98 DYNAMIC AGENTS. 



shown, they gave forth no light. And here it was more fully 

 ascertained, that the ethereal emanations from different sub- 

 stances^ were specifically different as to their effects upon the 

 human nerve, thus affording indications of the distinctive 

 characters of the emanating sources. One peculiarity of 

 amorphous (that is to say, uncrystallized and unorganized) 

 bodies was, that their exhalations gave a nauseous, accompa- 

 nied by either a cold or warm, and sometimes also a prickly, 

 sensation, to persons whose nerves were in a sufficiently 

 sensitive state to test them ; and some bodies imparted these 

 sensations in a greater degree than others. In the investi- 

 gation of this point, Reichenbach took the trouble to try more 

 than six hundred bodies with reference to their nauseating 

 force. The young lady through whose aid the tests were 

 made, could easily give to every substance its proper place in 

 the scale of force, and this she could repeat, without failure, 

 after intervals of several days. " It soon appeared," says our 

 philosopher, " that these bodies arranged themselves accord- 

 ing to their electro-chemical value, and, indeed, in suchwise 

 that the highly electric stood at the top, and the indifferently 

 so at the bottom of the scale, without regard to their polar 

 opposition." 



When the same substances 'were tried on this same young 

 lady while in a state of catalepsy, "the results were the same 

 in kind, but in degree much stronger. The substances at the 

 top of the scale, laid in her hand, caused violent spasms, 

 whereby they were thrown at a distance, and her hand then, 

 as usual in catalepsy, retained the new position. . . It was 

 soon observed that many substances began to act before they 

 touched the hand, and it was enough to place them near it." 



These experiments were repeated, not only with other 

 nervous patients, but with several gentlemen in a state of per- 



