Vol. xlvii.] philosophical transactions. 1Q3 



reason points have a property of drawing on, as well as throwing off the electri- 

 cal fluid, at greater distances than blunt bo<lies can. 



From various experiments recited in our author's treatise, the preceding ob- 

 servations are deduced. And the following are a few of the other most singular 

 ones. The effects of lightning, and those of electricity, appear very similar. 

 Lightning has often been known to strike people blind. A pigeon, struck dead 

 to appearance by the electrical shock, recovering life, drooped several days, ate 

 nothing, though crumbs were thrown to it, but declined and died. Mr. F. did not 

 think of its being deprived of sight ; but afterwards a pullet, struck dead in like 

 manner, being recovered by repeatedly blowing into its lungs, when set down on 

 the floor, ran headlong against the wall, and on examination appeared perfectly 

 blind; hence he concluded that the pigeon also had been absolutely blinded by the 

 shock. From this observation we should be extremely cautious, how in elec- 

 trizing we draw the strokes, especially in making the experiment of Leyden, 

 from the eyes, or even from the parts near them. 



Some time since it was imagined, that deafness had been relieved by electrizing 

 the patient, by drawing the snaps from the ears, and by making him undergo 

 the electrical commotion in the same manner. If hereafter this remedy should 

 be fantastically applied to the eyes in this manner to restore dimness of sight, it 

 will be well if perfect blindness be not the consequence of the experiment. 



By a very ingenious experiment our author endeavours to evince the impossi- 

 bility of success, in the experiments proposed by others of drawing forth the 

 effluvia of non-electrics, cinnamon, for instance, and by mixing them with the 

 electrical fluid, to convey them with that into a person electrified ; and our author 

 thinks, that, though the effluvia of cinnamon and the electrical fluid should mix 

 within the globe, they would never come out together through the pores of the 

 glass, and thus be conveyed to the prime conductor; for he thinks, that the elec- 

 trical fluid itself cannot come through, and that the prime conductor is always 

 supplied from the cushion, and this last from the floor. Besides, when the 

 globe is filled with cinnamon, or other non-electrics, no electricity can be ob- 

 tained from its outer surface, for the reasons before laid down. He has tried 

 another way, which he thought more likely to obtain a mixture of the electrical 

 and other effluvia together, if such a mixture had been possible. He placed a 

 glass plate under his cushion, to cut off the convmunication between the cushion 

 and the floor; he then brought a small chain from the cushion into a glass of 

 oil of turpentine, and carried another chain from the oil of turpentine to the 

 floor, taking care that the chain from the cushion to the glass touched no part 

 of the frame of the machine. Another chain was fixed to the prime conductor, 

 and held in the hand of a person to be electrified. The ends of the two chains 

 in the glass were near an inch from each other, the oil of turpentine between. 



VOL. X. C c 



