118 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



ANIMAL ELECTRICITY. 



PROF. BECKEINSTEINER, of Lyons, in investigating the origin of 

 the electrical power exhibited by the Torpedo, Gymnotus, &c., was 

 struck by the analogy of the cells of electric fishes with certain minute 

 vessels, united by nerves and moistened by mucus, which exist in 

 nearly all kinds of animals, and are found most developed in man at 

 the period of the greatest strength, but collapsed and dried up in old 

 age. He began a series of experiments, and after three years' inves- 

 tigation has lately published the following results : When the temper- 

 ature is below 32, the wind north and the sky clear, expose a cat to 

 the cold until his fur lies close to the skin and appears greasy ; expose 

 your hands to make them equally cold ; then take the animal on your 

 knees, apply the fingers of your left hand on its breast, and pass your 

 right hand down its back, pressing moderately ; at the fifth or sixth 

 pass you will receive a slight electric shock. At first the cat appears 

 pleased, but as soon as it feels the shock it jumps away, and Avill not 

 stand a repetition of the experiment during the same clay. After the 

 experiment the animal looks tired ; some days after it loses its appe- 

 tite, seeks solitude, drinks water at rare intervals and dies in a fort- 

 night. The same experiment has succeeded with rabbits ; they die 

 the same day. It is unsuccessful with dogs. Once only it has been 

 made on a cow ; she was tied to an iron ring ; the ground was frozen ; 

 one hand was placed on the breast, and the other passed down the 

 back, when such an electric shock occurred that Mr. B. was thrown 

 to the ground. The cow appeared very much irritated, but it was 

 impossible to know if she suffered from it, since she was killed by a 

 butcher three days afterwards. 



ELECTRO-MAGNETIC MOTIVE POWER. 



A PATENT has been taken out in England, by Dr. Kemp, for an 

 arrangement of machinery for the obtaining of a maximum power 

 from numerous short strokes of electro-magnetic power, acting on one 

 long piston-rod in the cylinder of a hydraulic press, thus neutralizing 

 the difficulty which is presented of the rapid decrease of force with 

 the increase of the magnetic distance. This result is obtained by an 

 arrangement of cylinders and pistons, in pairs, connected by levers, 

 in such manner, that as one ascends, the other descends, and forces 

 water, in a continuous circle, through valves into a chamber in connex- 

 ion with a long cylinder and piston, or hydraulic press, in connexion 

 with the prime moving crank of the engine. London Builder. 



ON THE HEATING EFFECTS OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM 



THE following is an abstract of a lecture delivered before the Royal 

 Institution, England, by Mr. Grove, the eminent writer and experi- 

 menter on electricity and magnetism. 



After remarking on the predisposition, during the early periods of 



