E 2 54 ] 
perhaps, occafion his receiving a more violent Shock 
than he would be willing to feel, particularly if the 
glafs Spheroid has been any time in Adion, and is 
much heated thereby ; the Phial is then, I fay, to be 
fufpended by the iron Chain, the glafs Spheroid con- 
tinuing flill to revolve about its Axis, and to eledrify 
the Gun-Barrel : the Perfon then who has Courage 
enough to fuffer the Experiment, for fo I muft ex- 
prefs myfelf, grafps the Bottom of the eledrified 
Phial with one Hand, and with the other touches the 
Gun-Barrel. At that Inftant, a great Part of the 
nervous Syftem receives a Shock fo violent, that it 
would force the ftrongeft Man to quit his Hold, and 
turn him half-round. 
I remember, among others of us, that tried the 
Experiment, was a Boy of about fourteen : I asked 
him, what he thought of it ; he told me, that he 
imagined, the inftant he touched the Gun- Barrel, his 
Arms had been broke ihort off at the Elbows, and 
that he had been cut into two Parts juft below the 
Breaft ; another of the Company, with a fort of 
Pun, termed it being broken upon the Wheel. 
In EfFed, fo far the Boy was in the right, that the 
Shock in the Arms feems to extend no farther 
than the Elbows, and that of the Body no lower 
than the Breaft, without afFeding however in the 
lead the Head, or feeming to reach beyond the 
outward Expanfion of the Nerves : yet is it not to 
be termed a Pain ; for there is not the leaft Senfe of 
that fort in it, but a mere fudden convulfionary 
Motion, or rather a Shock, which furprifes much, 
and is indeed an uneafy, though not a painful 
Senfation. 
In 
