88 ELECTRO-CULTURE. 
Electro-Culture: With Brief Account of Some Experiments 
conducted at Lincluden Mains. 
By Miss E. €. DupGEon. 
Though the stimulation of plant growth by means of 
electricity has only of recent years become a subject of scien- 
tific investigation, the idea is by no means a new one. So 
far back as the year 1746 we read of an Edinburgh surgeon 
named Mowbray* ‘‘ who electrified two myrtle trees,’’ with 
the result that they blossomed sooner than other plants that 
had not been similarly treated. Apparently the success he had 
caused a I'renchman, Abbé Nollet,t to take up the subject. 
His experiments consisted in suspending iron plates upon 
steel chains hanging from a dry silk cord. Upon these in- 
sulated plates he kept seeds and plants, the plates being 
charged with electricity by means of an influence machine 
requiring the combined strength of three men to drive it. He 
found that some species of seeds electrified in this manner 
germinated much more rapidly than those which had not been 
given the electric treatment. 
In the year 1783 another French Abbé, Berthelon{ by 
name, added to the interest of this subject by suggesting that 
atmospheric electricity was an important factor in all plant 
growth. To prove his theory he constructed an apparatus 
consisting of a number of metallic points raised in the air, 
connected by a flexible conductor to a moveable iron bar, 
which terminated in a series of discharge points just over 
the plants he wished to electrify. Atmospheric electricity 
was collected by the upper end of the apparatus and dis- 
charged over the plants from the lower end, the whole 
structure being insulated by suitable supports. From ex- 
periments on these lines Berthelon came to the conclusion that 
the plants were improved in appearance, accompanied by 
increased fertility. 
* See The History of Electricity, by Rev. J. Priestley, 1776. 
+ Recherches sur les causes particuliéres des phénomenes électriques, 
Frerer Guerin, Paris. 
+ De Vélectricité des végétaux. Dido Jeune, Paris, 1783, 
pod Riedel 
ae sie “ “ 
