CHAP. xvii. STUDIES GALVANISM. 351 



When Edward was able to move about, he learned 

 to his unutterable grief the truth, which he would fain 

 have concealed from himself, that his career was 

 at an end as regarded his further researches into the 

 mysteries of nature. Though his mind remained as 

 vigorous as ever, his bodily constitution had been 

 seriously injured. He had lost the elasticity of 

 manhood, and never recovered it again. 



Edward was so completely broken down, that he 

 was in a great measure disabled from working at 

 his trade. What, then, was he to do? His doctor 

 thought that it would be better for him to give up the 

 trade of shoemaking, and try something else. He 

 advised him to study electricity, with the view of 

 setting up a galvanic battery. He gave Edward books 

 for the purpose of studying the subject. But on con- 

 sidering the matter, Edward came to the conclusion 

 that he did not know enough of the mechanism and 

 economy of the human system to apply the power 

 medicinally. Still the doctor urged him. Numerous 

 patients came to him to be galvanised, and he had not 

 time to attend to them himself ; he would send all his 

 customers to Edward. But Edward had no desire to 

 be a quack, and to pour galvanism, of which he knew 

 little, into a body of which he knew less. At length 

 he came to the determination not to take up the 

 system of treating disease by electrical methods.* 



* Of the mischievous results of treating disease by electricity 

 without medical knowledge, a remarkable instance is to be found 

 in the Life of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, Brighton. 



