110 ELECTRICITY. 



productions of this epoch. The spark drawn from the conductor by the finger 

 is described as being so intense as to burst the skin, draw blood, and produce 

 a wound. Other effects on the animal system are related, in which there is 

 probably some exaggeration. 



The year 1746 forms a remarkable epoch in the history of electricity, being 

 signalized by the invention of the LEYDEN PHIAL. The merit of this discovery 

 is disputed, being claimed for Professor Muschenbroek, Cuneus, a native of 

 Leyden, and Kleist, a monk of that place. Probably all these individuals were 

 engaged in the proceedings in which the discovery originated. Dr. Priestley, 

 a contemporary writer, gives an account of this invention, apparently obtained 

 by personal inquiry, of which the following is the substance : 



Professor Muschenbroek and his associates having observed that electrified 

 bodies exposed to the atmosphere speedily lost their electric virtue, which was 

 supposed to be abstracted by the air itself, and by vapor and effluvia suspended 

 in it, imagined that if they could surround them with any insulating substance, 

 so as to exclude the contact of the atmosphere, they could communicate a more 

 intense electrical power, and could preserve that power for a longer time. 

 Water appeared one of the most convenient recipients for the electrical influ- 

 ence, and glass the most effectual and easy insulating envelop. It appeared, 

 therefore, very obvious, that water enclosed in a glass bottle must retain the 

 electricity given to it, and that by such means, a greater charge or accumula- 

 tion of electric force might be obtained than by any expedient before resorted 

 to. 



In the first experiments made in conformity with these views, no remarkable 

 results were obtained. But it happened on one occasion that the operator held 

 the glass bottle in his right hand, while the water contained in it communi- 

 cated by a wire with the prime conductor of a powerful machine. When he 

 considered that it had received a sufficient charge, he applied his left hand to 

 the wire to disengage it from the conductor. He was instantly struck with the 

 convulsive shock with which electricians are now so familiar, and which has 

 been since, and is at present, so frequently suffered from motives of curiosity 

 or amusement. \ 



It is curious to observe how much effects on the organs of sense depend on I 

 the previous knowledge of them, which may or may not occupy the minds of \ 

 those who sustain them. Those who now think so lightly of the shock, pro- i 

 duced even by a powerful Leyden phial, would be surprised at the letter in ) 

 which Muschenbroek gave Reaumer an account of the effect produced upon him < 

 by the first experiment. He states, that " he felt himself struck in his arms, 

 shoulders, and breast, so that he lost his breath, and was two days before he re- 

 covered from the effects of the blow and the terror." He declared, that " he 

 would not take a second shock for the whole kingdom of France." 



Nor was Muschenbroek singular in his extraordinary estimate of the effects 

 of the shock. M. Allamand, who made the experiment with a common beer 

 glass, stated that he lost the use of his breath for some moments, and then felt 

 so intense a pain along his right arm that he feared permanent injury from it. 

 Professor Winkler, of Leipsic, stated, that the first time he underwent the ex- 

 periment he suffered great convulsions through his body ; that it put his blood 

 into agitation ; that he feared an ardent fever, and was obliged to have recourse 

 to cooling medicines ! That he also felt a heaviness in his head, as if a stone 

 were laid upon it. Twice it gave him bleeding at the nose, to which he was 

 not subject. The lady of this professor, who appears to have been as little 

 wanting in the curiosity which is ascribed to her own, as in the courage as- 

 sumed for the other sex, took the shock twice, and was rendered so weak by 

 it that she could hardly walk. In a week, nevertheless, her curiosity again got 



