have a negro boy to push me in a chair?"

It will have been seen that I am careful in the selection of cases for
this treatment. Conducted under the best circumstances for success, it
involves a good deal that is costly. Neither does it answer as well, and
for obvious reasons, in hospital wards; and this is most true in regard
to persons who are demonstratively hysterical. As a rule, the worse the
case, the more emaciated, the more easy is it to manage, to control, and
to cure. It is, as Playfair remarks, the half-ill who constitute the
difficult cases.

I am also very careful as to being sure of the absence of certain forms
of organic disease before flattering myself with the probability of
success. But not all organic troubles forbid the use of this treatment.
Advanced Bright's disease does, though the early stages of contracted
kidney are decidedly benefited by it, if proper diet be prescribed; but
intestinal troubles which are not tubercular or malignant do not; nor do
moderate signs of chronic pulmonary deposits, or bronchitis.[13]

Some special consideration needs to be given to the subject of
heart-disease. Especially in cases of broken compensation, by lessening
the work required of the heart so that it needs to beat both less often
and with less force, the simple maintenance of the recumbent position is
a great aid to recovery, and massage properly used will still further
relieve the heart. Disturbed compensation is usually accompanied by
failure of nutrition, often by distinct anæmia, and these and the
anxiety which naturally enough affects the mind of a person with cardiac
disorder are all best handled, at first at least, by quiet and rest.
Later, the methods of Schott, baths and resistance movements, may carry
the improvement further. Even in old and established cases of valvular