48 Influence of Atmospheric Electricity 



electricity on the body is, as I think, that mixed sensation of 

 heat and cold which most persons must recollect at some time 

 to have felt, — or rather, the consciousness of sensations which 

 cannot clearly be defined to be either.* Concurrently with 

 such state of atmosphere, which the thermometer does not in 

 any way interpret to us, there generally occurs more or less of 

 the lassitude before described ; the muscles are readily fatigued ; 

 some degree of headach is often felt ; and other vague uneasi- 

 ness of the bodily feelings, varying much in different habits, 

 and doubtless influenced by the condition of health at the time. 

 Though these effects are in general more distinctly expe- 

 rienced previously to, or during, thunder-storms, yet are they 

 also sometimes attested in other states of weather where no 

 such storms occur. Certain winds, very common in our own 

 climate, will sustain, even for weeks together, this peculiar 

 character of atmosphere ; in degree sufficient to be marked by 

 the results just described, and having still more singular and 

 obvious influence on other animals inferior to man, and on ve- 

 getable life. These winds, which may be described, generally, 

 as coming from all eastern points of the compass, but more 

 especially from the quarter lying between north-east and south- 

 east, deserve inquiry under all the aids which modern science 

 can afford. Their various effects on the human body, and on 

 all living organization, are in no wise explained by the tempera- 

 ture or weight of the air. The great dryness of some easterly 

 winds may give better reason for certain of the phenomena, 

 but will scarcely explain the peculiar sense of muscular aching, 

 uneasiness, and languor, they produce in many habits ; the al- 

 most instant perception of their effects by some, even without 

 any exposure to the external air ; and as rapid consciousness 

 of change when they cease. Such sensations belong much more 

 to what we know of electrical agency than to any other cause 

 we can assign ; but they need observations more exact than 



* It is certain that the sensation of itching depends on several different 

 causes acting on the extremities of the sentient nerves ; and it seems pro- 

 bable, from various familiar instances, that one of these is the state of elec- 

 tricity on the skin, in relation to that of the air or particular articles of cloth- 

 ing without. If the assertion of Donn^ be correct, that there is an opposite 

 electrical state of the two surfaces of the skin, it might lead to further 

 inferences on the subject. 



