most cases the subject of the
experiment was kept in ignorance of the fact that a rise of the
thermometer was to be expected. Is it not possible that the current even
of an induction battery has the power so to stimulate the tissues as to
cause an increase in the ordinary rate of disintegrative change? Perhaps
a careful study of the secretions might lend force to this suggestion.
That the muscular action produced by the battery is not essential to the
increase of bodily heat is shown by the next set of facts to which I
desire to call attention.

Some years ago, Messrs. Beard and Rockwell stated that when an induced
current is used for fifteen to thirty minutes daily, one pole on the
neck and one on either foot, or alternately on both, the persistent use
of this form of treatment is decidedly tonic in its influence. I believe
that in this opinion they were perfectly correct, and I am now able to
show that, when thus employed, the induced current causes also a decided
rise of temperature in many people, which proves at least that it is in
some way an active agent, capable of positively influencing the
nutritive changes of the body.

The rise of temperature thus caused is less constant, as well as less
marked, than that occasioned by the muscle treatment. I do not think it
necessary to give the tables in full. They show in the best cases, rises
of one-fifth to four-fifths of a degree F., and were taken with the
utmost care to exclude all possible causes of error.

The mode of treatment is as follows: At the close of the
muscle-electrization one pole is placed on the nape of the neck and one
on a foot for fifteen minutes. Then the foot pole is shifted to the
other foot and left for the same length of time.

The primary current is used, as being less painful, and the
interruptions are made as rapid as possible, while the cylinder or
control wires are adjusted so as to give a current which is not
uncomfortable.

It is desirable to have electricity used by a practised hand, but of
late I have found that intelligent nurses may suffice, and this, of
course, materially lessens the cost. In very timid or nervous people, or
those who at some time have been severely "shocked" by the application
of electricity in the hands of charlatans, it is common to find the
patient greatly dreading a return to its use. In this case, if the
battery be started and the poles moved about on the surface as usual,
but without any connection bei