CHAP. XIII. CONCLUSION. 187 



There is one circumstance which has appeared to 

 me deserving the attention of physiologists, and one 

 that has generally been overlooked ; I allude to the 

 influence of magnetism over organic bodies. Living 

 as we do in a constant field of magnetic force, and 

 subject as all bodies are to the influence of terrestrial 

 magnetism, there can be no doubt but that mag- 

 netism must exert some influence over organic 

 actions. " When we remember,'' says Faeadat'' in 

 1845, " that magnetic curves of a certain amount 

 of force, and universal in their presence, are passing 

 through these matters, and keeping them constantly 

 in that state of tension, and therefore of action, 

 which I hope successfully to have developed, we 

 cannot doubt but that some great purpose of utility 

 to the system, and to us its inhabitants, is thereby 

 fulfilled, which now we shall have the pleasure of 

 searching out." I have related elsewhere « some 

 experiments on the Influence of Magnetism over 

 Chemical Action, which were undertaken as a pre- 

 liminary step to an inquiry into the influence of 

 Magnetism over Vegetation ; but the means at my 

 disposal were totally inadequate to carry on the 

 requisite investigation, and I was consequently com- 

 pelled very reluctantly to abandon it. The inquiry 

 may be considered by some as frivolous and useless, 

 but to rue it appears to be one deserving of con- 

 sideration. 



^ Experimental Researches, vol. iii. p. 79. 



« Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, April, .July, 18S7. 



