IS THE HUMAN BODY A STORAGE-BATTERY ? 77 



issue from his pedal extremity, and again the " poor white trash " 

 of the waste-basket joined issue with the stocking. He was in a 

 condition of excellent health and spirits that morning, and in a 

 mood for experimenting: he removed his remaining boot, and 

 secured a similar result with the other foot ; when, congratulating 

 himself on the fact that he seemed to be a very attractive person, 

 he returned to his work. 



An incident of this kind, though more startling in its outcome, 

 is related as occurring in the same city more than eighty years 

 ago, in a letter of a United States Senator, Dr. Samuel L. Mitchell. 

 The letter is dated at Washington, March 17, 1802. He says : " A 

 very singular occurrence has happened to General Dayton, of 

 Elizabethstown, one of the New Jersey Senators. He pulled off 

 his stockings of silk, under which were another pair of woolen 

 gauze, just as he was going to bed. The former were dropped on 

 the small carpet by the bedside, and the latter were thrown to some 

 distance near its foot. Electrical snaps and sparks were observed 

 by him to be unusually prevalent when he took off his stockings. 

 He slept until morning, when the silk stockings were found to be 

 converted to coal, having the semblance of sticks and threads, 

 but falling to pieces on being touched. There was not the least 

 cohesion. One of the slippers, which lay under the stockings, was 

 considerably burned. One of the woolen garters was also burned 

 in pieces the carpet was burned through to the floor, and the 

 floor itself was scorched to charcoal. It was a case of spontaneous 

 combustion the candle having been carefully put out, and there 

 being very little fire on the hearth, and both of them being eight 

 feet or more from the stockings." 



Dr. R. D. Mussey, Professor of Surgery in Dartmouth College, 

 in the "American Journal of Medical Sciences" for January, 

 1838, gives an account of a Mrs. B , a married lady about thirty 

 years of age, residing in Grafton County, New Hampshire, who 

 gave out sparks and snaps continuously for some thirteen weeks, 

 when this power was entirely lost and did not return again. The 

 discovery of this faculty was a great surprise to the lady, and 

 subsequently caused her some annoyance. Though Mrs. B wore 

 a silk dress at the time of the commencement of the phenomenon, 

 this was exchanged for cotton and flannel successively without 

 affecting the result ; and the manifestations were found to be due 

 to the lady's own person, and not to the clothing or other con- 

 ditions. Dr. Mussey's account is supported also by Dr. W. Hos- 

 ford, the lady's family physician. 



Phenomena of this sort, when manifested, do not seem to be 

 confined to any one portion of the human body, though occasion- 

 ally localized. A Capuchin friar is mentioned by Dr. Schneider, 

 whose scalp was a veritable reservoir of electricity. Whenever 



