D BIRD S IMPR VE IN NES T- B UILDING ? 485 



It is now only about 150 years since electricity was discovered, not 

 more than 120 since the discovery of the Leyden jar enabled electri- 

 cians to concentrate the vital fluid. What has it not done for us in 

 that time ! And while it was so decried at first, and has met with im- 

 pediment after impediment, we now accept what it gives us, so quietly 

 and so much as a matter of course, that a few days ago the announce- 

 ment that electric communication was completed with the antipodes 

 called forth nothing more than a short paragraph in the newspapers. 

 May we not hope, then, the time has come when not only the scientific 

 medical man, but every practitioner, will look for himself into the cura- 

 tive powers of electricity ? 



Every thing that is good, however, in the present day is sure to 

 have a host of empirical imitators, and the inventions of which we 

 have spoken are no exception to this rule. These chains and bands are 

 really formed on scientific principles, giving the patient the benefit of 

 the curative powers of electricity in a convenient form. There are 

 many spurious appliances under the name of magnetic, electro-mag- 

 netic, and other high-sounding titles, that get confounded with the 

 continuous current of electricity, which alone, in the opinion of the 

 highest medical authorities, can have any effect on the diseases we have 

 enumerated. The mischief done by these spurious imitations is incal- 

 culable, and they lead, not only to disappointment, but have a dis- 

 couraging effect upon the public mind. 



Judging by the extraordinary cases of cure by the use of these 

 chains and bands, now well authenticated by the highest professional 

 authorities, John Wesley was indeed prophetic when he wrote in 1759 : 

 " It is highly probable a timely use of this means might prevent, be- 

 fore they were thoroughly formed, and frequently even then remove, 

 some of the most painful and dangerous distempers cancers and scrof- 

 ulous humors in particular though they will yield to no other medi- 

 cine yet discovered. It is certain nothing is so likely, by accelerating 

 the contained fluids, to dilate and open the passages, as well as divide 

 the coagulated particles of blood, that so the circulation may be again 

 performed. And it is a doubt whether it would not be of more use, 

 even in mortification, than either the bark or any other medicine in the 

 world." Belgravia. 



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DO BIRDS IMPROVE IN" NEST-BUILDING? 



"A 3 



TRANSLATED FROM THE REVUE DES DECX MONDES, 



By J. FITZGERALD, A. M. 

 MAN'S house," says a learned hygienist, " is but an extension 



of his clothing : the tent is next-door neighbor to the mantle, 

 and the roof is simply a big head-gear." A house, just like the clothes 

 we wear, is, first of all, a shelter to protect us against the medium 



