case of bilious or typhoid fever, or in a case of pneumonia,
pleuritis, gastritis, inflammatory rheumatism, or acute, and especially
_epidemic_ or malignant dysentery, or in a case of pulmonary phthisis,
would probably be viewed by the most of physicians as the rashest
empiricism, if not the next thing to madness. _The idea of producing
antagonistic effects with it at will_, they would, for the most part,
esteem preposterous. Rather, perhaps, it may be said of the majority of
medical practitioners that such an idea has never entered their minds;
so foreign is it to their conceptions of truth and propriety. But, at
whatever risk of discredit or censure, the writer of the present volume
avers that this idea is both scientifically sound and of every day's
practical verification. The various and opposite forms of disease--acute
and chronic, hypersthenic and asthenic--are habitually treated and
_cured_, in his own practice and that of his students, by electricity
alone.

But "_cui bono?_" may be asked. "What if it be true that these things
can be done with electricity? They are also done with medicines, which
are more quickly and conveniently administered, and usually less
annoying to the patient. What, therefore, is the _practical utility_ of
your electric system above the ordinary practice, especially if we
include, in the latter, electrical treatment as occasionally employed by
the most of respectable physicians?"

This is the important question--that to which the author desires to call
particular attention. He, therefore, answers:

_First._--It is manifestly true that the most of diseases, (the
exceptions are comparatively few), can be cured by the use of medicines.
It is also true that these can generally be administered with more
convenience and less expenditure of time to the practitioner than
electricity; and this is a great advantage. The author is often asked if
he thinks his electric system will ever supersede the use of medicines.
His answer is uniformly, "No." It takes too much time for that. Where
the population is crowded, as in cities and large towns, it is often the
case, especially in times of prevailing epidemic, that a physician can
prescribe medicine for half a dozen or more patients in the time
required to treat one electrically. To reject medicines and rely alone
on electricity would, in periods and places of prevailing sickness,
leave many sufferers without professional service, or would require th