ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 71 



of high potential, but I do most emphatically refer to high 

 frequency except as a species of electro-massage to local 

 and general faradisation, to central and local galvanisation, 

 and the rest of it. I also venture the opinion that we know 

 next to nothing of the electro-pathology of disease, that 

 we have no recognised method of electro- diagnosis worthy 

 of the name, and that by reason of the errors of the past 

 and the consequent unreliability of the data already 

 obtained, we should lose little or nothing if we forgot 

 everything we had learned, and made a fresh start under 

 improved conditions of research. 



Let us examine, in the light of what we claim to be the 

 discovery of a fundamental truth, structures of the body 

 as illustrated and described in modern and accepted works 

 upon Histology and Physiology, and see what we can learn 

 from them. 



With the evolution of body organs and structures, the 

 electrician has no concern and can pretend to no knowledge. 

 That is not his department. He can only examine them 

 in their completed condition, interpret them as they appear 

 to him, and give such explanations of their construction 

 and functions as are consistent with established physical 

 laws. If his conclusions are based upon truth, and not 

 upon mere theory or sophistry, they should not, cannot, 

 conflict with any established law, but must serve to make 

 clear that which is at present obscure. 



As a first step we should, I think, consider the nature 

 of the nerve-current. To this day no one knows whether 

 in a galvanic cell electrical begets chemical action, or 

 whether the force we call electricity is generated by 

 chemical decomposition. There is nothing in the form 

 and appearance of the galvanic cell to afford the proof or 

 even to guide us to definite opinion. That is not so with 

 the human body ; we are not at that disadvantage. To 

 the careful observer the structure of the human body must 



