IS THE HUMAN BODY A STORAGE-BATTERY ? 79 



During these performances she kept up a low, nervous giggle, and 

 did not seem especially fatigued at the close. 



Other Georgia women developed similar powers about the 

 same time, or shortly after Miss Hurst's peculiarity became known. 

 Miss Mattie L. Price, living in the same neighborhood, was one 

 of these, and Mrs. C. F. Coleman, wife of the superintendent of 

 the Atlanta cotton-factory, was another. 



These accounts all appear the more credible from the fact that 

 an examination proves every human being, and in fact every 

 animal organism, to be in some degree a producing battery of 

 electricity. Du Bois-Reymond, Nobili, and Matteucci have, by 

 numerous experiments, determined the existence of electric cur- 

 rents in the nerves and muscles ; by means of delicate tests, Bec- 

 querel has detected electricity in the capillaries and other minute 

 tissues ; Engelmann, Volkmann, Hermann, and others, have ex- 

 perimentally determined something of the conditions under which 

 various tissue-currents are manifested ; and it is more than proba- 

 ble that this subtile fluid is being constantly generated in the 

 processes of digestion, circulation, respiration, and secretion. 



The electric fishes the torpedo, the silurus, the gymnotus, and 

 the ray are the only animals, it is true, possessing a special appa- 

 ratus for the production of electricity ; yet the cell-structure and 

 disks of their batteries have been developed from ordinary cells 

 and tissues common to animal life. Other animals sometimes 

 evince like powers. An acquaintance of the writer, some years 

 ago, in California, came upon a splendid specimen of rattlesnake 

 which he determined to capture. With a forked stick he suc- 

 ceeded in pinning his snakeship to the ground just as he had 

 reached a hole. The snake seemed to be securely caught, but 

 with a convulsive effort he not only entered the hole, but gave 

 my friend an electric shock which he recalls as one of the strong- 

 est he ever received. 



We are largely ignorant of the conditions necessary to the 

 storage of this force in the human organism, but good health 

 seems to be one. When their power is dissipated by repeated 

 shocks, electric fish exhibit all the lassitude of weary human be- 

 ings. The writer once handled a gymnotus, in Fulton Market, 

 whose shock was hardly perceptible; yet, when vigorous, they 

 are known to kill horses and mules by their powerful discharges. 



It is said that any person in good health may convert his lower 

 extremities into electric batteries, by wearing two pairs of silk 

 stockings, preferably a black pair over white. After wearing them 

 but a short time and removing them together, an attempt to sepa- 

 rate the two colors will manifest a resistance of several pounds. 



Atmospheric conditions have much to do with electricity in 

 the body. In several cases, notably those of Angelique Cottin 



