ng made, one of two things will
happen,--either the patient will naturally find it very mild, and will
submit fearlessly to a gentle and increasing treatment, or else her
apprehensions will so dominate her as to cause her to complain of the
effects as exciting or tiring her, or as spoiling her sleep. A few words
of kindly explanation will suffice to show her how much expectation has
to do with the apparent results, and she will be found, if the matter be
managed with tact, to have learned a lesson of wide usefulness
throughout her treatment.

However, there are occasional, though very rare, cases in which it is
impossible to use faradism at all by reason of the insomnia and
nervousness which result even after very careful and gentle application
of the current. On the other hand, some patients find the effect of the
electric application so soothing as to promote sleep, and will ask to
have it repeated or regularly given in the evening.

I have been asked very often if all the means here described be
necessary, and I have been criticised by some of the reviewers of my
first edition because I had not pointed out the relative needfulness of
the various agencies employed. In fact, I have made very numerous
clinical studies of cases, in some of which I used rest, seclusion, and
massage, and in others rest, seclusion, and electricity. It is, of
course, difficult, I may say impossible, to state in any numerical
manner the reason for my conclusion in favor of the conjoined use of all
these means. If one is to be left out, I have no hesitation in saying
that it should be electricity.

CHAPTER VIII.

DIETETICS AND THERAPEUTICS.

The somewhat wearisome and minute details I have given as to seclusion,
rest, massage, and electricity have prepared the way for a discussion of
the dietetic and medicinal treatment which without them would be neither
possible nor useful.

As to diet, we have to be guided somewhat by the previous condition and
history of the patient.

It is difficult to treat any of these cases without a resort at some
time more or less to the use of milk. In most dyspeptic cases--and few
neurasthenic women fail to be obstinately dyspeptic--milk given at the
outset, and given alone by Karell's method for a fortnight or less,
enormously simplifies our treatment. Even after that, milk is the best
and most easily managed addition to a general diet. As to its use with
rest and massage as an exclusive diet in o