Vol. xlvi.] philosophical transactions. ^3 



time he has conducted himself in such a manner, as to prevent Mr. N.'s having 

 any confidence in what he said. 



What has just been mentioned of these two servants, one of which kept Mr. 

 N. ignorant some time of his having taken broth with succory ; and the other 

 having testified such a love for the marvellous, that one ought in prudence to 

 suspect every thing he said ; this made him very delicate in the choice of the 

 persons who should be admitted to the experiments. He declared he was not 

 willing to receive to them either children, servants, or people of the lower class; 

 but only that reasonable people should be admitted, and of an age sufficient to 

 leave nothing to be feared of the truth of what they might depose. 



The next day, Mr. N. was again electrized 15 minutes successively, as the 

 day before, holding in his hand a large piece of scammony , and after him there 

 went successively through the same trial. Dr. Scherra a physician, Mr. Verne, 

 demonstrator of anatomy, the Marquis of Sirie, the Abbe Porta, a professor in 

 the University, the preceptor to the children of the Marquis D'Ormea, and 

 the preceptor to the young Messieurs D'Osa. This day the electricity was in- 

 difterently strong. 



Of all these persons who were electrized, not one felt any pains in his belly, 

 no one had any evacuation which could be attributed to the electrical power. 

 Thus of 7 persons there was not one who suspected the operation of electricity 

 to have had any sensible effect upon him. 



May 23, the electricity being stronger than the preceding days, we chose a 

 piece of new scammony, very strong in its flavour, and which weighed 4 ounces: 

 The Marquis D'Ormea, Dr. Allion, a physician, the 2 above-mentioned pre- 

 ceptors, Pere Garo, Count Ferrero, and Mr. N. held, one after the other, this 

 piece of scammony, and each was electrized 1 3 minutes, as had been done in 

 the former experiments. After which, 2 days passed, and absolutely none of 

 these persons perceived any thing, that could be attributed to the electricity. 



The same day they repeated an experiment, which M. Bianchi had written of 

 some months before, and which had not succeeded with Mr. N. at Paris, This 

 experiment was the transmission of odours along a chain, or an iron bar electrized. 

 They prepared and applied a little piece of linen, covered with balsam of Peru, 

 on the iron bar, which received the electricity from the globe : they fastened to 

 this rod the end of an iron chain, which was electrized by communication ; and 

 they expected that the odour of the balsam would be transmitted to the other 

 end of the chain, to which was hung a ball of metal. But this was expected in 

 vain ; nobody could perceive the slightest sign of this transmission. 



M. Bianchi, seeing that the result of all these experiments did not agree with 

 those which he had believed to have taken place before, said, that this difference 

 might arise from having now employed an electricity too strong ; because that 



