U5St On the Signs exhlhited hy Animals 



ever paying attention to them. Bat animals which retajr* 

 their natural inftin»5l, which have their organs better confti- 

 tuted and their fcnfes in a more perfeft ftate, and which 

 befides are not changed by vicious and depraved habits, 

 perceive fooncr, and are more fufceptiblc of the impreffions 

 produced in them by variations of the atmofphere, and 

 fooner exhibit figns of thcni. 



Until the new difcoveryof animal eleftricity little at- 

 tention was paid to thefe figns, which were confequently 

 afcribed to a certain natural prefcience. But as the eleftric 

 matter iflfuins; from the earth diffufcs itfelf throuo;h the at- 

 mofphcre, it muft penetrate and agitate the frail machines 

 in queftion ; and as it carries with it vapours and exhalations 

 of various kinds, thefc muft produce, on machines fo deli- 

 cate, different fenfations, which make them move in a dif- 

 ferent manner; and, according as the received imprefiion i? 

 agreeable or troublefome, they exhibit figns of joy or fadnefs; 

 fend forth cries, or are filent; move, or remain at reft; as is 

 obferved in all kinds of animals, without excepting man, 

 when the weather is about to change. 



In the laft place, internal and animal elcftricity, which 

 in all probability is the agent of life and the grand fourcc of 

 organic motion, muft be as much fubjeft to modification? 

 as the external electricity, from which it acquires new force 

 and aftivity by the vapours and humidity of the atmofphere, 

 which abforbing the eledric matter in abundance, or ferving 

 it as a conductor, draws it off from the animal machine. 

 Hence arifes that languor and debility which are experi- 

 enced during wet weather and when the fouth winds pre- 

 vail ; and for the fame reafon the moifture which has pene- 

 trated the organs, at leaft thofe that are weak or have fuf- 

 fered any hurt or injury, or been expofed to fome new agi- 

 tation, produces uneafinefs and occafions pain. It is difii- 

 cnlt to explain clearly and with prccifion how all this takes 

 place ; that is, how the eleftricity is excited, and by what 

 niechanifm exhalations and vapours affed animals, and pro- 

 duce 



