Of the various forms of suggestive treatment it is not necessary here to treat. One form, treatment by hypnosis, is worthy of careful study, but its details are out of place here.

Heliotherapy, exposure to the rays of the sun, or, in Finsen's latest developments, to the activities of the x-rays; aerotherapy, or exposure to the open air, moist air, dry air, superheated air, etc. - both constitute modes of treating some forms of disease. Much might be said of Climatotherapy, the principles of which are not well understood. Dietetic Therapy. - This is also a method of antiquity. Diet - milk cures, vegetarian diet, meat diets, diets for obesity, for diabetes, etc. - has extreme practical importance, and its principles should be thoroughly mastered by the student.

Physicomechanical Therapy. - This includes a large number of useful procedures - Kinesotherapy, or massage and Swedish movements, from which the fantastical osteopathy has developed, is one of the most important. The Chinese and Japanese have used massage for a thousand years, and it constitutes one of their most important therapeutic procedures. Tissot, in 1780, brought the methods in use once more in Europe; Schebe, of Germany, in 1847, and Zander, of Stockholm, in 1865, brought the modern gymnastic procedures to a state of perfection.

Hydrotherapy, involving the use of heat and cold, with modified massage, has justly become a most important therapeutic procedure. E. F. C. Oertel, of Bayreuth, in 1765, and Preissnitz, in 1790, may be regarded as the founders of modern hydrotherapy. Its most useful applications are to be found in reducing temperature, in promoting sleep, and in neurasthenic and weakened nervous states, although its applications in one form or another are numerous. Tonsillitis, pharyngitis, conjunctivitis, abdominal pain, ovarian neuralgias, etc., are all benefited by hot applications.

Hypodermoclysis and enteroclysis are special forms of hydrotherapy which are of great value.

Electrotherapy. - Electricity is a potent agent in the treatment of certain forms of disease. Within recent years more definite ideas have been gained regarding the mode of its action. Space does not permit of more than an indication of the merest outlines in this place, the student being referred to text-books on the subject (Jacoby, "Electrotherapeutics").

In general, two types of current, galvanic and faradic, are employed both for diagnostic and for therapeutic purposes. The galvanic current is of constant flow, low intensity, and small in quantity. It has little influence in causing muscular contractions, but has marked chemical and thermal properties and promotes metabolism. The faradic current consists of alternating to-and-fro currents, is usually of high intensity, and has marked power to promote muscle contractility. The knowledge of the different modes of application should be gained from a good text-book.

In using electricity for diagnostic purposes it is advisable to use the minimum amount of current to produce a desired effect. The two sides of the body should be carefully compared, and the patient should be at rest. It is advisable to have similar electrodes, and they should be applied to corresponding areas on the well side and the supposedly diseased side.

The condition of muscular contractility is. investigated in using the galvanic current by making and breaking the current. Under the influence of small to medium currents the normal reaction of a muscle should be that the anodal closure contraction is less than the cathodal closure contraction, thus, A.C.C. < C.C.C. In a muscle that is just beginning to show signs of a loss of muscular contractility the A.C.C = C.C.C, whereas if the anodal closure contraction is greater than the cathodal closure contraction the reaction is known as the reaction of degeneration, and is an evidence of disease. Reaction of degeneration must result from almost any extensive lesion of the peripheral motor neuron. It is found in extensive neuritis from toxic causes, alcohol, lead, zinc, carbon disulphide, mercury, malarial poisoning, etc., in acute anterior poliomyelitis or other disease involving the cells in the anterior horns of the cord; it may also occur with extensive muscle disease.

From a therapeutic point of view electricity is having a constantly widening application. The use of the x-rays in lupus and in flat epitheliomata is as certain as it is marvellous, and the application of the Finsen phototherapy is but in its infancy. Electricity is widely employed as an irritant, caustic, and escharotic. In paralyses of spinal and neuritic origin its properties of stimulating metabolism make it a highly desirable therapeutic measure. When combined with massage and infinite pains and tact, continued for long periods of time, seemingly hopeless paralyses may be very markedly relieved. Eternal persistency is sometimes the price of recovery. In sensory affections the static current often is of service. Mental suggestibility is here an important item, and the static machine lends itself very readily to much quackery. Galvanism is often very useful in relieving the deep-seated pains of sciatica and lumbago. By many, electricity is deemed of no value, and by others as a panacea for all ills. The truth lies in the means. In proper hands it is an exceedingly useful agent, but it has fallen very much in the estimation of the profession because of the great use made of electricity by the charlatan and professional parasites on that portion of society that so delights in being humbugged.

Toxicology. - Pharmacology and toxicology are in a sense the same. They represent quantitative variation only. All pharmacological action represents some variation from normal standards. When such variations reach a point where the disturbance of function threatens to be or is fraught with danger to the well-being or life of the organism, then the subject is suffering from the toxic action of such an agent.