were ContdSl of cond'itBing Suhjlances. 503 



' jrients thai are new not only in ihelr form, but in their eflfc^ls 

 or the principle on which they depend); and on the other { 

 apply the forehead, eye-lid, tip of the nofe, alfo well moid- 

 ened, or any other part of the body where the fkin is vtry 

 delicate: if I apply, I fay, with a little prefflire, any one of 

 thefe delicate parts, well nioiftened, to the point of a me- 

 tallic wire, communicating properly with the other extremity 

 of the faid apparatus, I experience, at the moment that the 

 conducting circle is completed, at the place of the fkiu 

 touched, and a little beyond it, a blow and a prick, which 

 fuddenly pafles, and is repeated as many times as the circle is 

 interrupted and reftored ; fo that, if thefe alternations be fre- 

 quent, they occafion a very difacreeable quivering and prick- 

 ing. But if all thefe communications continue without thefe 

 alternations, without the leaft interruption of the circle, I 

 feel nothing for fome moments ; afterwards, however, there 

 begins at the part applied to the end of the wire, another 

 fenfation, which is a fharp pain (without (hock), limited pre- 

 cifelv by the points of contaft, a quivering, not oniy conti- 

 nued, but which always goes on increafing to fuch a degree, 

 that in a little time it becomes infupportable, and does not 

 ceafe till the circle is interrupted. 



What proof more evident of the continuation of the elec- 

 tric current as lon^ as the communication of the conduftors 

 forming the circle is continued ? — and that fuch a current 

 is only fufpended by interrupting- that communication ? This 

 endlefs circulation of the eleftric fluid {this perpetual motion) 

 may appear paradoxical and even inexplicable, but it is no 

 lefs true and real ; and you feel it, as I may fay, with your 

 hands. Another evident proof mav be drawn from this cir- 

 cumftance, that in fuch experiments you often experience, 

 at the moment when the circle is fuddenly interrupted, a 

 fliock, a pricking, an agitation, according to circumftances, 

 in the fame manner as at the moment when it is completed ; 

 with this only difference, that thefe fenfalions, occafioned by 

 a kind of reflux of the electric fluid, or by the fhock which 

 arifcs from the fuddcn fufpenfion of its current, are of lefs 

 ftrength. But I have nn need, and this is not the place to 

 bring forward proofs of fuch an endlefs circulation of the. 



eieiSlric 



