ELECTRICAL APPARATUS. S / 



ing breeze is perceptible, or by placing your hand upon his 

 clothing, when if any woollen or silk interpose between your 

 hand and his body he will feel a peculiar pricking sensation, 

 occasioned by innumerable sparks issuing from the part 

 beneath the hand, and which will soon occasion a great 

 degree of warmth in that part. Or a third method is to 

 draw the fluid from him by means of sparks, taken by the 

 knuckle, or else by a wire with a metallic ball at the end 

 of it. If the operator hold this tight he will not feel the 

 sparks himself. A stronger way of drawing off electricity 

 is by means of what are called vibrations, and a still stronger, 

 sparks. For these two last the patient either stands, or sits 

 on an ordinary chair, and not on the glass stool before 

 mentioned. 



The following apparatus is all that is essentially necessary, 

 though many other articles have been described and recom- 

 mended. The first essential is a glass-legged stool (Fig. 

 373) ; if required for cheapness it may be a piece of board, 

 made smooth, and with round edges, supported upon four 

 wine bottles, pegs being driven into the under-side of the 

 board to fit the necks of the bottles ; solid glass are, however, 

 infinitely better. In using the stool, a large sheet of brown 

 paper or pasteboard, or, still better, a piece of oil-cloth, 

 larger than the stool itself, is to be placed beneath it on the 

 floor, to prevent the filaments of the carpet, or the dust of 

 the floor, from drawing away any of the fluid accumulated. 



Fig. 373. 



The next requisite is a flexible tube, or connector, as a 

 chain ; the stool should be connected to the machine by a 

 chain which is sewed up in silk, and afterwards varnished or 

 covered with India rabber ; thus there will be no loss of 

 fluid. But for numerous purposes the instrument called a 

 flexible tube is much better. 

 27* 



