“Old Betty’s joints are on the rack.”
And Hone adds:
“Her corns with shooting pains torment her,
And to her bed untimely send her.”
But Old Betty’s rheumatism or corns are not alone in this. Those whose bones have been broken feel it. All invalids feel it. And, indeed, all observing healthy persons may, and do, although all are not distinctly conscious of it. It is common for such to say, I feel sleepy, or I feel dull, or, It feels like snow, or feels like rain, and thus from their own feelings to be able to predict, not only falling weather, but its character, whether snow or rain, at a time when either may occur consistently with appearances.
This change is a change from the positive electricity which is so congenial to the active—“bracing” is the usual term—to negative and damp—for this change is accompanied by condensation, as I believe all changes from positive to negative are. Certain it is, if the atmosphere is highly charged with negative electricity, condensation takes place; if with positive, evaporation. Perhaps it is a change of the associated electricity which accompanies magnetism, and not of the free atmospheric electricity alone. Hence another phenomenon alluded to by Jenner:
“The walls are damp, the ditches smell.”
There are localities where this dampness is very obvious. The celebrated William Cobbett, many years since, when a farmer on Long Island, observed and published the fact that the stones grew damp before a storm. I know of flagging stones that usually grow damp two or three hours before rain, especially in spring and fall, and every step taken upon them is made visible by a corresponding increase of condensation.
The reverse of this takes place just before the close of storms. Flagging stones, and walls under cover, will frequently become dry before the rain ceases. The negative electricity becomes less as the positive prevails, although the clouds above are still dropping rain.
In the comparatively moist, showery climate of England, these changes from positive to negative alternate rapidly between successive showers; but observations of electric phenomena, or of clouds, in that climate, are not, without qualification, safe guides for us.
So “the ditches smell,” particularly in the evening before a rain, when the immediate surface-atmosphere is charged with negative electricity, and the condensing moisture prevents the diffusion of the odors. For the same reason the candle will not relight, and there is crackling in the ashes or lamp. Thus, again, Virgil: