paratus, in which the flow of ink to a record surface is regulated by the electrifying charge.

It is a remarkable fact that, despite the progress which had been made in electrical knowledge since the time of Gilbert, no one had demonstrated any practical utilization of it. Of course, the discoveries made were the foundation of modern useful developments; but, at the period now under review, they had not been recognized as meeting any human need. Perhaps it was enough that they should have freed themselves from the ancient atmosphere of mysticism which surrounded all electrical effects, and had come to be clearly distinguished as purely natural happenings. From this, however, came the noteworthy sequel, that as popular familiarity with them increased, so far from its bringing with it indifference or sated curiosity, its accompaniment was augmented wonder. And this in turn led to the query, soon the demand, whether the new force could not be made to do its part in the world's work. Because those who ask it seldom have any conception how, or in what channels, such utilization is possible, this question, in the beginning of a new art, always takes the form of "cui bono;" and, moreover, as it often bears rather the aspect of belittling the importance or merit of the achievement than of evincing a desire that it shall be conclusively answered, the discoverer is as likely to retaliate with such counter demands as that the utility of mosquitoes or earthquakes shall first be explained, as he is to adopt Faraday's advice and silently proceed to "endeavor to make it useful;" or Franklin's genial philosophy summed up in the famous reply of "What is the use of a baby?”

So when the Germans had digested the feast of marvels which Bose and others spread before them, instead of glorifying the philosophers they manifested an inclination to taunt them with the uselessness of human fireworks, and such electrical shows generally. The man who answered

JOHANN GOTTLOB KRÜGER.

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these flings did it in a curious way. His name was Johann Gottlob Krüger, of Halle, a doctor and professor of philosphy and medicine; and his medium, an address delivered in the fall of 1743, to his students who had asked him to explain his views concerning possible utilizations of electricity. It is witty, prophetic, and pre-eminently the utterance of a sage, whose philosophy is indicated by his epigram that the philosopher's life consists in "trying to understand what you do not see, and not believing what you do." "What's the use of bugs, fleas and grasshoppers?" he demands, exemplifying the usual resentment of the closet student, yet in the next breath repeating, “God only knows what the ingenious heads of our time will get out of it all." "It is too early," he says, "even to try to venture explanations or predictions." But he believes— curious prescience-that the "Germans have laid the foundation, the English will erect the building, and the French will add the decorations." And as to what utilizations of electricity there may be in store, "if it must have some practical use, it is certain that none has been found for it in Theology or Jurisprudence, and therefore where else can the use be than in Medicine?"

Here begin the modern efforts to apply electricity to the curing of human ills. Not magnetism, for that, as we have seen, was used therapeutically at periods of remote antiquity; but with Krüger apparently starts the idea that electricity can be beneficially employed in the healing art.

It was one fraught with especial difficulties at the time, because of the imperfection of the electrical machine, which was then nothing more than a globe, or possibly two or three globes, of glass, seldom provided with Bose's prime conductor, and excited by the contact of the operator's dry palm. Nevertheless, Krüger urges his students to investigate. He has heard it rumored that certain electrified bodies will not decay because they attract only "balsamic vapors" from the air. The "true human body," he says, "is not electric of itself, nor can it be

made so by rubbing; but only by the approach of the electric glass;" but consider, he urges, the immense value of such a discovery as that electricity will prevent wasting or decay of the human frame-"what reward would be too great for the discoverer ?"

Not only, he says, does electricity make blisters on the skin, but it is apparently propagated through the entire body. Clearly, therefore, by means of electricity, changes can be caused in the most hidden parts of the frame. Lost health may perhaps be thus restored, or present health maintained, if the application be made at the proper time and in the proper way. Hence does it not follow that

electrification is a new curative agent?

He conjectured that electrification of the body would augment the circulation of the blood, and cause contractions of the solid parts, and regretted that so little was known on the subject that no one could exactly predict what internal bodily changes would occur—a statement which can still be made with little qualification.

In the spring of 1744, Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein,1 of Halle, made the first experiments on the living body to determine the effects of electricity. He observed at once a marked increase in the pulse-beats, and the accelerated circulation predicted by Krüger, and also the contractile and irritating effect of the discharge upon the muscles. Sparks leaping from the blood running from the opened vein of an electrified man to a tin dish placed to receive the flow, added to the general conviction that electricity was a material substance in the body. Kratzenstein began to administer the discharge as a specific for all congestive ailments-rheumatism, malignant fevers and the plague— and claimed to have made remarkable cures of lameness and palsy, one woman with a lame or stiff finger being relieved in fifteen minutes. Lange,' who followed in

1Kratzenstein: Abhandlung von dem Nutzen der Elek. in der Arzneiwissenschaft. (Gralath, cit. sup., 296.)

2 Lange: Wochenliche Hallische Anzeigen, xxiv., An., 1744.

MYSTERIOUS SPARKLINGS.

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Kratzenstein's path, in the same year announced that such fingers could be restored so completely as to fit them for the piano forte. Quelmalz' soon after evolved a theory that electric matter, nervous fluid and the Newtonian ether, are all of the same nature.

Meanwhile, the notion that fire exists in the human body, capable of being kindled or at least expelled by electrification, finding a support in the opinions of the German physicians, began to spread throughout Europe. In England, Dr. Henry Miles' at once associated with it the sparkling frock of Mrs. Susanna Sewall, concerning which Clayton had written to Boyle from Maryland in 1683, and exhumed other instances of mysterious bodily illuminations, notably the "Mulier Splendens," described by Bartholinus, of Copenhagen, and the remarkable lights which Dr. Simpson had recorded in 1675 as appearing on the combing of hair, the currying of a horse, or the rubbing of a cat's back-an effect which he ascribed to "fermentation." He might have added the "miracle" told by Bacon-"that a few years since a girl's apron sparkled when a little shaken or rubbed," although Bacon himself attributed the light to the "alum or other salts with which the apron was imbued, and which, after having been stuck together and incrusted rather strongly, were broken by the friction." Miles connects such phenomena with Gray's mention of the great quantity of electric effluvia received by animals. It was reserved, however, for Paul Rolli, another member of the Royal Society, to give the matter a new turn, well calculated to increase the already-aroused public apprehension.

An Italian treatise of 1733, written by Bianchini, Prebendary of Verona, contained an account of the spontaneous combustion of the Countess Cornelia Bandi, who,

1 Quelmalz: Programma Solemnia Inaug. July, 1744.

2 Phil. Trans., No. 476, p. 441, 1745.

3 Novum Organum, ii., xii.

Phil. Trans., No. 476, p. 447, 1745.

having retired one night in good health, was found in the morning a heap of ashes. To this he added other equally gruesome instances, of a poor woman in Paris who, having drunk alcohol for years, "contracted a combustible disposition," and of a Polish gentleman who, over-indulging in brandy, exhaled flames and was consumed. As Miles had already linked together people who sparkled and glowed mysteriously and people who emitted fire when electrified, it remained simply for Rolli to suggest the connection between combustible people and mysteriously sparkling people; and of the latter, research in the ancient books reveals plenty of instances.

There is Eusebius Nierembergius telling how all the limbs of the father of the Emperor Theodoric exhibited lambent luminosity, and Bartholinus affirming the same of Carlo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua; Licetus asserting that Antony Cianfio, a bookseller of Pisa, when he changed his garments "shone all over with great brightness;” Cardan relating that a friend of his, in like circumstances, "shot forth clear sparkles of fire;" Kircher describing a Roman grotto which possessed the capability of causing fire to "evaporate" from the heads of visitors; Father d'Ovale averring with equal recklessness the existence of mountains in Peru on the summits of which not only men, but beasts, became luminous; and Castro's story of the wonderful arms of a Veronese countess, which needed only the gentle friction of a cambric handkerchief to become resplendent.

"These flames," remarks the alarming Rolli, "seem harmless, but it is only for want of proper fuel;" and then he proceeds to relate how similar sparkles reduced to ashes the hair of a young man; depicts graphically the discomforts of a Spanish lady who perspired explosively, and crowns all with a quotation from Albertus Krantzius to the effect that in the time of the crusades "people were

1 This is the story upon which Dickens bases the episode of the death of Krook in Bleak House.