers 
 before the French Academy of Sciences some three- 
 quarters of a century ago ; but I know Mrs. French courts 
 investigation, and is earnestly engaged in teaching her 
 methods to such pupils as she deems capable of appre- 
 ciating its scientific principles. I may venture, there- 
 fore, to say that I shall be happy and willing, so long 
 as I remain in the city, to communicate with earnest 
 and candid persons desirous of further information on 
 this subject, and for that purpose I subjoin my address. 
 
 "Trusting that even in this brief notice of my 
 momentous subject I may succeed in awakening the 
 interest of the truly scientific, especially of such as 
 desire to evolve more light upon the science of medical 
 electricity, 
 
 "I am, sir, very faithfully yours, 
 
 "EMMA HARDINGE BRITTEN."
 
 344 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 No. 8. 
 
 A TERRIBLE CASE OF SPASMS AND SUFFERING, RESULT 
 ING FROM AN ACCIDENT AND MALPRACTICE. 
 
 Mrs. B , of Wheeling, West Virginia, married 
 
 seventeen years, had a fall and miscarriage in the first 
 year of her marriage, was improperly treated, and from 
 that time on was a fearful sufferer. From five to seven 
 days in every month her pains were intolerable ; she 
 would have frequent spasms or fits, sometimes as many as 
 six in a day. At times she was partially insane, and it 
 would require several persons to hold her in bed. 
 During several years she was under the care of a number 
 of physicians, took quantities of morphine and other 
 sedatives without any real benefit. In the autumn of 
 1869 Prof. French was in Wheeling on a professional 
 
 visit. Some of Mrs. B 's friends prevailed upon 
 
 her to consult Dr. French. She commenced electric 
 treatment just after one of her periodical attacks, and, 
 almost impossible as it may seem, she never had another. 
 Electricity seemed indeed a panacea in her case. Her 
 pains soon ceased ; she became regular ; her general 
 health and strength came rapidly ; from a constant 
 gloom and depression of spirits, she became cheerful and 
 hopeful, and in a very short time was restored to perfect 
 health. Within a year from the time she commenced 
 treating with Dr. French, she presented her husband 
 with a fine, healthy daughter, which they have named 
 Elizabeth in gratitude to Dr. French. And now, three 
 years having passed, she remains in the enjoyment of 
 excellent health, and is again a mother, this time of a
 
 CASES OF CURE. 
 
 245 
 
 splendid boy. Dr. French is at liberty to give the full 
 name and address of this lady to any one honestly de- 
 siring information. 
 
 No. 9. 
 
 SEVERE CASE OF FISTULA. 
 
 Mrs. , of Wheeling, West Virginia, had been 
 
 suffering for years with hemorrhoids, and finally fistula. 
 No treatment seemed to benefit her. She was advised 
 repeatedly to have a surgical operation ; but as she had 
 had two relatives operated upon and both had died from 
 the effects, she feared to take the risk. In 1870 she was 
 treated electrically by Prof. French, became in four 
 weeks entirely cured, and has remained so ever since. 
 She will cheerfully give her testimony when called upon, 
 but does not wish her name used publicly. 
 
 Nos. 10-15. 
 
 Dr. T. J. Kisner, now of Bucyrus, Ohio, wrote to 
 Mr. D. T. Hebert, of Wheeling, inquiring about Mrs. 
 Prof. French's success as an electrician in that city. 
 From the letter of Mr. Hebert in reply to Dr. Kisner 
 we are permitted to make extracts : 
 
 " I believe Mrs. French to be thoroughly conversant 
 with electricity in its remedial or medicinal forms. 
 My judgment is based upon stubborn facts, in the form of 
 cures which have come under my own observation, and of 
 which I have been informed by parties entirely reliable. 
 21*
 
 246 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS, 
 
 " Mrs. 's child was taken very ill with scarlatina ; 
 
 two physicians were called, but their medicines failed 
 to produce the desired effect (sleep). The child grew 
 rapidly worse, tossing about continually, and finally, 
 after many hours, when the mother lost all hope and the 
 child seemed to be dying, Mrs. French was called 
 secretly (as the doctors previously refused to consult 
 with her). After, or I believe whilst she was treating 
 the child, it dozed, and in an hour or so slept, and slept 
 soundly until the next morning. The doctors marveled 
 greatly in calling late at night and finding the child 
 sleeping; they continued to prescribe, however, but their 
 medicines were never given to the child. From the 
 moment Mrs. French first treated it, the child was 
 under her care until it entirely recovered. 
 
 "Mrs. , married nineteen years, without any 
 
 children, was treated electrically by Mrs. French, and is 
 now closely approaching her full time, so I am informed 
 by a gentleman who is intimate with her husband. 
 
 " General W. H. Powell, of Kansas City (my uncle), 
 badly bruised the muscles and ligaments in the sacro- 
 lumbar and femoral regions ; was treated for a number 
 of months with little if any benefit, and finally visited 
 Wheeling, and was treated seven or eight days by Mrs. 
 French. When he arrived he walked carefully on two 
 crutches ; last week he walked the streets of Pittsburg 
 all day with a cane, and still continues to improve." 
 
 Other names and cases are given in this letter, and 
 the writer closes by saying, "I could give you many 
 more, did time and space admit;" and adds, "I have 
 perfect confidence in Mrs. French's ability to treat 
 electrically any disease that flesh is heir to."
 
 CASES OF CURE. 247 
 
 BOSTON, MASS., 
 October, 1872. 
 
 41 MY DEAR MRS. FRENCH, As you are about to pub- 
 lish a work on the medical uses of electricity, I feel it 
 my duty to add my testimony to the wonderful effects 
 of electricity in my own case, and in other cases that 
 came under my own observation. 
 
 " In the spring of 1870 I began to have an abdominal 
 swelling, accompanied by much pain, which soon re- 
 sulted in such general prostration that after a few months 
 I was confined most of the time to my bed. Physicians 
 whom I consulted pronounced me enceinte ; and when 
 I met you in the autumn I was supposed by physicians 
 to be in my sixth or seventh month. You made a 
 diagnosis, and pronounced it unhesitatingly an ovarian 
 tumor, and that in a few weeks you could entirely 
 remove it by electricity alone. I commenced treat- 
 ing with you at once. In ten days I was reduced in 
 size by abdominal belt eight inches. At the end of 
 seven weeks the tumor was entirely removed, and I was 
 restored to fine health, and have remained so ever since. 
 During my daily visits to your rooms I saw, and became 
 acquainted with, many ladies who were being treated for 
 various diseases, and all being benefited. After I was 
 cured I studied your system with you, and remained 
 as your assistant some months. Since then I have been 
 practicing electrically under your system, and have 
 made a great many cures of tumors, cancers, paralyses, 
 rheumatisms, female weaknesses, etc., and will cheer- 
 fully give any information in my power, and refer to 
 parties in Boston, who have been under my treatment,
 
 248 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 and who are living witnesses to the efficacy of electricity 
 properly applied. 
 
 "MRS. M. J. BAKER." 
 
 BOSTON, MASS., November 5, 1872. 
 
 This is to certify that in the spring of 1871 I was, 
 after long and intense suffering, rapidly losing the use 
 of my left arm and side, and must very soon have be- 
 come wholly unfitted for business. I had tried various 
 remedies without relief, and had almost given up all 
 hope, when my wife became a patient of Mrs. Prof. E. 
 J. French. Seeing the benefit my wife was receiving, 
 and hearing of other wonderful cures made by Mrs. 
 French, I decided to go see her myself. The result of 
 this interview was to place myself under her treatment. 
 In less than three weeks my arm and side were very 
 much improved, so much so that I purchased a battery 
 through Mrs. French, and by her instructions continued 
 to treat myself, occasionally visiting her, and in six 
 months I was wholly cured, so that I now can say / 
 am well; and I can recommend her mode of treatment, 
 electricity, as being, together with her skill, the best 
 thing in practice for any and all afflicted in like 
 manner. C. SEABURY, 
 
 49 Hanover Street, Boston.
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 
 
 249 
 
 I suffered for four years from retroversion of the 
 uterus, and, a good portion of the time, painful ulcera- 
 tion, restricted menstruation, occasioning much pain, 
 inflammation of the bladder, etc. I placed myself 
 under Mrs. Prof. French's electrical medical treatment 
 in September, 1870. In three treatments I was entirely 
 relieved of retroversion, and in ten treatments all 
 other difficulties were removed, and I was restored to 
 more perfect health than I had enjoyed for many years 
 previously. These treatments caused no pain or ex- 
 posure. 
 
 MRS. J. H. C., 
 
 Toledo, Ohio. 
 
 No. 16. 
 
 CASE OF FIBROUS TUMOR IN CONNECTION WITH CHILD- 
 BEARING. 
 
 Mrs. H , a lady afflicted with a fibroid ovarian 
 
 tumor, became the mother of a child, at whose birth 
 she suffered so intensely that one of the best surgeons 
 in Philadelphia and her family physician declared she 
 could never again become a mother without serious 
 danger to life. Finding herself enceinte, however, three 
 years later, and the tumor becoming more and more 
 
 painful, at my recommendation Mrs. H determined 
 
 to try electrical treatment for its removal. 
 
 Previous to commencing this course of treatment 
 her case was diagnosed by Prof. Elizabeth J. French, 
 who found a fibroid and highly indurated tumor origi- 
 nating on the ovary, and extending along the broad 
 L*
 
 250 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 ligament of the uterus. The uterus also was much 
 enlarged, five times its normal size, and all the ad- 
 jacent parts were sympathetically affected. 
 
 Mrs. H commenced electrical treatments and 
 
 electric vapor-baths under my care in the third month 
 of her pregnancy. 
 
 She continued to improve rapidly from this time, 
 and after completing her full term of nine months, in 
 January of this year, 1873, she gave birth to a fine, 
 healthy child, without any extraordinary pain or incon- 
 venience. At that time the tumor was not entirely 
 removed, but it had greatly diminished in size, occa- 
 sioned her none of the former distressing symptoms; 
 and at the present date (some four months since the 
 birth of her child) the patient continues well and 
 strong. 
 
 Any further information that may be desired on this 
 subject I shall be happy to communicate. 
 
 ELIZA J. BURNSIDE, M.D., 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 REMOVAL OF A UTERINE POLYPUS IN TWO TREAT- 
 MENTS BY ELECTRICITY. 
 
 The following remarkable cure and rapid removal 
 of a uterine polypus occurred in the practice of Dr. 
 E. J. Burnside, pupil of Prof. French in Electricity: 
 
 April 5, 1873, Mrs. D , of Hestonville, called 
 
 on Dr. Burnside, to consult her about her condition, 
 which, at that time, was one of extreme suffering. In
 
 CASES OF CURE. 251 
 
 the month of January previous, Mrs. D had expe- 
 rienced a miscarriage, after three months' pregnancy. 
 The foetus now in possession of Dr. Burnside shows 
 striking evidence of the presence and pressure of the 
 polypus, one side of the head being considerably 
 flattened, and the upper extremity on the same side 
 being pressed in and in part consumed. The polypus 
 was attached to the fundus, and hung down to the os. 
 It measured two inches in diameter, and the hemor- 
 rhages that poured from it were profuse and terribly 
 debilitating to the patient. 
 
 Dr. Burnside treated this case twice, and on the 
 second occasion the polypus came away without the 
 slightest inconvenience or force. The discharges 
 from that time ceased; the patient's health rapidly 
 improved ; she resumed her usual occupations and 
 exercises, and appeared to her family physician and 
 the friends who had been accustomed to witness her 
 debilitated and suffering condition, like one suddenly 
 restored from the grave. 
 
 Any further information that may be desired on this 
 subject will be cheerfully given by 
 
 DR. E. J. BURNSIDE, 
 
 Philadelphia, Pa. 
 
 "76 HUDSON AVE., ALBANY, N. Y., 
 
 "May 17, 1877. 
 
 " MY DEAR DR. FRENCH : One year ago to-day I re- 
 ceived my first treatment in electricity at your hands. 
 Then, almost a hopeless invalid, I could not lie nor 
 turn in bed, nor could I sleep after four o'clock in 
 the morning. Skillful physicians failed to diagnose
 
 252 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 my case correctly. The 'cranial diagnosis' in your 
 hands showed the locality, nature and extent of lesion 
 under which I was suffering, and pointed unerringly 
 to the treatment which was ultimately to be the means 
 of restoring me to perfect health. At this writing I 
 consider my restoration complete and, as far as I can 
 now see, permanent. 
 
 " My confidence in the therapeutic power of elec- 
 tricity is growing more and more as I come to learn 
 its wonderful effect upon organic derangements and 
 pathological conditions. Of all the systems of elec- 
 tric therapeutics now taught, I like yours the best. It 
 is more comprehensive. It controls a larger number 
 of cases. It is less dangerous in its application. It is 
 the only system that pretends to correct or restore dis- 
 placements a very great improvement upon all other 
 teachings. While treating myself during the past year 
 I have used it in my general practice. I have been 
 more than successful in most cases. I have corrected 
 a left version of the uterus of three years' standing, 
 which had produced paralysis, both sensory and mo- 
 tor, of the corresponding side, and had been pro- 
 nounced incurable by many distinguished physicians. 
 I have arrested the growth of uterine and ovarian tu- 
 mors and absorbed others entirely. I have several 
 cases of paralysis now under treatment, and all are 
 doing well. Time and space will not permit me 
 to rwnne all the good results I know of your system 
 of electro-therapeutics. You are engaged in a great 
 and noble work, and I trust your life may be long 
 spared to carry on this good work, and make oth- 
 ers see and understand the great value of your sys-
 
 CASES OF CUKE. *53 
 
 tern in carrying help to those who are suffering with- 
 out hope. 
 
 "Yours, very truly, 
 
 "P. L. F. REYNOLDS, M. D." 
 
 "GLENDALE, O , May I, 1877. 
 
 " DR. ELIZABETH J. FRENCH : I deem it a duty and, 
 withal, a pleasure, to testify to the correct delineation 
 of the cause of my physical decline in health and vigor 
 through your method of electro-cranial diagnosis, and 
 subsequent successful treatment through electropathy 
 as prescribed by you. My case had baffled the skill 
 of several physicians of high repute, and in trying 
 the best and varied climates in the United States, 
 extending through a period of three and a half 
 years, I had found no relief. Now, after a lapse 
 of seven months under steady treatment as per your 
 directions, I find myself so much strengthened and 
 invigorated as to certainly assure me, in proper course 
 of time, full health and strength will again be restored, 
 notwithstanding the primary cause which produced my 
 weakness dates back some fifteen years, and a slow but 
 steady giving way of the vital powers had been going 
 on from that period up to the time you took my case 
 in hand. 
 
 "With much gratitude and esteem, I am 
 
 "Yours, most truly and sincerely, 
 
 "GEO. W. TROWBRIDGE." 
 
 22
 
 254 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 CURVATURE OF THE SPINE AND PARALYSIS. 
 
 " GANG, Butler co., O. 
 
 "May 10, 1877. 
 
 " This is to certify that my son Clifford, a boy a lit- 
 tle over three years old, was paralyzed in one leg and 
 had curvature of the spine from an attack of spinal 
 meningitis when he was two years and six months old, 
 which rendered him unable to either stand on the limb 
 or raise the foot from the floor. The limb had become 
 smaller than the other, and was constantly cold, with 
 very poor circulation. The other limb was also much 
 colder and weaker than natural. In this condition I 
 put him under the electrical treatment of Dr. Eliza- 
 beth J. French, and within one month the child was 
 able to raise the foot, and move it much more than at 
 any time since his attack of sickness. From that time 
 on until the present there has been a gradual improve- 
 ment, so that now he can walk by supporting his hands 
 on a table or something to keep the body steady. This 
 gives me great encouragement that in a reasonable 
 length of time he will be enabled to use his limbs 
 without any assistance and have good use of his body, 
 as the curvature of the spine has been entirely removed 
 since he has been under treatment, which is now three 
 
 months. 
 
 " H. SULLIVAN."
 
 ADDITIONAL CASES. 
 
 SEVERE CASE OF SPINAL AND HIP DISEASE. 
 
 In January, 1873, George Saylor, a boy then about 
 eleven years of age, was brought to Mrs. French for 
 treatment. He was suffering from a severe curvature of 
 the spine, together with an enormous enlargement of 
 the sternum, and also from hip disease. The child 
 presented a most pitiful appearance, the vertebral 
 column in the dorsal region as well as the breast being 
 frightfully curved outward. The leg on the affected 
 side was constantly cold and numb, was shrunken, and 
 was two and a half inches shorter than the other leg, 
 and was moved with difficulty and pain. For several 
 years this suffering child had only been able to ascend 
 the stairs by placing his hands upon his knees and 
 partly lifting this foot, and the act of walking was 
 performed with exceeding pain and effort. The boy's 
 deformity had been caused by a fall, and from the age 
 of two years he had been subjected to many kinds of 
 medical treatment, without receiving any benefit. He 
 was treated twice a week in Mrs. French's electro- 
 clinic rooms up to about the first of April, and during 
 April and May two and three times a week at Mrs. 
 
 255
 
 25 6 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 French's house, where the injured leg had become vveli 
 and strong, the enlargement of the spine and sternum 
 riad nearly disappeared, could walk and run up and 
 down stairs with perfect ease, could eat well, sleep 
 well, and was rapidly growing straight and tall. His 
 mother, Mrs. R. Saylor, corner Broad and Arch 
 streets, Philadelphia, reports him now April, 1875 
 as perfectly well, rugged and strong, and will cheer- 
 fully give any information in her power relative to her 
 son's case, and to several other cases of which she has 
 had personal knowledge. 
 
 A SEVERE, ALMOST HOPELESS CASE OF DYSPEPSIA, 
 SLEEPLESSNESS AND GENERAL NERVOUS DEBILITY. 
 
 Prof. M of Ann Arbor College, Michigan, was 
 
 first treated by Mrs. French in July of last year. For 
 nearly a month little if any benefit was experienced, 
 and he was almost despairing and on the point of giv- 
 ing up treatment. Induced to try a little longer, he 
 began to experience relief; hope revived, he purchased 
 a battery, got full instructions for treatment, returned to 
 Ann Arbor and followed up his treatment regularly. 
 From a letter addressed to Mrs. French, and dated 
 Ann Arbor, March 17, 1875, ^ e following extract is 
 taken : " My health has improved so much and so con- 
 stantly since the beginning of the year that I have felt 
 full of gratitude to God, to you and to the one who 
 directed me to you. I have grown continually more 
 strong and more heavy. I have increased in weight 
 since September of last year from one hundred and
 
 CASES OF CURE. 2 57 
 
 twenty-four to one hundred and forty -seven and a half 
 pounds. Have slept soundly in general, and been able 
 to do heavy work with less and less of fatigue. I dare 
 not think as yet of giving up the use of electricity, and 
 I continue to use it twice a day according to your di- 
 rections. 
 
 DR. FOSTER OF KALAMAZOO, MICHIGAN, WRITES TO 
 MRS. DR. KENT OF CHICAGO IN NOVEMBER, 1874. 
 
 " DEAR MADAM : In reply to your request of my 
 opinion touching Electrical Therapeutics as taught and 
 practiced by Prof. Elizabeth J. French and her daugh- 
 ter by means of Electro-Cranial Diagnosis, I have sim- 
 ply to say that it is one of the grandest discoveries 
 of the age, and is bound to revolutionize medical 
 practice in its most essential departments. Its cures 
 are marvelous. In cases of tumors it has displaced the 
 knife and healed with a kindly healing. But it is un- 
 necessary to detail. You may rest assured that this 
 branch of medical science is no uncertain thing. Its 
 pretensions are true, and can be well established by 
 resulting facts. I know whereof I speak, for I am in 
 possession of the methods of diagnosing and treating. 
 I think, for the cause of humanity, every medical man 
 and woman should embrace the opportunity of adding 
 to their knowledge the science and practice of Electric 
 Therapeutics, not for the purpose of laying aside en- 
 tirely the administration of medicine, but to use it 
 when found to be a helpmeet to electrical action. I 
 therefore commend Electrical Therapeutics most ear- 
 22*
 
 258 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 nestly to you. ' Learn us and try us ' can be their 
 fearless motto. 
 
 "C. A. FOSTER, M.D., LL.D." 
 
 The writer of the above has had, and is now having, 
 some marvelous results. 
 
 The lady here referred to has studied the system, and 
 is now practicing very successfully at Chicago, Illinois. 
 
 Are cures made by this system of electric treat- 
 ments permanent? 
 
 Mr. H. W. Phillips of Wheeling, West Virginia, 
 whose testimony in reference to his blind daughter who 
 was treated in 1869 will be found on page 225 of this 
 book, writes in reply to inquiries made by Mrs. M. N. 
 Halsey of Adrian, Michigan, under date October 2, 
 1874 : " Our daughter's eyes are now sound and well, 
 and have been for some time. We give Dr. Elizabeth 
 J. French all the credit of restoring her sight and 
 making a radical cure. Mrs. French cured a number 
 of persons in this city of various diseases, all of whom, 
 so far as I know, are permanently well. I think you can 
 safely trust your daughter in her hands." 
 
 Col. W. A. Fox of Buffalo wrote a few weeks since 
 to a lady in Rochester, New York : "Many years ago 
 I was carried to Dr. Elizabeth J. French's house in the 
 city of New York while suffering from a very severe 
 attack of inflammatory rheumatism. My limbs were 
 all drawn up ; the act of walking was simply impossi- 
 ble, and the slightest movements were attended with
 
 CASES OF CUKE. 259 
 
 excruciating pain. I was treated by her, and under 
 her directions, electrically both in connection with and 
 independent of the electro vapor-bath, and in fifteen 
 days I was radically cured, and have enjoyed excellent 
 health ever since. By all means place yourself under 
 her care." 
 
 A gentleman of prominent position in Philadelphia 
 writes under a recent date to a lady: "I cheerfully re- 
 spond to your note ; you can with confidence submit 
 your daughter to Mrs. French. Our daughter from 
 childhood was afflicted with a weak back, indigestion, 
 neuralgia in the back of the head, etc. We had tried 
 a number of remedies, sea-voyages, etc., without bene- 
 fit. We also employed electro-doctors without good 
 results. We were induced to try Mrs. French through 
 
 the recommendation of and of Prof . 
 
 Our daughter enjoys better health now than she has 
 during her whole life." 
 
 " ROCHESTER, N. Y., May 28, 1884. 
 " MRS. E. J. FRENCH : 
 
 " DEAR MADAM : Without the excess of praise and 
 extravagance of expression with which grateful patients 
 are liable to overwhelm their favorite physician, you, 
 and others, are entitled to such a statement of facts as 
 are just to you, and as may be of vital interest to those 
 who, like myself, may need your valuable services. It 
 would be as impossible as it is unnecessary for me to 
 portray what I suffered in the long years before I met 
 you, and equally impossible, though immeasurably more
 
 260 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 agreeable, what I have enjoyed in the ten years since 
 receiving the incalculable benefits of your treatment. 
 Suffice it to say, for the information of others, that 
 some fifteen years ago I was violently thrown from a 
 buggy upon a sidewalk, receiving such injuries of the 
 spine as to render me nearly helpless for several years, 
 during which time all that human love and medical 
 skill could do to relieve my sufferings and restore my 
 health was faithfully done. Notwithstanding all this, 
 my condition did not improve and my constant suffer- 
 ing and frequent spasms, which increased as the years 
 rolled on, led my friends and my physician alike to 
 despair of restoring my health, or of preserving the 
 life which, at times, I had almost ceased to value. 
 Thus, by the advice of friends and the consent of my 
 family, I was placed in your hands as the ' forlorn 
 hope,' upon which hung the issues of life or death. 
 Result : A marked improvement from the first, which 
 steadily continued until I was able, a year later, to 
 begin the active practice of your system of treatment 
 upon others, which I continued for a term of seven 
 years with flattering success, both as regards the num- 
 ber of my patients and the results of my efforts. 
 
 " Upon giving up my public rooms for the more pri- 
 vate duties of my home, and exchanging professional 
 for maternal offices, I found it more difficult to sever my 
 connection with my numerous patrons than it had ever 
 been to secure their patronage. In a word, the wreck 
 of girlhood who came to you almost helpless and de- 
 spairing ten years ago has been actively engaged in 
 professional and other duties for more than nine years, 
 and is to-day the happy wife of a devoted husband, and
 
 CASES OF CURE. 2 6l 
 
 the proud mother of a buxom little girl of two years. 
 I need not say more, and I could not well have said 
 less. From this simple statement of facts those inter- 
 ested will draw their own conclusions. Any expression 
 of what my emotions are as I write this would be more 
 fitting to the pages of a more private and confidential 
 correspondence, and for such pages I reserve them. 
 "Very truly yours, 
 
 "MARY A. THAYER SANFORD." 
 
 " WASHINGTON, D. C., May 16, 1884. 
 "MRS. ELIZABETH J. FRENCH: Seeing by the papers 
 that you are delivering a course of lectures on Electric- 
 ity in Baltimore, I feel it my duty to add my testi- 
 mony to the beneficial effects of Electricity under 
 your manipulations. Twelve years ago, while a resi- 
 dent of Wheeling, W. Va., my daughter, then eight 
 years of age, had a severe attack of malignant scarlet 
 fever, and when given up by two of the best physicians 
 in Wheeling, I, in my despair, called on you, then 
 to me almost a stranger, having only heard you lecture. 
 From my descriptions of the case you thought it in 
 all probability hopeless, but at my earnest pleading 
 you consented to go with me as a mother, not as a 
 physician. You found the child raving, pulse 130, 
 throat badly swollen, salivated, and suffering, in ad- 
 dition, from St. Vitus's dance. You took charge 
 of her at once, saying although this child is nearly 
 gone, you thought you could save her. In about thirty 
 minutes you had her pulse reduced to nearly a normal 
 condition, and her frightful ravings ceased. The next 
 day the gathering in the throat broke, and in three or
 
 262 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 four days she was able to sit up in bed, and in three 
 weeks she was out of the house, and in a short time 
 quite well. She is now twenty years of age and in 
 perfect health. I have personal knowledge of a num- 
 ber of cures you made at Wheeling that were consid- 
 ered wonderful, and will most cheerfully respond to 
 any inquiries. 
 
 " Yours gratefully, 
 
 " MRS. J. F. MCDERMOT, 
 "24FSt., N.W., Washington, D. C." 
 
 "ROCHESTER, N. Y., May 20, 1884. 
 "MRS. E. J. FRENCH. 
 
 " DEAR FRIEND : I am glad of this opportunity to 
 express thus publicly my sentiments in regard to your 
 system of Electricity. Having practised it for a num- 
 ber of years with marvellous results, and feeling myself 
 to be a new creation from the treatments, I unhesi- 
 tatingly place it at the head of remedial agencies for 
 all the ills of suffering humanity. Had it not been for 
 your timely appearance with the cranial diagnosis and 
 this great curative power, I am confident I should not 
 now have the pleasure of subscribing myself 
 " Gratefully yours, 
 
 "ANGELINA M. SARGENT." 
 "MRS. E. J. FRENCH. 
 
 "DEAR MADAM: I most heartily indorse the state- 
 ments by Mrs. Sargent in regard to your method of 
 electrical treatments, and the magical relief they afford. 
 Speaking from personal experience, I would say that I 
 have always found your system to be sure and effective 
 in every emergency, and consider it as superior to
 
 CASES OF LURE. 263 
 
 drugs in the cure of disease as the palace-car is to the 
 old stage-coach. In ray estimation of the grand march 
 of science to-day, your discovery of the cranial diag- 
 nosis and method of applying electricity stand in the 
 front rank. 
 
 "Respectfully yours, 
 
 "JAMES SARGENT." 
 
 I have the permission of the writer, Mrs. Greenleaf, 
 wife of Hon. H. S. Greenleaf, M.C., to use the fol- 
 lowing letter, addressed a few days since to a friend in 
 answer to inquiries : 
 
 " MY DEAR MRS. C. : You have asked me two ques- 
 tions, to which I am most happy to reply. First, 
 What can I tell you of Dr. Elizabeth J. French and 
 her system of Electrical Therapeutics ? And, sec- 
 ondly, If I think Dr. French could relieve your daugh- 
 ter of the severe headaches to which she has so long 
 been a martyr? To the last question I unhesitatingly 
 reply, Yes, without a doubt. With regard to what I 
 know of Dr. French's system of practice, my difficulty 
 is to avoid saying too much. To her skill I feel that I 
 am indebted for my husband's life and health, for my 
 own life, and for the lives of many near and dear to 
 me. In her cranial diagnosis I have the most perfect 
 confidence. I learned to use it myself nine years ago, 
 and have found it unfailing, and her method of prac- 
 tice is at once simple and scientific, and correspond- 
 ingly successful. I have found by experience that it 
 was not only most efficacious in the cure of chronic 
 diseases, but for those terrible scourges, croup, diph- 
 theria, and scarlet fever, I believe it to be unequalled.
 
 264 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 With the hope that you may seek and find relief at 
 the source I have found so satisfactorily, 
 " I remain yours, sincerely, 
 
 " JEANIE F. GKEENLEAF, 
 "JJ4 C St., N.W., Washington. 
 "May 26, 1884." 
 
 I have permission to refer to Hon. H. S. Greenleaf, 
 M.C., 334 C St., Washington, D. C., and to many 
 others, if deemed necessary. 
 
 "NANTUCKET, MASS., June 5, 1884. 
 "MRS. ELIZABETH J. FRENCH. 
 
 " DEAR MADAM : From a sense of gratitude, as well 
 as from a hope that others may find relief in the same 
 way, we write to say that by and through your system 
 we have been restored to health after many years of 
 intense suffering. After ten years' experience with 
 the best physicians within our reach to no purpose, 
 we had about given up all hope, when you visited our 
 city professionally, and was induced to give a course 
 of lectures. After hearing you, we resolved to place 
 ourselves under your treatment ; joined a class for 
 instruction in Electric Therapeutics; studied your 
 system of cranial diagnosis ; purchased a battery ; and 
 by following up your instructions we have not only 
 been restored to health ourselves, but have been, and 
 still are, doing much good to other sufferers, and can 
 give many cases relieved by us with your system, and 
 shall take pleasure in replying to any and all inquiries. 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 "JAMES GINN AND WIFE."
 
 CASES OF CURE. 265 
 
 *' I could refer you to many cases, but name here 
 only the following : 
 
 "Six months ago I treated J. A. Danforth, of 
 Brunswick, Me., for hemorrhoids. I saw him a few 
 days since, and he considers himself perfectly cured. 
 
 " In January last, Captain George Cash, of Nan- 
 tucket, applied to me for treatment for his paralyzed 
 wife, whom, he said, had been given up by physicians 
 as incurable. Cranial diagnosis showed her stomach, 
 kidneys, and spleen very much affected. She was 
 nearly blind ; left eyelid completely paralyzed and 
 devoid of feeling, etc. After about ten treatments 
 her eyesight was restored, and there was a very percep- 
 tible general improvement. After about thirty treat- 
 ments she left town greatly improved, and I hear is 
 still getting along well. 
 
 "Mrs. Catric Grain was suffering from rheumatism, 
 her feet and limbs badly swollen and inflamed, etc., 
 and, as an examination showed us, she suffered from 
 prolapsed uteri and other troubles; we replaced the 
 organ, reduced the inflammation in the limbs, and 
 after the fifth treatment she pronounced herself well, 
 and has remained so ever since. 
 
 " JAMES GINN." 
 
 " ROCHESTER, June 4, 1884. 
 
 "Mr DEAR MRS. FRENCH: If I once begin to tell 
 you how much I think of your system of diagnosis 
 and Electric Therapeutics, I shall not know where to 
 stop. For myself, when I began taking treatment, I 
 was not able to work but a little while each day at the 
 lightest work. Now I can do anything. I often take 
 M 23
 
 266 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 long walks and feel none the worse the next day. My 
 children have had all the diseases incident to children 
 since I got the battery, and they seem to have every- 
 thing lighter. I have relied wholly on the battery, 
 and have not given them one drop of any medicine. 
 I often tell my husband I would not take five thousand 
 dollars for my battery if I could not replace it. 
 " Sincerely yours, 
 
 "M. A. CLINTON." 
 
 " BATH, ME., June 16, 1884. 
 
 "In October and November, 1882, I was suffering 
 from the effects of a fall I had in November, 1881, at 
 which time I broke several of my ribs and otherwise 
 severely injuring myself, bringing on disease of the 
 kidneys and other difficulties. All of which medical 
 skill failed to reach me until I met Mrs. E. J. French 
 in Boston, who, by the use of the electric battery, 
 completely restored me to sound health. 
 
 "I have no hesitation in saying I believe electricity 
 to be one of the most efficient therapeutic agents that 
 can be employed. 
 
 "Z. H. BLAIR." 
 
 Hundred of cases extending over a period of many 
 years might be referred to, were it deemed necessary, 
 in evidence of the positive and continued relief result- 
 ing from this mode of electric treatments.
 
 A PLEASANT AFFAIR. 267 
 
 ELEGANT TESTIMONIAL TO MRS. FRENCH BY HER 
 JACKSONVILLE FRIENDS. 
 
 " On Monday night a pleasant little incident occurred 
 in the parlors of Mrs. Elizabeth J. French. A large 
 party of friends, admirers and patients, stormed the 
 lady in a body, bearing with them beautiful testimo- 
 nials of their esteem and affection. When all had 
 entered, and the rooms were filled to overflowing with 
 numbers of our best representative people, Mr. J. T. 
 Talbott stepped forward and presented Mrs. French 
 with an elegantly-bound copy of Poe's 'Raven' and the 
 'Ancient Mariner,' illustrated by Gustave Dore. As he 
 deposited them before her, he presented the following 
 memorial : 
 
 " 'We, the undersigned friends of Mrs. French, who 
 appreciate her worth as physician, friend, and teacher, 
 desire to express our regard and friendship in present- 
 ing this tribute of esteem to one who has been a lover 
 of humanity, an example for her sex, and a follower 
 of the Divine Master for many years. Long may she 
 live to bless and enlighten is our united wish. 
 
 " 'Rev. and Mrs. C. C. McLean, Rev. and Mrs. S. D. 
 Paine, Rev. and Mrs. C. H. Mead, Rev. and Mrs. W. 
 H. Simpson, Aurelia E. Gilbert, M.D., Dr. and Mrs. 
 N. Webster, Mr. and Mrs. J. T. Talbott, Mr. and Mrs. 
 J. H. Burst, Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Greeley, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Cole, Mr. and Mrs. Sedgwick, Mr. and Mrs. Powers, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Rich, Mr. and Mrs. Trumpeller, Mr. 
 and Mrs. George W. Garrett, Mrs. Col. Moore, Willie 
 Ingraham, Mr. Will Chute, Mr. and Mrs. R. Chute, Mr. 
 and Mrs. W. P. .Gifford, Mr. and Mrs. J. F. Ingram,
 
 268 ELECTRICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
 
 Mrs. L. A. Ford, Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Robinson, Mrs. 
 Hunter, Mrs. Reynolds, Miss L. Tucker, Miss H. Lou 
 Ball, Miss K. H. Ball, Misses Booth, Mamie Sedgwick, 
 Mrs. L. R. Rockwell. 
 
 " As Mr. Talbott ceased speaking one of the ladies 
 advanced with an exceedingly beautiful and elaborate 
 basket of flowers, which was presented with the follow- 
 ing original poem, the offering of another of the ladies : 
 
 TO MRS. FRENCH, 
 
 WITH THE BEST WISHES OF THE AUTHOR. 
 
 Awake, my harp, sound forth a lay 
 
 Of friendship's tender greeting, 
 While happy hours full fraught with joy 
 
 On golden wings are flitting. 
 
 Breathe forth thy sweetest strain for her 
 
 Whose loving heart hath won us, 
 Whose tender hands would guide our steps 
 
 To heights of joy beyond us. 
 
 On beauty's cheek would paint the rose, 
 
 That dimples into blushes, 
 While lilies crown the snowy brow 
 
 The zephyr lightly brushes. 
 
 Through all the woman form divine 
 . Would send the tide of healing, 
 Until she stood a goddess fair 
 Creation's crown revealing. 
 
 Would lead that form with soul aglow 
 
 To him, the soul's inspirer, 
 That He might breathe the breath divine, 
 
 And fan its fame afire, 
 
 Would crown her sisterhood with love 
 
 In all sweet paths alluring, 
 That upward lead to grander heights, 
 
 To heavenly home enduring.
 
 A PLEASANT AFFAIR. 269 
 
 Awake, my harp, with magic strain, 
 
 Health, joy and hope entwining, 
 And at her feet harmonious lay 
 
 This song her worth enshrining. 
 
 "Mrs. French, very much affected, responded with 
 deep feeling, and with her usual ready eloquence. 
 Cordial congratulations and a general social inter- 
 change of courtesies followed." The Florida Times- 
 Union) March 12, 1885. 
 
 23*
 
 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC 
 
 BELTS, ABDOMINAL SUPPORTERS, 
 
 CHEST-PROTECTORS, INSOLES, 
 
 AND 
 
 OTHER APPLIANCES FOR THE HUMAN BODY, 
 
 INVENTED BY 
 
 Dr. Elizabeth J. French, 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA, PA. 
 
 This invention the form and combination of metal magnets is 
 peculiarly adapted to various appliances to be worn on the human 
 body, and for insoles, generating a silent, but constant, current of 
 electricity, stimulating and equalizing the circulation, removing and 
 preventing 
 
 WEAKNESS, DEBILITY, PROLAPSUS, COUGHS, COLDS, 
 
 DYSPEPSIA, RHEUMATISM, CRAMPS, COLD 
 
 FEET, AND SIMILAR COMPLAINTS. 
 
 The INSOLES are but one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, to be 
 worn in the boots or shoes, and are invaluable to old or young, weak 
 or strong. They are inexpensive, very effective, and WILL CURE COLD 
 FEET. As an experiment, they cost but FIFTY CENTS a pair; as an 
 investment, they have no equal. They return the purchaser manifold 
 in comfort and saving of doctor's bills, and the expense and incon- 
 venience of disagreeable drugs. 
 
 The ELECTRO-MAGNETIC CHEST-PROTECTOR not only supplies the 
 place of all other chest-protectors, as a covering for the lungs, but 
 imparts a magnetic warmth to the entire throat, lungs, and stomach. 
 
 These ELECTRO-MAGNETIC APPLIANCES should usually be worn over 
 one or more of the undergarments, especially in persons of a weak 
 and sensitive organism, the electric current generated by the heat 
 and moisture being, in many cases, too powerful when worn next to 
 the body. 
 
 These goods are the best, being lighter, neater, more serviceable, 
 and therefore cheaper than any others in the market. 
 
 A LIBERAL DISCOUNT TO AGENTS. 
 
 Address all communications to 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH, 
 Or her authorized agent, 
 
 OTTO FLEMMING, 
 
 1009 Arch Street, Philadelphia, Pa.
 
 PRICE-LIST 
 
 OP 
 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH'S 
 
 PATENTED COMBINATION BATTERIES, ELECTRODES, AND 
 
 ELECTRO-MAGNETIC APPLIANCES FOR 
 
 THE HUMAN BODY. 
 
 No. 1 Combination Battery, Complete $25.00 
 
 "2 " " " 35.00 
 
 "3 " " " 40.00 
 
 " 4 " " with SILVER HELIX 55.00 
 
 " 1 Set, Six Combination Electrodes 6.00 
 
 " 2 " Seven " " 8.00 
 
 " 3 " Eight " " 10.00 
 
 APPLIANCES FOB THE HUMAN BODY CONTAINING THE 
 PATENTED COMBINATION METAL MAGNETS. 
 
 Abdominal Supporters $8.00 
 
 Belts 5.00 
 
 Liver-Pads 3.00 
 
 Brace for the Shoulders and Back. No. 1 8.00 
 
 " " " " " "2 9.00 
 
 " " "3 10.00 
 
 Chest-Protector 2.00 
 
 Insoles 50 
 
 Electric Complexion Powder. Per box 50 
 
 " Hair Tonic. Per bottle 75 
 
 Cocoanut Oil. Per bottle . 1.00 
 
 A LIBERAL DISCOUNT TO AGENTS. 
 
 FOR SALE BY 
 ELIZABETH J. FRENCH, 
 
 Or her manufacturer and authorized agent, 
 
 OTTO FLEMMING, 
 
 1009 Arch Street, Philadelphia.
 
 ELECTRIC BAKING POWDER. 
 
 WARRANTED THE MOST PERFECTLY PURE 
 CHEMICAL COMPOUND EVER OF- 
 FERED TO THE PUBLIC. 
 
 The inventor of the Electric Baking Powder, Dr. ELIZABETH 
 J. FRENCH, having for years made the SCIENCE of COOKING a, 
 practical study, has after a series of experiments, in which some of 
 the most eminent chemists in America have assisted, succeeded in 
 producing a Baking Powder not only harmless but beneficial to 
 the human system and which restores to the flour the phosphates 
 lost in grinding. 
 
 The combination is so exactly proportioned that in the rising pro- 
 cess each ingredient is so far neutralized by the other that not a 
 trace of the compound remains after baking, in the delicious 
 Bread, Biscuits, Rolls, Muffins, Waffles, Buckwheat and Griddle Cakes, 
 Fritters, Potpies, Dumplings, Puddings, Sweet Cakes, and all varieties 
 of Pastry; and the nutrition, and sweetness of the flour is pre- 
 served, without alkaline taste or odor. 
 
 IT IS ANTI-DYSPEPTIC. 
 
 It is infallible, convenient, wholesome, and invaluable to the 
 economical housewife, as it requires but one quarter the shorten- 
 ing, and but one half the eggs used in any other mode of cooking. 
 The receipts on the labels are all from practical tests. The Electric 
 Baking Powder will not lose its virtues by age or in any climate. 
 After fifteen years of CONSTANTLY INCREASING DEMAND we 
 unhesitatingly pronounce it the BEST. 
 
 All our agents are instructed to return the money in any case 
 the Powder does not prove all we claim for it. 
 
 ELECTRIC BAKING POWDER COMPANY, 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 
 Pa.
 
 New Path in Electro-Therapeutics. 
 
 BY ELIZABETH J. FKENCH, 
 
 Author of a complete manual of " Electro- Therapeutics ," "Alcohol, an E/ieiuyJ 
 " Family Guide," etc. 
 
 OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 
 
 " A very neat little volume, entitled a 'New Path in Electrical Therapeu- 
 tics,' by Elizabeth J. French, and handsomely printed and published by .1. 1$. 
 Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. Its object is to describe and vindicate Mrs. 
 French's great discovery of electrical cranial diagnosis, and a scientific appli- 
 cation of nine different currents of electricity to the cure of disease. The style 
 is clear, concise, and easy, showing that the heart of the authoress is in the sub- 
 ject, and the authorities cited in support of her position are respectable and 
 numerous." The Press, Philadelphia. 
 
 " The book is written in an easy, graceful style, and contains much of histori- 
 cal and scieiiiinc information upon the subject of Therapeutics. It is also valu- 
 able as a curiosity of scientific investigation." The Commonwealth, Boston. 
 
 "The work is written in an easy and comprehensive style, and is really 
 curious and interesting." Philadelphia Inquirer. 
 
 " The author evidently lias a very clear idea of her subject, and though her 
 theory is rather astounding, still, being supported by such an eminent authority 
 as Dr. Ferrier, and by a successful practice in cases described in the volume 
 liefore us, can hardly fail to attract attention from the best scientific minds." 
 The Times and Messenger, New York. 
 
 "The work is void of technicalities, and gives a very lucid review of Anatomy, 
 Hygiene, and Historical Medicine." Tlie Ohio Democrat. 
 
 "The book contains a vast amount of very useful information on tlie subject 
 of health, and should be read by all, and have a place in every family libr.iry." 
 Temperance Blewing, Philadelphia. 
 
 "Dr. Ferrier, the London scientist, is somewhat late in making public bis 
 supposition that 'disease is mapped out on the brain, and maybe diagnosed.' 
 lu a recent work on Electrical Therapeutics, by Elizabeth J. French, the scien- 
 tific application of electricity reveals a new and wonderful phase in anthropol- 
 ogy. ' It is many years since I discovered the human brain is a chart ui>on 
 which may be found delineated all the organs of the human body, and a record 
 of their exact conditions.' Our American lady should be sustained, and the 
 laurels should be hers." Fort Wayne Sentinel. 
 
 ' Those who sneer at the idea of cranial diagnosis, as developed by Mrs. 
 French, may perhaps have more faith in it, now that it has been ailnjited, not 
 discovered, by a great English scientist." Sunday Republic, Philadelphia. 
 
 " In this startling treatise the lady proclaims that not only has she practised, 
 but that (die teaches, the science of diagnosing disease through the brain. The 
 lady's claims are no bolder than she seems prepared to substantiate ; ami just 
 now comes the announcement that Dr. Ferrier, of King's College, London, Eng- 
 land, is about to make public his experiments on the same subject. The lady 
 has won the emoluments of fame l>y her early penetration, and whilst Dr. Fer- 
 rier stands at the portal of discovery, Dr. French has almost perfected a grand 
 science. If this bo charlatanism and humbnggery, let UK sejfk to expose it by 
 stern and rigorous investigation, but until then let her who has won wear the 
 laurels." Garretl County Gazette, Maryland. 
 
 "Professor French in her new work gives a very full account of her great 
 discovery respecting electrical cranial diagnosis and the scientific application of 
 nine different currents of electricity to the cure of disease. Jt gives a thorough 
 system of hygiene, and one of the most consistent we ever read. However much 
 may be said against her electrical jianacea as an hallucination or otherwise, she 
 has wrought wonderful cures in chronic and physician-abandoned ciises. Hap- 
 pily, there is no check of potency to the progress of science." O/iio Farmer.
 
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