[3] This observation, made in 1873, requires some qualification now (1886). At several of the great medical schools, though not at all, electrical treatment has been transferred from the hospital porter to some member of the hospital staff; and at more than one a systematic course of lectures upon electro-therapeutics has been delivered. [4] I speak feelingly upon this matter, for from an early period of my electrical experience I have suffered much from batteries--from instruments “striking work” at the most inconvenient moment--from spilling of corrosive acid upon fingers and clothing, to the detriment of both, and of temper too, I fear. [5] So long ago as 1870, I was in the habit (at the suggestion of Dr. Radcliffe) of employing at an Institution for Resident Patients, a method of “charging” a patient which I believe to be unique. [SN: _Unique method of charging a patient._] During dry summer weather the patient reclined upon a couch in the gardens insulated by glass supports, and a sort of lightning conductor was improvised by attaching a 30-feet salmon-rod to the foot of the couch, a piece of ordinary “telegraph wire” being carried up the rod, its insulation being removed from about a foot which projected above the top of the rod. Upon a fairly warm and dry day the patient became “charged” and sparks could be drawn from him as from a patient in ordinary connection with a Franklinic machine in rotation. Upon more than one occasion in those ancient Static days, an attempt was made to insulate a patient for a whole night, and to maintain the charge by a relay of “rotating nurses;” but the _human machines failed_, and suitable gas engines were not then available; hence the procedure related above was, if conducted for three or four hours on a dry summer afternoon, a by no means bad substitute for a close room and a rotating Static machine. In New York, in winter, when the rooms are covered with thick carpets, and when the atmosphere is dry, it has been known that on shaking hands with a visitor, not only has the “shock,” which under similar circumstances occasionally occurs in England, been felt, but that a spark has passed; and children have been known to slide over the carpet towards each other and exchange sparks by way of sport. _The influence of atmospheric and other ordinary electrical conditions has been far too little studied by electro-therapeutists._ [6] The Carré Machine can be obtained from Mr. Groves, 89 Bolsover Street; the Fly Wheel from Messrs. Hovenden and Co., Great Marlborough Street; and the Gas Engine from Messrs. Andrew and Co., Engineers, Stockport. [7] Currents of electricity from large fixed batteries are most marked in their curative effects; but patients are not always movable!