UPON ANIMALS. 



97 



valence, ants are seen in great commotion ; bees hide themselves in 

 flowers ; and butterflies become sluggishly inactive and rest upon the 

 leaves of plants, which leaves, I have reason to believe, are not pro- 

 miscuously selected. The devastation which lightning commits among 

 the insect tribe, and which is so heartily welcomed by the selfish hus- 

 bandman, who would deny all such animals as are not convertible into 

 pounds, shillings, and pence, any participation in the fruits of the 

 earth, is a circumstance familiar to all. From the same cause great 

 numbers of fish are said to be destroyed. 



Magnetism exhibits its inexplicable effects principally upon metallic 

 bodies ; and with the exception of the power attributed to it of curing 

 corns and rheumatism, of stopping vomitings, and of sending persons 

 into so sound a slumber that all endeavours to awake them by hallooing 

 in their ears, or even pinching their flesh, are of no avail, I am only 

 acquainted with one instance (which appears to be well authenticated) 

 of its exercising any effect upon the living body. The instance to 

 which I allude is that of the ill-fated youth Caspar Hauser, who was 

 secretly confined within a dungeon, wherein he lived from his infancy, 

 devoid of speech, a stranger to the light of the heavens and of the 

 beauty and luxuriance of the earth, until at the age of seventeen he was 

 conveyed by the same unknown being, who had hitherto supplied him 

 with bread and water during the time of his unmerited incarceration, to 

 Nuremberg, where he first beheld the face of man, upon being discovered 

 after his abandonment by the wretch who brought him hither while 

 under the influence of sleep. This individual, whose life has recently 

 been taken by an unknown hand at Anspach, where he had long resided 

 under the fostering protection of benevolent individuals, was, it is stated, 

 wonderfully affected by the application of the magnet, as was accident- 

 ally discovered by the circumstance of his complaining that a magnetic 

 toy, with which he was presented, occasioned in him disagreeable sen- 

 sations. Some experiments are said to have been instituted upon him 

 by Professor Daumer, with a view of eliciting the cause and nature of 

 this singular susceptibility to magnetic influence. " When the north 

 pole was presented to him, he complained of pain in his stomach, and 

 that a current of air appeared to flow from him towards the magnet ; 

 the south pole had less effect on him. These experiments were varied 

 as much as possible, but he was never deceived*." 



Galvanism produces some very remarkable and powerful effects upon 



* London Medical and Physical Journal, vol. 70, page 173. 

 VOL. II. — NO. II. O 



