In conclusion, Gentlemen, allow me to thank you for the attention with which you have listened to these imperfect Lectures. I fear that I have failed in doing full justice to their subject; but I trust that I have succeeded in indicating the importance of electricity, as a supplement to, not as a substitute for, the more ordinary resources of therapeutics: in removing any doubt as to the class of cases calling for its employment; in supplying any want of information regarding details of its application; and especially in proving its claim to be more fully employed in your daily practice. A theoretical belief in its efficacy is widespread in our profession, its _frequent use_ is yet in the future, but I hope a not distant future. Gentlemen, with you rests the decision whether this shall or shall not be. You will decide it not by the dictum of any specialist, but by the general voice of the profession, declaring your verdict as founded alone on your own personal experience. FOOTNOTES: [14] Since writing as above, in 1873, our knowledge of the beneficial effects of Franklinism has been very largely added to and the improved apparatus, described at page 10, has enabled the treatment to be conducted with a degree of precision and success impossible with the comparatively imperfect instruments in use at that date. [SN: _Importance of distinguishing between the Positive and Negative Charge of Franklinism._] Dr. Radcliffe has contended for many years that the effect of a charge of _positive_ electricity differs altogether therapeutically from that of a negative charge; and Giacomini (quoted by Duchenne[15]) attributes a hyposthenic influence to the _negative_ charge. He contends that this charge is derived from the nerves of the patient instead of from the ground as is the positive charge, and it is ranked by the Italian School among their most valuable hyposthenisants. According to Giacomini the “patient is _de-electrized, is consequently deprived of a greater or less quantity of a stimulant analogous to heat and undergoes a real hyposthenisant effect_. Erysipelatous tissues may be seen to become blanched under its influence, and chronic inflammations undergo an unquestionable improvement. Headaches and neuralgic pains have been instantly relieved by this kind of electric flux as by the application of ice, which abstracts heat, and perhaps at the same time electricity also.”