avery's own farrier. 329 



the conditions upon which motion is dependent. Hence 

 this want amounts to the same thing as an actual demand 

 on the fountain of life; the supply of this demand is a 

 continual stimulus to the vital forces. Electricity, too 

 (strange as it may appear to some)^ enters into every 

 part of animal .life, or, in one sense, is life itself, as it is 

 this that gives life to all animated beings. And it may 

 appear stranger still, when I assert that life can be pro- 

 duced by Art, which is in perfect harmony with the laws 

 of Nature. Not that I would take the work of Deity in 

 my own hands; but it is now being understood that life 

 from embryo is developed by electric action — by an 

 analagous process. And by charging the system to a 

 certain degree with electricity, or adding to life for the 

 time being by strengthening and invigorating the vital 

 forces, we increase the speed and velocity of the animal. 



Some physiologists have given it as their opinion, that 

 the spleen of the human body serves as a reservoir for 

 the superabundance of blood in the system, to be dis- 

 tributed again to such parts which, from some cause, are 

 suffering from a deficiency of that circulating fluid; or, 

 in other words, to preserve the equilibrium should it be- 

 come deranged. 



As with the spleen, so are there substances in nature 

 surcharged with electric fluid. When the bodies, of 

 which these substances are mere appendages, have at- 

 tracted a larger amount of electricity than is necessary 

 for their growth and health, these appendages receive 

 this excess, to be returned again when the requirements 

 of the bodies need it. 



These facts, together with many others of a con- 



