umulated electricity was frequently
discharged, as the wheel continued turning. The tumour was inclosed between
two other brass knobs, which were fixed on wires, which passed through
glass tubes, the tubes were cemented in two grooves on a board, so that at
one end they were nearer each other than at the other, and the knobs were
pushed out so far as exactly to include the tumour, as described in the
annexed plate, which is about half the size of the original apparatus.

Inflammations of the eyes without fever are frequently cured by taking a
stream of very small electric sparks from them, or giving the electric
sparks to them, once or twice a day for a week or two; that is, the new
vessels, which constitute inflammation in these inirritable constitutions,
are absorbed by the activity of the absorbents induced by the stimulus of
the electric aura. For this operation the easiest method is to fix a
pointed wire to a stick of sealing wax, or to an insulating handle of
glass, one end of this wire communicates with the prime conductor, and the
point is approached near the inflamed eye in every direction.

III. Externally the application of ether, and of essential oils, as of
cloves or cinnamon, seem to possess a general stimulating effect. As they
instantly relieve tooth-ach, and hiccough, when these pains are not in
violent degree; and camphor in large doses is said to produce intoxication;
this effect however I have not been witness to, and have reason to doubt.

The manner in which ether and the essential oil operate on the system when
applied externally, is a curious question, as pain is so immediately
relieved by them, that they must seem to penetrate by the great fluidity or
expansive property of a part of them, as of their odoriferous exhalation or
vapour, and that they thus stimulate the torpid part, and not by their
being taken up by the absorbent vessels, and carried thither by the long
course of circulation; nor is it probable, that these pains are relieved by
the sympathy of the torpid membrane with the external skin, which is thus
stimulated into action; as it does not succeed, unless it is applied over
the pained part. Thus there appears to be three different modes by which
extraneous bodies may be introduced into the system, besides that of
absorption. 1st. By ethereal transition, as heat and electricity; 2d. by
chemical attraction, as oxygen; and 3d. by expansive vapour, as ether and
essential oils.

IV. Th