ELECTRICAL APPARATUS. 315 



MEDICAL ELECTRICITY. 



IT is true, that like every other simple medicine which 

 has proved beneficial to mankind, electricity met with much 

 opposition from the interested views of some and the igno- 

 rance of others, lias been treated with contempt, and injured 

 by misplaced caution. We shall recommend to those who 

 thus oppose it, not to condemn a subject of which they are 

 ignorant, but to hear the cause before they pass sentence ; 

 to take some pains to understand the nature of electricity ; 

 to learn to make the electrical machine act well, and then 

 apply it for a few weeks to some of those disorders in which 

 it has been administered with the greatest success ; and 

 there is no doubt but they would soon be convinced, that it 

 deserves a distinguished rank in medicine, which is the off- 

 spring of philosophy. 



The science of medicine and its practitioners have been 

 reproached with the instability and fluctuations of practice ; 

 and on this ground it has been predicted, that, however great 

 the benefits which may be derived from electricity, it would 

 still only last for the day, and then be consigned to oblivion 

 We must confess that we cannot be of this opinion, noi 

 easily led to think a set of men, whose judgment has been 

 matured by learning and experience, will ever neglect an 

 agent which probably forms a most important part of our 

 constitution. Electricity is an active principle, which is 

 neither generated nor destroyed ; which is everywhere, and 

 always present, though latent and unobserved; and is in 

 motion night and day to -maintain an equilibrium that 19 

 constantly varying. 



As the science of medicine knows of no specific, so we 

 are not to suppose that electricity will triumph over everj 

 disorder to which it is applied. Its success will be more o; 

 less extensive, according to the disposition of the subject, 

 and the talents of those who direct it ; it cannot, therefore, 

 appear surprising, that many disorders have been refractory 

 to its powers, and others have only yielded in a small 



