trative of the fact that the electric bath is
no more a panacea for all ills than any other remedial agent.
Applicable as it is to a great variety of pathological conditions, it
meets with many where it is destined to have negative or at best
imperfect results. Far from discouraging me, however, failures have
served to inspire me with fresh ardor to seek for light, and to
persevere in my efforts to establish on the basis of statistical truth,
the therapeutic merits of the agent which I employed.

In view of the imperfectness of the results thus far obtained, I should
consider the present work premature, did I not find a justification for
it in my desire to induce other and abler observers to investigate the
subject, and place it on whatever footing it may merit.

To say that I am fully conscious of the shortcomings of my work, would
be but feebly to express my convictions in this respect. I beg the
reader however to consider that the subject is not a hackneyed one, that
mine has not been the work of the compiler who remodels the brain-work
of others. It may be crude and rough, it may lack the gloss and polish
that is the result of much handling, but I have at least the
consciousness that it has the merits of originality and candor.

NEW YORK.
160 Second Avenue. November, 1876.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE APPARATUS.

PAGE

_a_)--The tub. _b_)--The electrodes and connections.
_c_)--The water. _d_)--Chemicals. _e_)--The batteries. 7

CHAPTER II.

MODE OF ADMINISTRATION 19

CHAPTER III.

PHYSIOLOGICAL EFFECTS.

Characteristic differences between the electric bath and
other methods of electrization--Effects on sleep; on general
sensation; on the change of matter; on the pulse and
temperature; as a stimulant and tonic; on general nutrition;
on the digestive apparatus; on the sexual apparatus--Sedative
influence--Affects cranial nerves--Cutaneous sensation--Its
freedom from pain--Muscular contractions--Effects on the mind 31

CHAPTER IV.

GENERAL THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS AND USES.

The electric bath as a diagnostic; as an equalizer of the