Electric Organs. 533 



man, by the action of the muscles, the movement of the blood, pro- 

 cesses of digestion, &c. A good deal of this production is incidental, 

 and it is quietly conducted away and wasted, although there is still a 

 considerable storage of electricity in all the tissues. If it could all be 

 secured in accumulators, as it is in the electrical fishes, it might equal 

 or surpass theirs in quantity. If a person wear non-conducting clothes, 

 like silk and India rubber, the accumulations are often very consider- 

 able. There is a great difference in this accumulation in different peo- 

 ple ; often when certain people pull off their clothes, crackling sparks 

 follow. The American Journal of Medical Sciences, Jan'y, 1838, men- 

 tions the case of a lady in whom electricity was so rapidly generated 

 that whenever she was only slightly insulated by a carpet, or other 

 feebly conducting medium, sparks would pass from her body to any ob- 

 ject she happened to be near. Sometimes as many as four sparks a 

 minute would pass from her finger to the stove, at a distance of 1 \ 

 inches. It was most abundantly produced at. a temperature of 80, and 

 during tranquility of mind and social enjoyment. Experiments proved 

 that it was generated in the body, and not by friction of the dress. It 

 is said that in man the accumulation is generally positive, and in woman 

 negative. People of an irritable disposition and sanguine temperament 

 generate the greatest quantity. Cats have considerable storage capa- 

 city for electricity, and a perceptible shock may be given when it is sud- 

 denly let off. The same was once observed in regard to a mouse. 

 Todd Cyclo. Anat.) 



There are also Electrical Plants. One of these in Nicaragua is de- 

 scribed as belonging to the phytolaccaceae, or poke-weed family. When 

 touched, it gives a shock like an electrical machine. It affects a mag- 

 netic needle at some distance, and when placed in the middle of the 

 bush the needle takes a gyratory motion. The electrical power is slight 

 during the night, and reaches its maximum at one or two o'clock p. m. 

 It is greatly increased in stormy weather, and is much reduced in the 

 dry season, the plant then remaining in a withered state. Another in 

 India, also gives a shock on being handled, and it influences a magnetic 

 needle at a distance of 20 feet. It is strongest about two o'clock, and 

 weakest at night. Its power is greatly increased in a wind storm, but 

 lost in rainy weather. It is probably the action of wind, weather and 

 sun that develops electricity in these plants. It doubtless does in others 

 also, but these must possess storage facilities like the electric animals. 

 The aponeurosis in the electric animals, and the sarcolemma of muscles, 

 and the neurilemma of nerves, are insulators of greater or less perfec- 

 tion, and probably the cells of the electrical plants are enclosed by some 

 such membrane. 



