ELECTEIC INFLUENCE. 117 



uninfluenced by the disturbances of the atmo- 

 sphere. It would seem that the object, what- 

 ever it be, is the same in both. It is not for 

 warmth that the insects spin these webs, for 

 they form their coverings of silk and cotton in 

 the hottest period of the year : and I find that, 

 whilst all our birds that build open nests (the 

 Humming-birds build in May, June, and later) 

 breed early; those that construct the domed and 

 spherical ones nestle in the season between the 

 spring and autumnal rains, when the air is satu- 

 rated with electricity, and is in a state of con- 

 stant change. 



" The destructive influence exercised by the 

 active electricity on the eggs of birds, accords 

 with that organic gradation by which the higher 

 embryonic animals commence vegetative life with 

 an organization similar to that of the lower. 

 The successive stages of development presented 

 by the egg during incubation exhibit the heart 

 and great vessels, constructed like those of the 

 Batrachian Reptile, with reference to a branchial 

 circulation. In the descending scale of organi- 

 zation, in animals where the respiration is low, 

 and the irritability high, the electric stimulus is 

 rapidly fatal. Fish and Crustacea perish in num- 

 bers under the influence of a thunder-storm, 

 and the half-matured embryo in the egg is de- 

 stroyed by the disturbances which prevail during 

 the activity of the summer lightning. 



" Electricity being entirely confined to the 



