"We shall now present a few cases that bear a closer analogy to electricity, perhaps, than those we have been considering. The first we shall speak of is that of the two Smyrna girls, who visited France in 1839, and exhibited what was called _their electrical powers, in moving tables without contact_. The account was published in the Boston Weekly Magazine, of December 28, 1839. The two girls landed at Marseilles, about the first of November, 1839. In hopes of realizing a splendid fortune, they intended to exhibit themselves in France, and other parts of the continent. Immediately on their arrival, several persons, including several men of science and professors, visited them, and ascertained the following phenomena:-- _First._ "The girls stationed themselves, facing each other, at the ends of a large _table_, keeping at a distance from it of one or two feet, according to their electrical dispositions. _Second._ "When a few minutes had elapsed, a _crackling_, like that of electric fluid spreading over gilt paper, was heard, when,-- _Third._ "The table received a strong shake, which always made it _advance from_ the ELDER to the younger sister. _Fourth._ "A _key_, _nails_, or any piece of _iron_ placed on the table _instantaneously stopped_ the phenomena. _Fifth._ "When the iron was adapted to the _under part_ of the table, it produced no effect upon the experiment. _Sixth._ "Saving this singularity, the facts observed constantly followed the known laws of electricity, whether glass insulators were used, or whether one of the girls wore silk garments. In the latter case, the electric properties of both were neutralized." Such was the state of matters for some days after the arrival of the young Greeks; but,-- _Seventh._ "The temperature having become cooled, and the atmosphere having loaded itself with _humidity_, all perceptible electric virtue seemed to have deserted them. One may conceive the melancholy of these girls," the writer continues, "and the disappointment of the two Greeks, their relations, who came with them to share their anticipated wealth." "In this case we have the "manifestation" of a force greatly analogous to that often witnessed at the present day. In one important respect it acted differently from electricity, in that it was broken by simply laying a _key_ or a small piece of _iron_ on the object the agent had acted upon, &c. "It must be admitted, however," says Mr. Rogers, "that the fact of the influence of glass insulators and the silk dress, causing a cessation of the phenomena, shows that the agent that acted upon the table was, in some way, a form of electricity, though greatly varying, in its laws of action, from that usually known to science. We have," says Mr. R., "some curious facts relating to this _modified agent_, to present from Matucci and others," (in the second number of our work.)