298 BARON EEICHENBACH'S 



What, for example, should have suggested to the preter- 

 natural philosophers Davenport the conditions of darkness, 

 ligature, the peculiar clothes-press structure, the peculiar class 

 of instruments, &c. &c. ? I cannot give any account of 

 what the consideration was what the suggestion that induced 

 Baron Reichenbach to commence trying experiments upon 

 the nervous systems of Mesdemoiselles Reichel and Nowotny, 

 Maix, Sturmann, and Atzmannsdorfer. Whatever they might 

 have been, the baron came to the conclusion that, according 

 to the testimony of five individuals four delicate young 

 ladies and a boy magnets that is to say, steel magnets as 

 ordinarily understood evolved continuously from their poles 

 a pale flickering light; not perceptible, indeed, to ordinary 

 eyes, but recognisable to the vision of those individuals whose 

 organism was sufficiently delicate to become subject to the im- 

 pression conveyed. The baron, after setting forth a detailed 

 account of the experiments performed by him using the 

 nervous systems of the four young ladies and the boy 

 comes to certain conclusions, and makes a certain summary, 

 of which the following is an abstract. He writes that 



1 Mademoiselle Reichel was, therefore, the fifth, and at 

 the same time the clearest, witness for the luminous appear- 

 ances at the poles of magnets. The sixth was Mademoiselle 

 Maria Atzmannsdorfer, aged 20, who had headache and 

 spasms, and walked in her sleep. She looked well, and walked 

 alone in the streets. She was highly sensitive, and saw the 

 magnetic poles flaming vividly. She drew the appearance 

 larger than Mademoiselle R., but in all other respects her 

 descriptions were the same. The light dazzled her eyes by 

 its brilliancy. 



' The following were the general results obtained with the 

 horseshoe magnet of nine elements in regard to the magnetic 

 light: 



f (a) Mademoiselle Nowotny, far advanced in her recovery, 

 saw a kind of shining vapour, surrounded by and mixed with 



