[92] In the account of this sailor’s speech a most essential part of the devil’s character was omitted. The speech, according to Capt. Cook, was, that the devil “was about the size of a one gallon keg, and very like it. He had horns and wings; and he was so near, that, if I had not been _afear’d_, I might have touched him.” (See p. 105, n.) It may now again be asked, if the plague, or violent epidemics, be produced by electric strokes, why are they not much more frequently felt, or by what are those milder diseases produced which are not accompanied by any sensible stroke? Here we can be at no loss to say, that whatever produces the highest disease, may also produce the lowest. But, besides this argument, we have positive evidence that commotions in the electric fluid will not only produce sickness, but very extraordinary and seemingly miraculous effects upon inanimate bodies. It has frequently been remarked that people are sick during the time of earthquakes, when the electric matter is in violent agitation. This has been accounted for from the motion of the earth, as the motion of a ship produces sea-sickness. But Dr. Hillary mentions a slight earthquake in Barbadoes where people were affected with sickness and vomiting for _some hours_ after the phenomenon had ceased altogether; which undoubtedly shows, that a certain state of this fluid will disorder the human body, independent of every other circumstance, either of the heat or cold of the atmosphere, or the oxygen, hydrogen or azote contained in it. Again, we find that a certain state of the electric matter is not only capable of producing very extraordinary effects by itself, but also of communicating a power to the human body to do the same. A good number of years ago, a powder-mill near London was blown up. The explosion, as might be expected, was violent and tremendous; but the most remarkable circumstance was, that the electric matter, for a great way round, was thrown into unusual, though invisible, commotions, which discovered themselves by the rattling and breaking of china dishes though sitting apparently undisturbed upon their shelves. This phenomenon did not suddenly cease, and, during the time of it, some people appeared to be infected by an electric _contagion_; the power of breaking china seemed to reside in their bodies, so that if they approached or touched this kind of ware, it would instantly fly to pieces. Accounts of this extraordinary circumstance were published in many of the periodical works of the time, particularly in Dodsley’s Annual Register; and the fact seems to be established beyond controversy. It proves that what has been advanced by Dr. Priestley concerning electrical operations, on a small scale, holds good also on a large one, viz. that the fluid, when once set in motion, is not easily quieted. It establishes the fact, also, that by great explosions of gun-powder the electric matter is