The daily observations that I have had the opportunity of making in this respect, extending as they do over a period of upwards of two years, have not been as fruitful of results as might be expected. This is due mainly to the circumstance that but a small percentage—and these took the baths merely as a refreshing tonic—of those whom I have had the opportunity of observing, were in a condition that might be called normal. By far the greater majority were suffering from some complaint, in most instances of a neurotic or rheumatic nature, the presence of which, while it afforded admirable opportunity for observing therapeutic results, modified more or less the physiological effects of the baths, and served to deprive them of a uniformity which might to a great extent justly be looked for in healthy organisms. If, therefore, what I now contribute to the physiology of the subject is but little, it will I trust be at least found of practical utility in its applicability to the therapeutics of the subject. Before entering into details, it is necessary in the first place to inquire in what respects electric baths differ from other methods of electrization—especially those recently introduced as “general”—that their physiological effects should merit individual consideration. They differ in two ways. One of these is self-evident. To the effects of electricity are superadded those of the warm bath. The effects of the warm bath _per se_ are too familiar to every physician to require comment. Its effects in combination with electricity, however, may not be so generally known; and I therefore feel justified in quoting here a passage that bears directly on the subject, from a recent German work by Dr. Hartmann[4] of Wiesbaden. “The last question, whether mineral water acts also by contact with the skin, leads us to one of its most important effects—that through electricity. “Although this question has not as yet been finally disposed of, we have still advanced far toward its solution, through the admirable researches of HEYMANN and KREBS. Both observers have furnished proof that the contact of the water of the bath[5] with the human body gives rise to electric currents, which currents must be looked upon as being the excitors of the nerve-currents, the body acting merely as a conductor. From these experiments we conclude that no particular difference obtains between artificial and transported waters on the one, and natural waters on the other hand, the assertions of SCOUTETTENS notwithstanding, who in regard to electricity claimed to have found a difference between the artificial and transported waters and the natural ones. “We gather moreover from the experiments, that the electric current generated through the contact of the body with the water of the bath is modified chiefly by the gases, next by the temperature of the water, and lastly only by its salts.