ch under the influence of the great magnetic currents of
the earth. Such people sleep tranquilly when they are reposing with their
bodies in the earth's magnetic line, and are restless, in some cases
seriously affected, if they lie across that line, on beds with the head
and foot turned east and west, matters of complete indifference to the
healthy animal. These "sensitives" are not only affected by the magnet,
but they are able to detect, by their sharpened sense, what we may
reasonably suppose to exist, a faint magnetic light: they see it streaming
from the poles of a magnet shown to them, in a room absolutely dark; and
if the sensibility be great, and the darkness perfect, they see it
streaming also from the points of fingers, and bathing in a faint halo the
whole magnet or the whole hand. Furthermore, it would appear that the
affection by the magnet of these sensitives does not depend upon that
quality by which iron filings are attracted; that, perfectly independent
of the attractive force, there streams from magnets, from the poles of
crystals, from the sun and moon, another influence to which the discoverer
assigns the name of Odyle. The manifestation of Odyle is accompanied by a
light too faint for healthy vision, but perceptible at night by
"sensitives." Odyle is generated among other things by heat, and by
chemical action. It is generated, therefore, in the decomposition of the
human body. I may now quote from Reichenbach, who, having given a
scientific explanation upon his own principles, of the phenomena perceived
by Billing, thus continues:

"The desire to inflict a mortal wound on the monster, Superstition, which,
from a similar origin, a few centuries ago, inflicted on European society
so vast an amount of misery, and by whose influence not hundreds, but
thousands of innocent persons died in tortures, on the rack and at the
stake; this desire made me wish to make the experiment, if possible, of
bringing a highly sensitive person, by night, to a churchyard. I thought
it possible that they might see, over graves where mouldering bodies lay,
something like that which Billing had seen. Mademoiselle Reichal had the
courage, unusual in her sex, to agree to my request. She allowed me, on
two very dark nights, to take her from the Castle of Reisenberg, where she
was residing with my family, to the cemetery of the neighboring village of
Gruenzing.

"The result justified my expectations in the fullest measure. She s