MYSTERIOUS SPARKLINGS. 503 



Kratzenstein's path, in the same year announced that such 

 fingers could be restored so completely as to fit them for 

 the piano forte. Quelmalz 1 soon after evolved a theory 

 that electric matter, nervous fluid and the Newtonian 

 ether, are all of the same nature. 



Meanwhile, the notion that fire exists in the human 

 body, capable of being kindled or at least expelled by 

 electrification, finding a support in the opinions of the 

 German physicians, began to spread throughout Europe. 

 In England, Dr. Henry Miles 2 at once associated with it 

 the sparkling frock of Mrs. Susanna Sewall, concerning 

 which Clayton had written to Boyle from Maryland in 

 1683, and exhumed other instances of mysterious bodily 

 illuminations, notably the u Mulier Splendens," described 

 by Bartholinus, of Copenhagen, and the remarkable 

 lights which Dr. Simpson had recorded in 1675 as a P~ 

 pearing on the combing of hair, the currying of a horse, 

 or the rubbing of a cat's back an effect which he ascribed 

 to u fermentation." He might have added the "miracle" 

 told by Bacon 3 u that a few years since a girl's apron 

 sparkled when a little shaken or rubbed," although Bacon 

 himself attributed the light to the "alum or other salts 

 with which the apron was imbued, and which, after hav- 

 ing been stuck together and incrusted rather strongly, 

 were broken by the friction." Miles connects such phe- 

 nomena with Gray's mention of the great quantity of 

 electric effluvia received by animals. It was reserved, 

 however, for Paul Rolli, 4 another member of the Royal 

 Society, to give the matter a new turn, well calculated to 

 increase the already-aroused public apprehension. 



An Italian treatise of 1733, written by Bianchini, Pre- 

 bendary of Verona, contained an account of the sponta- 

 neous combustion of the Countess Cornelia Bandi, who, 



1 Quelmalz: Programma Solemnia Inaug. July, 1744. 



2 Phil. Trans., No. 476, p. 441, 1745. 

 8 Novum Organum, ii., xii. 



* Phil. Trans., No. 476, p. 447, 1745. 



