422 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



these feminine towers, because the presence of the milli- 

 nery in the edifice precluded the use of lubricants. 



Now, the fine ladies, as I have stated, got into the habit 

 of visiting the Royal Society and witnessing experiments 

 because it was fashionable to do so, and perhaps there were 

 wandering spirits of inquiry pervading the air about that 

 grave institution which sought more attractive lodging- 

 places than existed under the scrubby head-coverings of 

 the philosophers. At all events, one of them made its 

 abode beneath a more than usually alluring head-dress, 

 the owner whereof came to Boyle and told him that her 

 " knotted and combined locks" persisted in flying to her 

 cheeks and sticking there, and demanded to know the why 

 and wherefore of it. Boyle says that he "turned it into 

 a Complemental Raillery, as suspecting there might be 

 some trick in it." Being quickly disabused of that notion, 

 with the characteristic brutality of his sex, he insinuated 

 "sticky paint," but retreated at once before the instantly- 

 ensuing flash of deepened color. Then he attacked the 

 subject philosophically for it was troublesome. The ap- 

 parent electricity of his finger was surprising enough, but 

 to find it in women's cheeks and this time without the 

 intervention of any rubbed amber or brimstone at all 

 was incomprehensible. So he experimented further upon 

 his fair inquisitor. "She is no ordinary virtuosa," he 

 says, doubtless feeling the full conviction of the expres- 

 sion, "and she very ingeniously removed my suspicions 

 (that there was some trick involved), and, as I requested, 

 gave me leave to satisfy myself further by desiring her to 

 hold her warm hand at a convenient distance from one of 

 those locks off and held in the air." 



It remains to the lasting discredit of Boyle that he failed 

 to transmit to fame the name of probably the first woman 

 who thus sacrificed her finery in the cause of electrical 

 science; but to continue: 



c< For as soon as she did this, the lower end of the lock, 

 which was free, applied itself presently to her hand, which 



