493 JUGG 
mouth, in a letter alfo on' the fame fubj’eft, has dated a 
number of fuccefsful experiments in pains of the head, 
face, teeth, and in one cafe of a fprain. 
Dr. Vaughan, a member of the Philadelphia medical fo- 
ciety, has publilhed an ingenious traft on Galvanifm, the 
objeft. of which is to account for the influence of the 
traitors in removing difeafes. After a citation of numer¬ 
ous experiments made on the nerves and mufcles of ani¬ 
mals, he obferves, “ If we only take an impartial view of 
the operations of Nature herfelf, and attend diligently to 
the analytical invedigations of the aforementioned expe- 
rimentalids on this fublime fubjeft, I think the fceptic 
mud admit that the principle of nervous energy is a mo¬ 
dification of eleftricity. As fenfation is dependant on this 
energy, a pleafurable fenfation, or what may be termed a 
natural or healthy degree thereof; then certainly pain, or 
fuper-fenfation, can only depend on an accumulation of 
the eleftric fluid, or extra degree of energy in the part af¬ 
fected. On this principle the problem admits of eafy di¬ 
lution; namely, that the metals, being fufceptible of this 
fluid, conduct the extra degree of energy to parts where 
it is diminifhed, or out of the fyftem altogether, reftoring 
the native law of eleftric equilibrium.” 
We truft we are not fceptics; and yet we feel not our- 
felves inclined to admit any part of this theory. We 
have feen no proof that nervous energy is a modification 
of eleCtricity; and we think that we have ourfelves proved, 
that galvanifm and cleBricity are in many refpeCts different; 
but we fh'all not be much furprifed if we foon fee a de- 
monf ration by fome American or German philofopher, that 
the foul of man is a compofition of filver and zink. One 
©f thefe fages has lately difeovered, that the fymptoms of 
putrefaBion do not eonftitute an infallible evidence of 
death, but that the application of metals will in all cafes 
afeertain it beyond the poflibility of doubt! A proper 
application certainly will; for, when the Perkinilt is doubt¬ 
ful whether his patient be dead or alive, he has only to 
apply the muzzle of a loaded piftol to his temple, and 
blow out his brains; after which he may fafely fvvear that 
the man is dead. 
From the Philofophical Magazine we learn, that pro- 
fefior Schumacher at Copenhagen made experiments with 
traftors of bra/s and iron on ten patients in Frederic’s 
hofpital at Copenhagen. He tried alio traftors of ebony 
and ivory, which are faid to have cured a pain in the 
knee; with others of filver and zink; and fome of copper 
and lead. By the two laft, pains in the knee, arm, and 
face, are laid to have been mitigated. According to M. 
Klingberg’s experiments, this remedy was of ufe in ma¬ 
lum ifchiaticum ; and, according to thofe of M. Steffens, in 
malum ifchiaticum and megrim. According to M. Bang, 
the pains in fome cafes were increaled, and in- others al¬ 
layed. According to M. Blech, the traftors were of ufe 
in hemicranitz and gouty pains in the head ; and, accord¬ 
ing to M. Hahn, in rheumatic pains in both {boulders. 
The principal document in the Banifli collection relating 
to Perkinifm, appears to be a letter of profeflor Abilgaard, 
in whofe opinion Perkins’s traftors will never acquire 
much value in medicine, and fcarcely even have the me¬ 
rit of being a palliative ; but, in a phyfical point of view, 
he thinks they deferve the attention of phyficians, and 
particularly of phyfiologilts. Mankind (he fays) hitherto 
have paid too little attention to the influence which elec¬ 
tricity has on the human body ; otherwife they would 
know that the erfefts produced on it by our beds is no 
mat ter of indifference. If the feather-beds and hair-mat- 
trelfes, &c. are perfectly dry, the perfon who lleeps on 
them is in an infulated Hate ; but the contrary is, the cafe 
if they are mailt. He three times removed a pain in the 
knee, by flicking the traftors, one on each fide of the knee, 
ib deep through the Itockings that the points touched 
rhe ikin. He removed a rheumatic pain in the head from 
a lady by the fame means. M. Kafn, by the traftors, 
relieved, in others, gouty pains of the head and megrim; 
gmd,, in liimlelf, a rheumatic, paia of the back, which, ac- 
L I N G. 
cording to his fenfations, was like a conftriftion in th® 
cellular tiflue. M. Herholdt, from his experiments, con- 
fiders the effeft of the traftors as indefinite and relative 
as that of other remedies. He, however, lav/ relief given 
by them in the ftrangury in a cafe of lyphilis. M. Bang 
alfo, at Soroe, freed a man from a violent gouty pain in' 
the thigh, by drawing the traftors two hundred times over 
the alfefted part. M. Jacobfen likewife found benefit 
derived from thefe traftors feveral times in the common 
hofpital at Copenhagen. M. Tode tried them alfo in 
rheumatic pains, tooth-ache, and inflammation of the 
eyes; and obferved that they did neither good nor harm. 
On fome of the attefted cures mentioned in Mr. Per¬ 
kins’s pamphlet, an able writer in the Monthly Review 
has made remarks fo very pertinent, that we cannot-refufe 
ourfelves the plealure of tranferibing them. “At page 54. 
of the pamphlet, we meet (lays the reviewer) with a 
ftrong proof of the confidence placed in this remedy by 
feveral tranfatlantic philofophers. Dr. Willard, it leems, 
applied a red-hot piece of iron to a wart on his finger, 
and burnt lrirrifelf very feverely, in order that he might 
be relieved by the traftors ; which, are faid to have given 
him eafe in two l'uccefiive experiments. The author adds, 
‘ Many have fubmitted to fimilar meafures, in order to ex¬ 
perience the effefts. I once formed one of five, who burned 
ourfelves fo that blifters were railed, to make the experi¬ 
ment; we all obtained relief in a few minutes.’ This 
zeal for knowledge is truly edifying ; efpecially as the 
traftors are generoully prefentea to the public at only five 
guineas a pair ; and it is clear that one pair would luffice 
to cure all the burns and fealds of a large parilh. Why- 
are not fuch luculent experiments repeated here? If Mr, 
Perkins, or any admirer of the difeovery, would fuhmit 
to have a red-hot poker run into fome part of his body 
not necefiary to life (into that part where honour's lodged , 
according to Butler, for example), in any public coffee- 
lioufe within the bills of mortality, and would afterwards 
heal the wound in prefence of the company, in ten mi¬ 
nutes, or in half as many hours, by means of the traftors, 
the molt ftony-hearted infidel could not refill fuch a ae* 
monftration. Why trifle with internal inflammations, 
when fuch an outward and vifible fign might be afforded ? 
Mr. Perkins has taken lome pains, in the firlt part of his 
pamphlet, to Ihow that the operation of his rods is not 
derived from animal magnetifm. In our opinion, this is 
an unneceflary piece of trouble in England, where there 
is a conllant lucceflion of fimilar pretenfions. The virgula 
divinatoria, and the baguette of the juggler, are the genu¬ 
ine prototypes of this myftery. We were, indeed, re¬ 
joiced, on Dr. Perkins’s account, to find that the Connec¬ 
ticut Society had only denounced him as a Melinerilt; 
we trembled lelt he Ihould have been put into the inqui- 
ii to rial hands of the old women as a white witch.” 
But it was referved for Dr. Haygarth of Bath to prove 
completely the folly and impudence of this American jug¬ 
gler. That phyfician and philofopher, to whom his pr.o- 
feffion and his country are deeply indebted for more im¬ 
portant fervices, lufpefted the true fource of the pheno¬ 
mena, produced by the traftors, from the firlt promulga¬ 
tion of the fubjeft. Recollefting the developement of the 
animal ma'gnetifm, he fuggelted to Dr, Falconer, about 
the end of the year 1798, when the traftors had already 
obtained a high reputation at Bath, even among perfons 
of rank and underltanding, that the nature of the operar 
tion of the traftors might be correctly afeertained by a. 
pair of falfe traBors, refembling the real ones.; and it was 
refolved to put the, matter to the telt of experiment in the 
general hofpital of that city. They therefore juggled to 
expofe juggling: they contrived two wooden traBors, of 
nearly the lame Ibape as the metallic, and painted to re- 
femble them in colour. Five cafes were chofen of chronic 
rheumatifm, in the ankle, knee, wrilt, and hip; one of 
the patients had alio gouty pains. All the affefted joints, 
except the lalt, were 1'welled, and all of them had been ill 
for feveral months. “On the 7th of January,. 179.9., the 
2 mode $ 
