The old saying, that history repeats itself, seems to be as true in the field of medicine as elsewhere, and may also be applied to static electricity.
It is not generally known that, in the early part of this century, this agent was used for a series of years, by the celebrated Dr. Golding-Bird, at Guy's Hospital, London. The results were very satisfactory, as the published reports of the hospital show, but after Dr. Golding-Bird's death, the art of applying it seems to have been lost, and so it gradually dropped out of use again.
Another difficulty which static electricity had to contend against in former days, Avas the great inconvenience attendant upon its use. The old machines had to be kept in rooms heated summer and winter, and if any dampness Avas allowed to enter, the apparatus became useless for the time being.
The present perfected machines, as manufactured