I have frequently made experiments of this kind by exposing plants to a weak degree of electricity, and at other times to a considerable quantity, without ever being able to observe that plants under its influence prospered more than those which were not electrified at all. It even appeared to me more than once, that those which had been electrified were a little less thrifty than those which were not electrified. In another place he says, Not being content with these experiments, I have made others infinitely more conclusive, by strewing seeds of mustard and cresses, over the largest plates of delf that I could procure, covering them with brown paper, and sprinkling them continually with a sufficiency of water. Each of these plates was covered with more than a thousand seeds; I kept them electrified night and day, according to the method which Mr. Schewankhard directed, in a letter quoted by Mr. Elermann, but which I shall not repeat in this place, lest I should swell this memoir: the vegetation of these little shrubberies was always more or less precarious, in proportion to the greater or less quantity of light that they received; the electricity really contributing nothing to advance the growth: thus the controversy stands, we leave the reader to form his own opinion. That some plants are more affected than others by electricity is an unquestionable fact. It is however not true as some have affirmed, that the contractions of the mimosa or sensitive plant, are attributable to this cause. The plant is equally affected when touched either by a conductor or an electric. CHAP. XVIII. _Medical electricity._ Electricity has one advantage over other medical applications, in as much as it may be applied to the healthy, as well as the diseased part of the body, without proving prejudicial, and because it requires rather a nice application, than a perfect knowledge of the complaint. In a number of cases it has unquestionably proved salutary. When electricity was first used in removing bodily complaints, it was done only by means of the Leyden phial pretty highly charged; but this mode of administering it, was strenuously opposed by Mr. Lovet, who was a celebrated electrical practitioner, and in an essay called _Subtil medium proved_, asserts that electricity should be used in small sparks, by which mode of treatment he affirms he scarcely ever failed curing or at least relieving his patients. The apparatus for medical electricity in addition to the machine described in chapter IV, is an _insulating stool_. This stool is made in the common way, only that the feet must be of glass, the upper or wooden part, should be about three feet square, so that a chair or bench may conveniently stand upon it; care must be taken to leave no sharp edges about the stool. For a representation of one, see plate letter W.