The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 372, May 30, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 372, May 30, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
It is on the nervous system that the most considerable action of
electricity is exerted. A strong charge passed through the head, gave
to Mr. Singer the sensation of a violent but universal blow, and was
followed by a transient loss of memory and indistinctness of vision.
If a charge be sent through the head of a bird, its optic nerve is
usually injured or destroyed, and permanent blindness induced; and a
similar shock given to larger animals, produces a tremulous state of
the muscles, with general prostration of strength. If a person who is
standing receive a charge through the spine, he loses his power over
the muscles to such a degree, that he either drops on his knees, or
falls prostrate on the ground; if the charge be sufficiently powerful,
it will produce immediate death, in consequence, probably, of the
sudden exhaustion of the whole energy of the nervous system. Small
animals, such as mice and sparrows, are instantly killed by a shock
from thirty square inches of glass. Van Marum found that eels are
irrecoverably deprived of life when a shock is sent through their
whole body; but when only a part of the body is included in the
circuit, the destruction of irritability is confined to that
individual part, while the rest retains the power of motion. Different
persons are affected in very different degrees by electricity,
according to their peculiar constitutional susceptibility. Dr. Young
remarks, that a very minute tremor, communicated to the most elastic
parts of the body, in particular the chest, produces an agitation of
the nerves, which is not wholly unlike the effect of a weak
electricity.
The bodies of animals killed by electricity, rapidly undergo
putrefaction, and the action of electricity upon the flesh of animals
is also found to accelerate this process in a remarkable degree.
The same effect has been observed in the bodies of persons destroyed
by lightning. It is also a well-established fact, that the blood does
not coagulate after death from this cause.
_Transplanting Shrubs in full Growth_.
Dig a narrow trench round the plant, leaving its roots in the middle
in an isolated ball of earth; fill the trench with plaster of Paris,
which will become hard in a few minutes, and form a case to the ball
and plant, which may be lifted and removed any where at
pleasure.--_French Paper_.
_Freezing Mixture_.
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