he cervical or dorsal vertebrae, and,
at the same time, a stomach affected with _chronic dyspepsia_,
accompanied with _constipation of bowels_, I will work over the inflamed
or irritated spine with my positive pole, because I know from its
irritation that there is an excess of electro-vital fluid in the part,
making it improperly positive; and, with my negative electrode, I will,
at the same time, treat over the stomach, bowels and liver; because I
know, from the _inaction_ of these organs, that there is a lack of the
vital force--a deficiency of the electro-vital fluid--there, and that,
consequently, they are too negative. Adopting this method, I accomplish
two objects in the same treatment. _First_, my positive pole, applied to
the spinal disease, repels from it the excess of electro-vital fluid
which was there doing mischief; and, _second_, my negative pole attracts
the same, along with the artificial or inorganic electricity, to the
stomach and bowels where it is wanted, since negatives attract
positives. Or I wish to rouse to action a _torpid liver_. Now, if I find
_inflammation, or enlargement_ of the spleen, as is commonly the case in
_chills and fever_, I place the positive pole upon the spleen, at the
left side, just below the false ribs, and the negative pole on the
liver, which is best reached immediately below the ribs on the right
side, and around backward and upward as far as to the spine. The
positive pole repels the excess of electro-vitality away from the
positive spleen, and so reduces the improper excitement there, while at
the same time it rushes, by attraction, to the negative liver, under the
negative pole, and makes that more positive, and so more active. In this
way, I change the polarization of the parts, and, in so doing, remove
the sustaining cause of the disease. You here perceive that I treat a
positive part with the positive pole, so as to repel the excess of
electro-vitality from it, and thus repress its excessive action; and
that I treat a negative part with the negative pole, so as to attract
the electro-vital fluid, along with the current from the machine, to it
from under the positive pole, and thus increase the action by making it
more positive.

But suppose I do what nearly all of the doctors do, who use electricity
with any regard to polarity; that is, if treating acutely inflamed eyes,
for example, apply the negative pole to the eyes, thinking thereby to
make them more negative; or