The class of cases where the use of the _long cord_ is more especially advantageous, comprises those in which it is desirable to run the current _out_ of the patient at the shortest admissible distance from the positive electrode. For example, in treating _cynanche tonsillaris_, (quinsy), if treating with the positive pole in the mouth, we would not wish to run the current further than to the back of the neck; or, if treating externally, we would not wish to carry the negative electrode further from the positive than from side to side. Here the _long cord_, with the negative electrode, would be a special advantage in subduing the inflammation. We would not care to _increase_ the inflammatory action, as we should necessarily do on the positive side of the central point, by using cords of _equal_ length. Again, if treating a case of acute _enteritis_--inflammation of the intestines--we would not wish, while treating the abdomen with the positive pole, to increase the inflammation in the lower parts, by using equal cords and placing the negative pole at the sacrum or the coccyx. Neither would we wish to reduce the strength of the lower limbs by carrying the negative pole to the feet. Nor, yet again, would we care to endanger the thoracic viscera by running the current from the abdomen up to the dorsal or cervical vertebræ. The true way, in such a case, would be to connect the negative electrode with a _long cord_, and then to run the current through the inflamed parts, and _out_ somewhere from the lumbar vertebræ to the coccyx, by treating over the abdomen with the positive pole, and placing the negative pole on the lower parts of the spine. As the cords that accompany the machine from the manufacturer are usually cut about two yards in length, every practitioner should supply himself with an extra cord, of at least three yards, to be used as the _long cord_. THE INWARD AND THE OUTWARD CURRENT.