VOL. LXIII.] fHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. | , 417 



sical one to supply the want of it. The back oi a cat, it is well known, often 

 exhibits strong marks of electricity; being therefore desirous to try what effect 

 this might produce, when made use of instead of the glass globe, he cut a quan- 

 tity of harpsichord wire into short pieces, of 5 or 6 inches, and tying them to- 

 gether at one end, made the other diverge like the hair of a brush. He took a 

 large metal pestle of a mortar for a conductor, to the end of which he fixed the 

 brush of wire; and insulated the whole, by placing it on a couple of wine- 

 glasses. He then took a cat on his knee, and bringing her back under the 

 wires, he began to stroke it gently. The animal continued in good humour for 

 a few minutes, and he had the satisfaction to see that the conductor was so much 

 charged, that it emitted sparks of a considerable force, and attracted strongly 

 such light bodies as were brought near it; but the cat at last becoming uneasy, 

 threatened to put an end to the experiment. The passage of the electrical fire, 

 from the hair of her back to the small wires, occasioned, it seems, a disagree- 

 able sensation, which she could not bear; so that turning about her head to de- 

 fend her back, the tip of her ear happening to touch the conductor, and a large 

 spark coming from it, she sprung away in a fright, and would not allow him to 

 come near her more. However, after a long interval, the animal seeming to 

 have forgotten her adventure, a young lady in company, less obnoxious to her 

 than he was, undertook to manage her. Having first covered the back of this 

 lady's hand with a piece of dry silk, that none of the electric fire communicated 

 to the wires might be lost, she then began to stroke the cat as he had done, and 

 the conductor soon after appeared fully charged: they drew large sparks from it; 

 and if the animal would have continued quiet, he had no doubt that they should 

 have showed many of the common experiments in electricity; but she soon be- 

 came so outrageous, that they were glad to put an end to the operations, with- 

 out any hopes of being able to repeat them, at least with the same kistrument. 

 In this dilemma he recollected, that a lady had told him, that on combing her 

 hair, in frosty weather, she had often been sensible of a little crackling noise; 

 and in the dark had sometimes observed small sparks of fire to issue from it. He 

 proposed, therefore, that one of the young ladies would suffer the experiment 

 to be made on her head, which she agreed to. The conductor was then insulated 

 as before, and the lady having placed herself so, that the back part of her head 

 almost touched the brush of wire, he desired her sister to stand behind her, on 

 a cake of bee's wax; who, as soon as she began to comb the hair of the former, 

 the conductor emitted sparks still of a larger size than those they had hitherto 

 seen. The hair was extremely electric, and when the room was darkened, they 

 could perceive the fire pass from it along the small wires to the conductor. The 

 young lady who was on the wax, was not a little surprised to find, that the 

 moment she began to comb her sister's hair, her own body became electric, dart- 



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