ROBERT BOYLE'S EXPERIMENTS. 421 



with the same result; always the same insoluble problem. 

 He had no more conception of bodies becoming electrified 

 by induction, when brought into the field of an excited 

 electric, than von Guericke had; although both clearly 

 saw the resulting phenomena, and both knew the essential 

 conditions, that the electric must be excited and that the 

 body must be brought within a certain distance of it. Of 

 course, Boyle's finger became electrified by induction 

 oppositely to the amber, and, hence, easily attracted the 

 light pinnules on the down; but that knowledge was in 

 the far future. 



It is not difficult to imagine the host of puzzling ques- 

 tions which forced themselves upon Boyle. So far as he 

 knew, only certain things (the so-called electrics), when 

 rubbed, would attract the feather. Most things would not. 

 Yet here it seemed that after the electric had once seized 

 the down, all sorts of things would attract it, whether 

 electric or otherwise. There was his own finger. He 

 might rub the very skin off of it, and yet it would not 

 attract; but put it near the feather on the amber, and at 

 once it exhibits this astonishing capacity. Was he an 

 electric? If so, why at one time and not at another? If 

 he and the silver rod, and the marble, and the iron key, 

 were all in fact electrics, why would not rubbing arouse 

 the attractive 'capacity in any of them ? and what sort of 

 electrics were they which would attract without being 

 rubbed? How could rubbing a totally distinct and sepa- 

 rate body, such as that lump of amber or brimstone, convert 

 a man's finger into an electric? 



To the ad hominem argument of his own finger became 

 added another, ad feminam, which deepened the mystery. 

 Those were the days of colossal headdresses, when the men 

 encased their craniums in huge full-bottomed wigs; while 

 above every woman of quality arose a complicated struc- 

 ture of curled hair, wire, ribbons, artificial flowers and 

 miscellaneous trinkets. The curling of the hair in wigs 

 naturally made it dry and stiff; and especially so in 



