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action can be explained in the same way. It is the 

 same in disease. A circumscril)ed injury will j reduce 

 tetanus, or ])aralysis — effects out of all ])roport;ion to 

 the local lesion. A few writhinsx worms in the bowels 

 of a child, or a tooth keeping in constant tension a 

 small portion of gum, will produce convulsions. A 

 sudden emotion when we are awake, or ilnQ 'pltantasmata 

 of a horrid dream, uill produce startling physical effects, 

 although the cause be subjective. The centric excitant 

 is equally strong to the objective when it dominates. 



The infeience, therefore, is strong that this substance 

 gives impulses in and through itself, by filling the 

 body it occupies, in all its interstices, and vibrating 

 from the point of perturbation through ononadic con- ' 

 tact. This is seen in the telephone. The voice — or in 

 other words the undulatins: air — is not sent throu2:h 

 the wire, but the vibration takes place in the medium, 

 through its nioleculai' structure, possi})ly in an infini- 

 tesimal degree, without any onward movement of the 

 substance throwu into action. The reproduction of 

 the nicest modulations of the human voice at the distal 

 end of the telephone, is only a repetition of the motion 

 continued, as is seen in the wave movements of a rojje. 

 The sound can ))e ti-ansmitted through a septum of 

 boiler iron, or marble, as easily as through a thin mem- 

 brane. This result can be ])roduced without magnets, 

 in the same way, witli a thread as a means of conununi- 

 cation. In fact, this jjower responds to the same tests, 

 as if it were a subtle form of matter. It may l)e proper 

 here to say that this manifestation of force is known in an 

 exceptional manner to that of light and heat, showing 

 that it does not, in every ])articular, cori'clate with these 

 two forces, and must difi'er from them in some material 

 Avay. Take a wire of uuecjuyl size, and [)hice it be- 

 tween the two poles of a l)attery. AVhere this con- 



