THE SENSE OF FEELING.

INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATURE ON HEALTH, AND EFFECT OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY.

NOTWITHSTANDING the great importance of protecting infants from cold, they ought early to be accustomed to endure atmospheric changes. The experience of almost every intelligent person, will furnish him with instances where the greatest evils have arisen from a neglect to establish, at an early period of life, the habit of resisting atmospheric changes. Entire families, who have suffered their children to grow up surrounded constantly by artificial heat, have exhibited its serious effects in the constant liability to various affections of the lungs and air-passages, the slightest exposure being sufficient to cause inflammation of the lungs, or that most dreaded of all diseases of childhood, the croup. Nor is the evil confined to childhood. The adult suffers from the neglect at the early period of life, which, like the neglect of the proper direction of the intellect in youth, leaves the effects throughout the whole duration of life.

We are decided advocates for leaving the head of an infant uncovered; at any rate, after the first month, caps should be altogether dispensed with, as not only unneces sary, but absolutely injurious, from accumulating too much warmth about the head. The general clothing ought also to be lightened, and he ought to be kept from the fire, and washed with water at first warm, but by degrees decidedly cold. In this manner, the external covering of the skin will

be hardened, and its nerves become insensible to the cold. It must, however, be clearly understood, that this must be gradually effected; and if the child experiences any pain from this course which makes him cry, it is a proof that the attempt is too suddenly made. When once these habits are established, they should be continued through life, for they are the most certain guarantees of health, and may be regarded as a species of resource kept in reserve, to be advantageously employed against causes of disease which cannot be removed.

When arrived at puberty, an age when the faculty of producing heat is at the highest degree, when summer is more to be feared than winter, the youth, that he may not lose this valuable power of resisting cold and heat, should never in cold countries habituate himself to remain in close and heated apartments.

If any one neglects to inure himself to the changes of the atmosphere, there remains nothing for him but to shun all exposure. He should be on his guard at the period of the changes of the seasons, and use particular care, while he at the same time changes the nature of his clothing.

As old age approaches, the power to produce heat diminishes, and between the age of forty and fifty years, a chilliness is apt to be experienced on the approach of winter, which the individual previously would have borne without experiencing any inconvenience. At a later period, the effects are evident in the increased mortality of old people, nothing being more common than the occurrence of many deaths among the aged during the prevalence of intensely cold weather, while the deaths among this class are comparatively few during warm weather. Thus it appears, that the susceptibility to cold increases at the two extremes of life. Great care should therefore be taken by aged persons, to guard themselves from the effects of cold, without any efforts to "harden," as the danger is imminent in such an

attempt for their condition is far more irremediable than that of the infant.

While treating of the skin as an organ of feeling, and of the condition of the atmosphere in making an impression on that organ, the electricity of this medium must not be passed over; for this also, as well as temperature, reaches the system through the nerves of the skin, and finds its passage by means of the atmosphere. A brief consideration of the manner in which this fluid acts, and the appropriate measures to prevent the evil consequences which sometimes result from it, may very properly be treated of under the head of feeling.

All bodies possess electric properties, but in different degrees-each one possessing its own capacity for that fluid. --that is, a power to retain it, or to allow of its passage. The globe is an inexhaustible source of electricity, and it is on this account denominated the common reservoir. The electric fluid, as was just observed, exists in different quantities in various substances, and the excess or deficiency is distinguished by the terms positive and negative. In the ordinary state of bodies, and when it exists in equal proportions, electricity does not manifest itself by any sensible phenomena; it is only when there is an excess and deficiency in two bodies that approach each other, that the presence of this fluid is made apparent to our senses. Heat and friction are usually employed to develop electricity, and to impart it to a body. In a free state, electricity of the same kind repels that of an opposite. The positive state always repels the positive, and the negative repels the body negatively electrified, while those of an opposite nature attract each other. An electrified body placed in contact with a body that can conduct electricity, imparts to it a portion of its electricity. The metals, many animal substances, except oils, conduct it; glass, resins, silk, dry air, are bad conductors. Those bodies in which electricity is developed, are

said to be insulated when there is no communication with a conducting body.

When the equilibrium is perfect between the electric fluid of the globe and that of the atmosphere-that is, when these two grand reservoirs possess an equal quantity, no electric phenomena are perceived, yet it possesses in organized matter some action; this action is not here noticed, as it possesses no sensation, to consider which, in all its bearings, being the object of the present essay.

Where there exists a difference between the electricity of the globe and that of clouds, an electric action is often manifested by signs more or less marked, and which make an impression upon man to a greater or less extent. When the air is moist, and when the clouds are not at a great distance from the earth, the electricity passes silently from the clouds, and no phenomena occur; this will often be the case when there is a fog, or even a heavy dew. On the contrary, if the air continues dry in the space between the clouds and the earth, the equilibrium is established with a sudden concussion, accompanied with a bright light, giving rise to the phenomena of thunder and lightning. Distant, rumbling thunder, without a flash, is the electric explosion between two clouds, one above the other, which renders the explosion invisible from the earth, the cloud surcharged with electricity discharging it into that where there exists a deficiency. When the electric fluid strikes the earth, it was formerly thought that a thunderbolt had fallen, and all the phenomena of electricity were referred to the noise ; even at the present day, this idea prevails among the ignorant, and pieces of stone of a peculiar form are regarded as the "bolt" itself.

It will easily be understood that man, placed in the midst of these influences, would manifest some of their effects; such is the case, as will be seen by a few facts, which probably have fallen under the notice of most persons. If

clouds, charged with electricity, remain for some time without parting with it to the earth-either because they do not contain a sufficient quantity of this fluid for the explosion to take place, or because the equilibrium is in the process of being established between them-some persons of nervous temperament experience an oppression of a very remarkable kind, which enables them to foretell an approaching storm, with thunder, without its being announced by any other sign. This oppression bears no resemblance to that produced by heat-it is accompanied by an internal commotion of a peculiarly disagreeable character, trembling of the limbs, a feeling of distress, and an anxiety of a painful Others experience distress in the digestive organs, especially in the bowels; sometimes there is diarrhoea, and even vomiting. Some have wandering pains in the joints, in the places of old healed wounds, on the stumps of amputated limbs, pains in the corns of the toes, when the thickening of the skin is not old. These effects disappear when the equilibrium is about to be established; and after the first explosions, a relief is experienced.

Some persons have a frequency of pulse just before the storm arises, which continues until it ceases. It is very difficult to account for these facts; but we know from the electrometer a delicate instrument for measuring the presence of electricity-that atmospheric electricity will be made apparent even when no other manifestation of its presence exists, and doubtless to the positive and negative conditions existing between the atmosphere and the human body, even to a very minute extent, that these phenomena are attributable.

Several curious facts have been noticed from the earliest antiquity, connected with electricity, which were formerly referred to the interference of spiritual beings in the affairs of men. The most common was the appearance of a tuft or flame of light upon the spears of soldiers, which was