The Hutton abridgments contain, at p. 308, Vol. XV, the description of a new electrometer by Abraham Brook.
A.D. 1768.—Ramsden (Jesse), a very capable English manufacturer of mechanical instruments, member of the Royal Society and of the Imperial Academy of St. Petersburg, is said to be the first to construct an electrical machine wherein a plate of glass is substituted for the glass globe of Newton and of Hauksbee and for the glass cylinder of Gordon (at A.D. 1675, 1705 and 1742). The same claim which has been made for Martin de Planta, Swiss natural philosopher, appears to have no foundation. (See note at p. 401 of Ronalds’ “Catalogue.”)
References.—Journal des Sçavans, November 1788, p. 744; Phil. Trans., 1783; “Chambers’ Encyclopædia,” 1868, Vol. III. p. 812; Mme. Le Breton, “Hist. et app. de l’Electricité,” Paris, 1884, pp. 61, 62.
A.D. 1768.—Molenier (Jacob), physician to the French King, Louis XV, writes “Essai sur le Mécanisme de l’Electricité” for the purpose of showing the utility of the application of the electric fluid in medical practice. At p. 60 he explains the effects and results when applications are made more particularly to the nerves, and at pp. 65–67 he gives certificates of many of the cures he has effected of gout, rheumatism, tumours, cancers, loss of blood, as well as of pains and aches of various descriptions.
References.—Jallabert (A.D. 1749); Lovett (A.D. 1756); Bertholon (A.D. 1780–1781); Mauduyt (A.D. 1781); Van Swinden, “Recueil,” etc., La Haye, 1784, Vol. II. pp. 122–129 for the experiments of Sauvages, De La Croix, Joseph Elder von Herbert, H. Boissier and others; Thomas Fowler, “Med. Soc. of London,” Vol. III; M. Tentzel, “Collection Académique,” Tome XI; the works of L’Abbé Sans, Paris, 1772–1778; M. de Cazèles Masar’s “Mémoires et Recueils,” published 1780–1788, and reproduced in Vols. II and III of the “Mémoires de Toulouse”; Jacques H. D. Petetin, “Actes de la Soc. de Lyon,” p. 230; M. Partington, Jour. de Phys., 1781, Vol. I; Dr. Andrew Duncan’s “Medical Cases,” Edinburgh, 1784, pp. 135, 191, 235, 320; C. A. Gerhard, “Mém. de Berlin,” 1772, p. 141; Jour. de Phys., 1783, Vol. II; J. B. Bohadsch, “Dissertatio,” etc., Prague, 1751; Phil. Trans. for 1752; Patrick Brydone, Phil. Trans. for 1757; Geo Wilkinson, of Sunderland, “An account of good effects,” etc., in Medical Facts, etc., 1792, Vol. III. p. 52; M. Carmoy, “Observ. sur l’El. Med.,” Dijon, 1784; M. Cosnier, M. Maloet, Jean Darcet, etc.; “Rapport,” etc., 1783; Le Comus, “Dissertatio,” etc., 1761; Le Comus, “Osservazioni,” etc., 1776 (Jour. de Phys., 1775, Vols. V and VI; 1776, Vol. VII; 1778, Vol. I; 1781, Vol. II); Ledru, “Sur le traitement,” etc., 1783; Le Dr. Boudet, “De l’Elec. en Médecine,” conférence faite à Vienne le 6 Octobre, 1883.
A.D. 1769.—Bancroft (Edward Nathaniel), a resident physician of Guiana, openly expresses the belief that the shock of the torpedo is of an electrical nature. He alludes (“Natural History of Guiana”) also to the gymnotus electricus, which, he says, gives much stronger strokes than the torpedo; the shocks received from the larger animals being almost invariably fatal.
The discharge of the gymnotus has been estimated to be equal to that of a battery of Leyden jars of three thousand five hundred square inches, fully charged. At a later date, the American physicians, Garden and Williamson, showed that as the fluid discharged by that fish affects the same parts that are affected by the electric fluid; as it excites sensations perfectly similar; as it kills and stuns animals in the same manner; as it is conveyed by the same bodies that carry the electric fluid and refuses to be conveyed by others that refuse to take the fluid, it must be the electric fluid itself, and the shock given by the eel must be the electric shock.
Humboldt, speaking of the results obtained by M. Samuel Fahlberg, of Sweden, says: “This philosopher has seen an electric spark, as Walsh and Ingen-housz had done before him at London, by placing the gymnotus in the air and interrupting the conducting chain by two gold leaves pasted upon glass and a line distant from each other” (Edinburgh Journal, Vol. II. p. 249). Faraday, who gives this extract at paragraph 358 of his “Experimental Researches” says he could not, however, find any record of such an observation by either Walsh or Ingen-housz and does not know where to refer to that by Fahlberg. (See the note accompanying afore-named extract.)
References.—Annales de Chimie et de Physique, Vol. XI; Phil. Trans. for 1775, pp. 94, 102 (letter of Alexander Garden, M.D.), 105, 395; “Acad. Berlin,” 1770, 1786; fifteenth series Faraday’s “Exper. Researches,” read December 6, 1838; Wheldon’s “Catalogue,” No. 74, 1870; Sir David Brewster’s “Edin. Jour. of Science,” 1826, Vol. I. p. 96, for the observations of Dr. Robert Knox; G. W. Schilling: at Ingen-housz, “Nouvelles Expériences,” p. 340, as well as at note, p. 439, Vol. I. of Van Swinden’s “Recueil,” etc., La Haye, 1784; also G. Schilling’s “Diatribe de morbo in Europâ penè ignoto,” 1770; article “Physiology” in the “Encycl. Brit.,” 1859, Vol. XVII. p. 671; Aristotle (B.C. 341), Scribonius (A.D. 50), Richer (A.D. 1671), Redi (A.D. 1678), Kaempfer (A.D. 1702), Adanson (A.D. 1751); Sc. Am. Suppl., No. 24, p. 375 (for M. Rouget’s observations on the gymnotus) and No. 457, p. 7300; M. Bajon, “Descrizione di un pesce,” etc., Milano, 1775 (Phil. Trans., 1773, p. 481); M. Vanderlot’s work on the Surinam eel, alluded to at p. 88 of “Voyage Zoologique,” by Humboldt, who published in Paris, during 1806 and also during 1819 special works on the gymnotus and upon electrical fishes generally.
A.D. 1769.—Cuthbertson (John), English philosophical instrument maker, issues the first edition of his interesting work on electricity and galvanism.