132 
THE ART OF REARING 
as I have before stated, does not breathe by the 
mouth, but by small apertures, which are placed 
stances with the animal economy in the morbid state, and that 
its great action depends on the augmentation or abstraction 
of tire electrical fluid. 
My friend, Dr. Bellingeri, a distinguished writer of Turin, 
who, from the period of his first studies, has applied him- 
self to ascertain the connexion of the electrical fluid of the 
atmosphere with divers organic substances ; or which arise 
from it, in physiological or pathological cases ; has al- 
ready published very interesting memoirs [on the electricity 
of the blood in the morbid state ; on that upon urine when 
healthy, and when affected by disorders ; on solid animal, 
and on mineral liquids. For these last he has observed that 
they should be distinguished into three classes: into liquids 
which offer positive electrieity, into those that present it as 
negative electricity, and, lastly, into simple conductors. 
In the first class, he arranges alkalies, earths, and sui- 
phurics ; in the second class, the acids ; and, in the third 
class, water, and the various solutions in which this liquid 
does not change its electric fluid, but which is always ba- 
lanced with atmospheric electricity ; and which may, conse- 
quently, be considered as simple conductors of atmospheric 
electricity. He mentioned to me, some months ago, having 
made some experiments upon some solid medical substances. 
I have long suspected that the principal action of tartar 
emetic, in the inflammatory state of the system, is to abstract 
the vital fluid, too much augmented, and accumulated. I will 
quote in support of my views the success with which Mr. Pelle- 
tan, medical professor at Paris, is practising acupuncturation,* 
and that when the needle is run into the flesh it forms an 
electric current ; and as the most acute pains disappear in 
an instant, it may be thought that they were caused by an 
accumulation of electric fluid upon the affected nerves, 
which the needle, as a conductor, has attracted into the com- 
mon reservoir. 
I hope my readers will excuse my having placed here a 
