98 



ON THE SINGING OF THE SWAN. 



man and other creatures. The saline taste which is conveyed to the 

 tongue, by the mere insertion of that organ between two metallic plates 

 connected to each other in a certain manner, and the sudden and violent 

 convulsions which it produces upon animals when alive or dead, are 

 facts too generally disseminated to require recapitulation at any great 

 length. An extract from a treatise upon galvanism, published in the 

 Library of Useful Knowledge, perhaps will suffice to convey an idea of 

 its effects upon some of the smaller and more sensitive animals. " If a 

 crown piece be laid upon a plate of zinc of larger size, and a living leech 

 be placed upon the silver coin, it will suffer no inconvenience so long as 

 it remains in contact with the silver only; but the moment it has 

 stretched out its head so as to touch the zinc, it suddenly recoils, as if 

 it had experienced a painful shock. An earthworm will also exhibit the 

 same kind of sensitiveness ; and the same effect is still more strikingly 

 exemplified by the nais, which is an aquatic worm. Humboldt found 

 that the cerncea, or water-serpent, and even vcenia, ascaris, and other 

 species of intestinal worms, had their movements accelerated by the 

 influence of galvanism, which altogether speedily destroyed their life. 

 Powerful shocks from a voltaic battery are no less immediately fatal to 

 animals than discharges from an ordinary electric battery. Small 

 animals are easily killed by discharges which would only produce a 

 temporary stunning effect on larger animals*"' 



At a future period I may have occasion to revert to the subjects here 

 introduced, in an article on the distribution of electricity among animated 

 beings. 



Paddington. 



ON : SINGING OF THE SWAN. 



BY SIR T. BROWNE, M. D., NORWICHf . 



From great antiquity, and before the melody of syrens, the musical 

 note of swans hath been commended, and that they sing most sweetly 

 before their death. For thus we read in Plato, that from the opinion of 

 Metempsychosis, or transmigration of the souls of men into the bodies 

 of beasts most suitable unto their humane condition, after his death 

 Orpheus the musician became a swan. Thus was it the bird of Apollo 



* Treatise on Galvanism, page 79. 

 f From Pseudodoxia Epidemica. 



