Class IV. i . 4. 6. OF ASSOCIATION. 3^7 



er power of accumulating this fluid in thcm-feives than others. 

 Of which a famous hiitury of a Ruffian prince was lately pub- 

 lished ; who, during the clear and ievere frofts of that country, 

 could not move himfelf in bed without luminous corruications. 

 Such may have been the cafe of thofe people, who have been 

 related to have taken fire fpontaneoufly, and to have been reduced 

 to afhes. The electric concufiion from the gymnotus electricus, 

 and torpedo, are other inftances of the power of the animal fyf- 

 tem to accumulate electricity, as in thefe it is ufed as a weapon 

 of defence, or for the purpofe of taking their prey. 



Some have believed that the accumulation or paffage of the 

 magnetic fluid might affect the animal fyilem, and have afferted 

 that the application of a large magnet to an aching tooth has 

 quickly effected a cure. If this experiment is again tried in 

 odontalgia, or hemicrania, the painful membrane of the tooth 

 or head fhould be included between the fouth and north poles 

 of a horfe-fhoe magnet, or between the contrary poles of two 

 different magnets, that the magnetifm may be accumulated on 

 the torpid part. 



6. Oxygenatio fatigumis. The variation of the quantity of 

 oxygen gas exifting in the atmofphere muft affect all breathing 

 animals ; in its excefs this too muft be elteemed a Hamulus \ 

 but in its natural quantity would feem to act as an influence, 

 or caufe, without which animal life cannot exift even a minute, 

 It is hoped that Dr. Beddoes's plan for a pneumatic infirmary, 

 for the purpofe of putting this and various other airs to the tell 

 of experiment, will meet with public encouragement, and ren- 

 der confumption, afthma, cancer, and many difeafes conquera- 

 ble, which at prefent prey with unremitted de'vaftation on all 

 orders and ages of mankind. 



7. Humetlatio corporis. Water, and probably the vapour of 

 water diffolved or diffufed in the atmofphere, unites by mechan- 

 ical attraction with the unorganized cuticle, and foftens and en- 

 larges it ; as may be feen in the loofe and wrinkled fkin of the 

 hands of wafherwomen ; the fame probably occurs to the mu- 

 cous membrane of the lungs in moid weather ; and by thick- 

 ening it increafes the difficulty of rei^iration of fome people, 

 who are faid to be afthmatical. So far water may be faid to 

 act as an influx or influence, but when it is taken up by the 

 mouths of the abforbent fyftem, it muft excite thofe mouths into 

 action, and then acts as a flimulus. 



There appears from hence to be four methods by which ani- 

 mal bodies are penetrated by external things. 1. By their (tira- 

 ulus, which induces the abforbent veffels to imbibe them. 2. Bv 

 mechanical attraction, as when water foftens the cuticle. 3. By 



chemical 



