514 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



ing while he walks sixty steps. He can even electrify the 

 apparatus, take it into another room and ignite alcohol 

 with it. If, while electrified, the nail be touched with the 

 finger, the resulting shock shakes the arm and shoulder. 

 No one can imagine the strength of the shock : that 

 yielded by a vial four inches in diameter containing liquid 

 is so great that no man would care to endure it a second 

 time. It scatters spirits without igniting them, and hurls 

 the spoon from one's hand. The electrification lasts for 

 twenty-four hours. Bose would never dare brave the kiss 

 of a Venus so armed. 



This is Von Kleist's own recital, merely condensed ; and 

 so far it is Hamlet without the prince. I have preferred, 

 however, to present it in this way so as to show how Von 

 Kleist himself regarded the matter. He first sees only 

 electrified wood which gives sparks of itself; then a nail 

 which is very powerfully electrified; then that something 

 that is electrified can be carried about from one place to 

 another; that it gives a flame, ignites alcohol, and delivers 

 tremendously strong shocks , and that it holds its electrifi- 

 cation for twenty-four hours. 



But the strangest thing of all he keeps for the end. 

 Electrify the bottle as strongly as you can, put it on the 

 table, and touch the nail or wire entering it with the finger, 

 and it only hisses. It cannot then be got to kindle spirits. 

 In fact, none of these terrible shocks or bright sparks can 

 be got from it unless it is held in the hand. 



Small wonder that Von Kleist at once began to question 

 what new capability of the human body had thus come to 

 light, and that this aspect of the discovery should have 

 seemed more important to him than the astounding reve- 

 lation that electricity could apparently be bottled for a day 

 at a time. How it affected the Dantzic philosophers can 

 easily be imagined from the results. They undoubtedly 

 regarded Von Kleist's warning that the bottle must be 

 held in the hand as involving some delusion, for how 

 could hands control the strength of any electrical dis- 



