UPON ANIMALS. 



95 



briand.*" These instances, exhibiting the attractive influence of 

 music over certain creatures, are very curious ; but how much more 

 curious is it to find some animals so sensitive to its charms as volun- 

 tarily to resort to places where they have learnt by experience that they 

 can gratify their taste by it. In a note prefixed to Innes's edition of 

 Goldsmiths Natural History, we are told, that " an ass at Chartres 

 used to go to the chateau of Quarville, to hear the music that was 

 performed there. The owner of the chateau was a lady, who had an 

 excellent voice; and whenever she began to sing, the ass never failed to 

 draw nearer to the window, and listened very attentively. Once when 

 a piece was performed, which no doubt pleased him better than any he 

 had ever heard before, he left his ordinary post, walked without ce- 

 remony into the music-room ; and, in order to add to the concert what 

 he thought was alone wanting to render it perfect, began to bray with 

 all his might." I remember having read an account, some time since, 

 of a dog that loved military music, so much as to be in the daily habit 

 of going to some barracks, or court-yard, where a performance of this 

 kind took place. — Though 



" Music's force can tame the furious beast ; 

 Can make the wolf or foaming boar restrain 

 His rage ; the lion drop his crested name, 

 Attentive to the song ;" 



yet one would hardly suppose that it would have sufficient influence 

 over a spider as to appease its fears and render it perfectly tame, a 

 matter which one would suppose extremely difficult to effect upon so small 

 a being. But M. Pelissan, when an imprisoned inmate of the Bastile, 

 is said to have gained the friendship of a spider, to whose habits he 

 paid much attention, by means of music. The observations which M. 

 Pelissan made upon the habits and actions of his dumb, but amusing 

 companion, must have tended, in great measure, to divert his mind 

 from the gloomy contemplations which a prison's walls are too well 

 calculated to engender. 



I now come to speak of the effects of electricity upon animals : — If 

 we consider electricity with reference to its universal presence, its ex- 

 traordinary powers, its useful properties, and its awful consequences, 

 we find it embracing some of the most curious and splendid phenomena 

 among the many that engage the attention of the natural philosopher. 

 In this paper I speak of the effects of electricity, magnetism, and gal- 



* Mag. Nat. History, vol. i. p. 373. 



