AND PRODUCE TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA. 21 



sufficient to recognize the fact, that it is so pre- 

 eminently sensitive to, and active in, the trans* 

 mission of what men call electric, magnetic, and 

 galvanic force, that we are well warranted in call- 

 ing it " electric ether," even if it be not in its 

 essence what men call the " electric fluid " itself. 



Facts demonstrate that the impulse from the 

 hand, applied to turn the crank of a Holtz elec- 

 trical machine, disturbs and puts in motion a 

 material medium, that transmits the impulses it 

 receives in various ways, even to representing 

 a little world in miniature. A dawning light 

 appears, rivalling the splendor of the rising sun. 

 A breeze from a pointed wire on the conductor 

 transmits sufficient force to turn a little paper 

 windmill, and light paper-figures of men and 

 women are excited to rise up from repose and 

 dance. Rose-colored coruscations of the aurora 

 and meteoric shooting-stars are represented in a 

 glass tube exhausted of air. Flashes like light- 

 ning, and sounds as of thunder, are produced by 

 the discharge of a coated jar, and combustibles 

 are fired. Particles of solid bodies are scattered 

 into vapors, and those of water decomposed and 

 reunited, representing chemical action. Even the 

 mechanical functions of the living human body 

 are excited by the impulse. For when the ma- 

 chine puts in motion the electric ether through 

 the five different arrangements of sensorial nerves, 

 so as to reach the tribunal of human intelligence 



