which would not seem necessary for their motion alone: It is therefore
probable, that our sensation of electricity is only of its violence in
passing through our system by its suddenly distending the muscles, like
any other mechanical violence; and that it is general pain alone that we
feel, and not any sensation analogous to the specific quality of the
object. Nature may seem to have been niggardly to mankind in bestowing
upon them so few senses; since a sense to have perceived electricity,
and another to have perceived magnetism might have been of great service
to them, many ages before these fluids were discovered by accidental
experiment, but it is possible an increased number of senses might have
incommoded us by adding to the size of our bodies.]

[_Palsy's cold hands_. l. 367. Paralytic limbs are in general only
incapable of being stimulated into action by the power of the will;
since the pulse continues to beat and the fluids to be absorbed in them;
and it commonly happens, when paralytic people yawn and stretch
themselves, (which is not a voluntary motion,) that the affected limb
moves at the same time. The temporary motion of a paralytic limb is
likewise caused by passing the electric shock through it; which would
seem to indicate some analogy between the electric fluid, and the
nervous fluid, which is seperated from the blood by the brain, and
thence diffused along the nerves for the purposes of motion and
sensation. It probably destroys life by its sudden expansion of the
nerves or fibres of the brain; in the same manner as it fuses metals and
splinters wood or stone, and removes the atmosphere, when it passes from
one object to another in a dense state.]

[_Prints the Fairy rings_. l. 370. See additional note No. XIII.]