40 ELECTRICAL STRUCTURE AND 



But given proper connections and an electromotive force 

 not greatly in excess of that of the earth or air, the effect 

 of electrical stimulus should be beneficial. 



This opinion is not merely theoretical, but a result of 

 long-continued experiment. 



Years ago I boiled one potato and baked another for 

 fifteen minutes and allowed them to get cold. Precisely 

 what had taken place I do not know, but they gave no 

 reversal of sign, and except that, by reason of the water in 

 them, they still possessed capacity were, so to speak, 

 electrically dead. They were then each joined up by steel 

 needles to a dry cell (zinc to unprolific and carbon to 

 prolific eye) and left for twenty-four hours, when they 

 were disconnected. Thereafter they not only gave perfect 

 reversals, but began to sprout in a quite remarkable 

 manner. 



Another test was with tomato plants in the greenhouse. 

 Hypothetically a plant grown in a pot is grown under 

 unnatural conditions, because it is cut off from the negative 

 earth-current and compelled to take its root-charge from 

 the positive air. 



I therefore planted twelve tomato plants of exactly the 

 same size and description in pots of equal size and with 

 uniform soil . Six of them were treated in the usual manner, 

 but the other six were connected directly with the earth by 

 means of stiff copper wires from the soil in each pot to the 

 earth beneath the slats upon which the pots rested ; all 

 the plants being given the same amount of water. 



In the end the last-named six were infinitely more 

 robust and bore heavier crops than the others. 



A third experiment was with two onions, neither of 

 which exhibited any outward sign of growth. Each of 

 these was connected to a dry cell (1 volt), but with 

 reversed connections ; the object being to ascertain what 

 effect, if any, the polarity of the stimulus had upon growth. 



