M. Defoy recently made the experiment with a very dangerous animal, which he stopped instantaneously in full gallop (_see_ fig. 262). It may be remarked that the application of the current is not sufficiently strong to stop the horse too suddenly. It merely causes a very unpleasant sensation—he is not stupefied nor galvanized by the electricity. The narrator has felt the shock applied without inconvenience, and the conclusion arrived at is, that this method of employing electricity is far superior to the violent and inhuman treatment so often employed to break horses, which renders them subsequently sulky and vindictive. M. Defoy has completed an electric bit and an _electric stick_ quite as ingenious as the electric rein. The _modus operandi_ is simple and effective, the wires being insulated by leather, and terminating at the extremities of the stick. The current is induced, as before, by a small magneto-electric machine. [Illustration: Electric Time Ball.] FOOTNOTES: [15] _Encly. Metrop._ [16] “Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism.” [17] Sabine: “The Electric Telegraph.” CHAPTER XXI. MAGNETISM. THE LOADSTONE—MAGNETIC CURVES—THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE—THE MARINER’S COMPASS—MAGNETO-ELECTRICITY. We have already mentioned some of the properties of the loadstone or magnet; but as we are now about to enter more fully into the considerations of its attributes and of the compass, etc., we will add some further interesting particulars. Ancient writers (Pliny, Homer, and Aristotle) mentioned the existence of the magnet, and Humboldt refers to the knowledge of it possessed by the ancients. Pliny says “the magnet-stone is found in Cantabria,” and we have heard of the loadstones that are supposed to support Mahomet’s coffin at Medina. The origin of this fable was (probably) owing to the order given by Ptolemy to his architect, Dinochares. Ptolemy wished the roof of a temple at Alexandria to be roofed with the magnet-stone, so that the own image of his sister, Arsinoe, should remain suspended therein. But the death of the king and his architect prevented the project from being carried out. The name “magnet” is said to have been derived from a shepherd named MAGNES, who, when tending his flock on Mount Ida, found that his iron crook was attracted to a certain stone; and six hundred years before the Christian era Thales wrote respecting amber and the magnet; and because they attracted various substances, he supposed they possessed life and power. They were the germs of the science now so developed in their applications, and whose full powers we are scarcely yet acquainted with.