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contact with the skin by pressing the wings against the sides. 

 The person who held the turkey had a very thick cloth be- 

 tween each hand and the wing, in order to save him from the 

 shock. As soon as the wire from the zinc end of the battery 

 was put in contact with the tin-foil under one wing, sparks 

 were given by the tin-foil, and shocks received by the tur- 

 key, before the connexion was made between the negative 

 end of the battery and the tin-foil under the other wing, al- 

 though the negative and positive ends of the battery were on 

 tables nearly three feet high, and three feet asunder. 



" When a copper wire in connexion with the negative end 

 was put in contact with a brass ring connected with the zinc 

 end of the battery, a brilliant light was instantly produced. 

 The copper wire was gradually separated from the brass ring 

 until the arc of light was broken. The greatest length of the 

 arc was about five inches. As soon as the connexion was 

 made between the opposite ends of the battery by the copper 

 wire, which was a quarter of an inch thick, and about five 

 feet long, a loud noise was produced by the combustion of 

 the solder which fastened some of the copper slips to the 

 zinc plates. 1 immediately went to the part of the battery 

 from which the noise proceeded, in order to try whether the 

 connexion between the cast-iron cells and zinc plates was 

 broken ; I found one slip of copper detached from the zinc 

 plate to which it had been soldered. There were probably 

 others disconnected with their zinc plates, but I did not find 

 them. The result of this experiment showed that the turkey 

 conducted only a part of the current circulated by the battery, 

 for the current which killed the turkey produced no combus- 

 tion of the solder by which the copper slips were attached to 

 the zinc plates. 



" We next tried the ignition of charcoal points. We were 

 not able to determine the length of the arc of light between 

 them : for before Sir Robert Kane had time to separate them, 

 they were burned away. The light was, of course, most bril- 



