94: DYNAMIC AGENTS. 



those who could see them, as being somewhat in the shape of 

 a tulip, and singularly beautiful. One young lady used, when 

 ill, to lie awake nights enjoying the sight of the beautiful flame 

 emitted from a large rock crystal which had been left in her 

 room. But bodies confusedly crystalline exhibited but little of 

 this phenomenon, and bodies entirely amorphous exhibited 

 none, but nevertheless gave forth, in common with crystals, 

 magnets, and other things, a still more subtle influence, which 

 will hereafter be described. 



Our experimenter subsequently introduced other tests with 

 the view of ascertaining to what extent this newly-discovered 

 force prevailed in nature. He extended the end of a wire 

 through the keyhole of the door of a perfectly darkened room, 

 in which he placed a person whose senses were sufficiently 

 acute to detect any luminous or other phenomena which might 

 present itself as the result of any experiment. The other 

 end of the wire he attached to a metallic plate, which, without 

 letting the observer placed in the room know what he was 

 doing, he would push out into the rays of the sun, or of the 

 moon, or of the planets, or fixed stars ; or would place an 

 animal, a plant, or his own hands, upon its surface ; or would 

 subject it to chemical action, or the action of heat, cold, or 

 electricity. He found the results of all these experiments 

 nearly uniform in one particular, viz., in respect to the emis- 

 sion of a narrow tuft of light several inches in length, from 

 the end of the wire, which would begin to be visible soon 

 after the agent experimented upon was brought to bear upon 

 the plate. Indeed, whatever possessed in itself the least mo- 

 lecular force or action, was found to be capable of evolving a 

 greater or less degree of this luminosity. 



Other processes gave an analysis of these lights, and showed 

 remarkable relations in their constituents, to different points 



