ig8 The Newly-Discovered Force. [April, 
1807. Induction, discovered by Faraday in 1830, was not 
utilised in telegraphy for a long time, and was not formally 
introduced into medicine by Duchenne until after the lapse 
of seventeen years. 
But even though this force shall never be used in the 
arts, or applied to any commercial purpose whatsoever, it 
must be, if its existence is established, of the highest scien- 
tific interest. 
Every new fadt or thought is, of itself, a positive addition 
to the world’s wealth, and, however isolated at first, must 
in time affedb both the past and the future, illumining the 
one and guiding the other. 
Whatever the conclusion of physicists in regard to these 
alleged phenomena may ultimately be, the discussion of the 
subjedt cannot fail to be of interest and of value to the 
student of eledbrology, and for the reason mainly that it 
compels a re-investigation of the laws and phenomena of 
the different forms of eledtricity, in the light of the most 
recent theories of that force. A knowledge of eledtro- 
physics is indispensable to a thorough knowledge of eledtro- 
physiology or eledtro-therapeutics, medical or surgical : the 
value of many experiments in physiology, those of Ferrier 
for example, are seriously impaired for want of such know- 
ledge. If it should be proved to the unanimous satisfaction 
of competent judges that these phenomena, so far as they 
are genuine, simply represent some well-known form of elec- 
tricity, the labour and the time given to the subjedt will yet 
have been well spent. 
For my own part, while I have all along inclined to the 
conservative view, that this spark indicates some form of 
eledtricity, and by that theory was first drawn to the study 
of it, I have yet been unable to prove this, or to obtain such 
proof from any source. Among the physicists who have 
given thought to the subjedt, and with whom I have con- 
versed or corresponded, there is a wide diversity of opinion. 
Some men of ability and reputation have found great diffi- 
culty in getting the spark at all ; others of equal ability and 
reputation have obtained the spark, and have satisfied them- 
selves that it is merely the spark of the extra current of 
induction ; others still are positive that it is statical elec- 
tricity of low tension. No one, however, so far as I know, 
has published any fadts that explain these phenomena by 
the unanimously admitted laws of any form of eledbricity ; 
and no one, so far as I know, has yet repeated all the expe- 
riments here recorded. 
Thus far those who are familiar with the technique of 
