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    MEMOIRS OF CROSSE THE ELECTRICIAN . torials , Saknt {/ ia and Literary , of Andrew from ; the Klectriaian . . Longman nnd Co . . Crosse ' 8 widow has put together certain dates and pnnera , which give m imago of the existence of u very remarkable num . To the world in eral Mr . Crosso whs best known ( or wwknawn ) by his supposed creation m insect by means of electricity ; und tno rectification oi' that popular ) r la the moat useful pnssugo in tho volume before us . Ho was known

    to the scientific world by many discoveries in his favourite science , notably that of the formation of minerals by long-continued electrical action . His life was a scientific romance , had the writer been ready to have told the story properly ; as it is , we cannpt recommend the biographical interest of this volume . The following story is not only good in itself , but may be useful to the reader , and we therefore extract it : — WHAT TO DO IN HYDROPHOBIA . Mr . Crosse was returning home pne day by the side of one of the ponds in the grounds of Fyn ' e Court , when he saw a cat sitting by the water . In the spirit of boyish mischief , which never forsook him , he sprang forward to catch the animal , with the intention of throwing her into the water , but , to use his own words , She was too quick for me to catch , her , but not quick enough to escape me altogether . I held her for an instant , and she turned and bit me severely on the hand . I threw her from me , and . in doing so I saw that her hair Was stivered ; the cat was evidently ill . She died the same day of hydrophobia ! The circumstance passed from my memory as weeks rolled on ; but about three months afterwards I felt one morning a great pain in my arm ; at the same time feeling exceedingly thirsty , I called for a glass of water : at the instant that I was about to raise the tumbler to my lips , a strong spasm shot across my throat ; immediately the . terrible conviction came to my mind that I was about to fall a victim to hydrophobia , the consequence of the bite that I had reeeived from the cat . The agony of mind I endured for one hour is indescribable ; the contemplation of such a horrible death—death from hydrophobia—was almost insupportable ; the torments of hell itself could not have surpassed what I suffered . The pain , which had first commenced in my hand , passed up to the elbow , and from thence to the shoulder , threatening to extend . I felt all human aid was useless , and I believed that I must die . At length I began to reflect upon my condition . I said to myself , either I shall die , orl shall not ; if I do , it will only be a similar fate to that which many have suffered , and many more must suffer , and I must bear it like a man : if , on the other hand , there is any hope of my life , my only chance is in summoning my utmost resolution , defying the attack , and exerting every effort of my mind . Accordingly , feeling that physical as well as mental exertion was necessary , I took my gun , shouldered it , and went out for the purpose of shooting , my arm aching the while intolerably . I met with no sport , but I walked the whole afternoon , exerting , at every step I went , a strong mental effort against the disease : when I returned to the house I -was decidedly better ; I was able to eat some dinner and drink water as usual . The next morning the aching pain had gone down to my elbow , the following it went down to the wrist * and the third day left me altogether . I mentioned the circumstance to Dr . Kinglake , and he said he certainly considered that I had had an attack of hydrcphobia , which would possibly have proved fatal had I not struggled against it by a strong effort of mind . " Here is another : — SCIENTIFIC PIETY AND IMPIETY . A large party had come from a distance to see Mr . Crosse ' s experiments and apparatus . He had been taking them to different parts of the house , as was his wont , explaining his various philosophical arrangements : at length , on arriving at the organ gallery , he exhibited two enormous Leyden jars , which he could charge at pleasure _ by the conducting wires , when the state of the atmosphere was sufficiently electrical . An old gentleman of the party contemplated the arrangement with -a look of grave disapprobation : at length , with much solemnity , he observed : " Mr . Crosse , don ' t you think it is rather impious to bottle the lightning ? " " Let me answer your question by asking another , " replied Mr . Crosse , laughing : " Don ' t you think , sir , it might be considered rather impious to bottle the rain water ?" We have already said that the rectification of the popular idea respecting his creation of the Acarus is , to us , the most interesting part of this volume . Much ridicule was flung at Mr . Crosse , much absurdity was attributed to him , which were totally undeserved . No physiologist—even if he were inclined to believe in the possibility of spontaneous generation taking place in the lowest forms—could accept the idea of a highly complex organisation like that of the Acanis proceeding from any direct combination of inorganic substances ; and the general public felt a thrill of horror at the idea of a Frankenstein asserting that he had ' created' a "Louse . Mr . Crosse asserted nothing of the kind . In a letter addressed to Harriet Martineau , who wrote to ask him about this very point , he says : — " As to tho appearance of the acari under long-continued electrical action , I have never in thought , word , or deed , given any one a right to suppose that I considered them as a creation , or even as a formation , from inorganic matter . To create is to form a something out of a nothing . To annihilate is to reduce that something to a nothing . Both of these , of course , can only be the attributes of the Almighty . In fact , I can assure you most sacredly that I have never dreamed of any theory sufficient to account for their appearance . 1 confess that I was not a little surprised , and am so still , and quite as much as I was when the acari made their first appearance . Again , I have never claimed any merit as attached to these experiments . It was a matter of chance . I was looking for silicious formations , and animal matter appeared instead . The first publication of my original experiment took place entirely without my knowledge . Since that time , and Burrounded by death and disease , 1 have fought my way in tho different branches of the science which I so dearly love , and have endeavoured to be somewhat better acquainted with a few of its mysteries . Now , suppose that a future son of science were to discover that certain novel arrangements should produce an effect quite contrary to all preconceived opinion , would this discovery , however vast it might be , humanly speaking , bo such as to stir up in a mind properly constituted an inferior sense of the omniscience of the Creator ? It is really laughable to anticipate such a result , which could only bo engendered in tho brains of tlio enemies of all knowledge " In a great number of my experiments , made by passing a long current of electricity through various fluids ( and some of them wero considered to be destructive to animal life ) , acari have made their appearance $ but never excepting on an electrified surfucu kept constantly moistened , or beneath the surface of an electrified fluid . In some instances these little uuimala have been produced two inched below the surface of a poisonous liquid . In one instance they made their appearance upon the lower part of u Binull piece of quartz , plunged two inches deep into a glass vessel of fluo-silicic noid , or , in other words , into fluoric acUl holding silica in solution . A current of olcotricity wus passed through this fluid for a twelvemonth or more ; and at tho end of some montlib three of these nouri were visible on tho piece of qunrU , which was kept negatively oleutrUiod . I huvo closely examined tho progress of these insects , Their lirat appearance consists in a very minute wliiiish hemisphere , formed upon the surface of tho eloctritled body , soinotimos at tlio positive end , and / sometimes nt tho negative , and occasionally between tho two , or in tho midUlo of the olcctriliod current ; and Bomothnos upon all . In a few days this speck enlarges and elongates vertically , and . shoots out ulunients of a wuitfoh wavy appearance , « nd easily Been through a lena of 1 very low nowur . Then commenced the llrut appearance of animal life . If a fino point be nmuo to approach those Mamciita , they immediately » l » rlnk up and collapse , like ssuophytos upon inoflo , but expand again » umo time after the romoval of tho poiut . * ^ ^

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    evidence which they g ive of the development of a strong spiritualist ool of thought in France at a moment when French intellect is supposed ? ave succumbed beneath a despotism openly materialist , and supported a church which , having become an hypocrisy , is as essentially materialist the despotism which g supports . We see m this development , apart a the intellectual power of its leaders , and the direct effect produced by ir work , a precious germ of political hope for France . # Tie situation of French affairs affords a parallel to the Roman Empire eh those who enjoy the bounties of the modern Augustus have not link from placing in the clearest light . France , like Rome , has been deched by the violence of faction , and by the excitement of political neras , and a period of complete moral and political lassitude has natuy succeeded that debauch . Terrorism and Fourierisni have performed he one case that which the civil wars and the Catilinian conspiracy perned in the other : nor has a Lucretius been wanting in the form of a iptuous literature to preach to weary hearts that social effort was endand vain , and that repose of any kind was sweet . This is thefoundai on which the Empire rests ; this is the origin which it avows , admitting If sternly to be , not the creature of political wisdom and virtue , but the ibutivc offspring of delirium and despair . But Roman intellect and ue did not sink down under its degraded yoke without a struggle and a test -. the great spiritualist school of the Stoics sprang forth in strong ananism to the downward tendencies of Epicurean despotism , and though 'as vanquished , it lived on , and amidst the surrounding putrescence of inutions and of intellect preserved a line of noble character and high rt till it merged in Christianity . And so , sustaining the parallel , French Ilect has , at the moment of general prostration , produced , by a vigorous stion , a great spiritual movement , and reasserts with the authority of uncen conviction the supremacy of the moral law and the existence of vidence in the face of an order of things which is founded on the denial norality , and which seems to have inherited a world deserted by God . i Roman Emperors and their favourites persecuted with a sound instinct : restless sect which preserved the tradition of political duty in the city ; he Caesars , and at last gave the Antonines to the throne . And perhaps ill not be long before the Caesar of our day will discover that , to inculs with an eloquent voice principles of action above interest , pleasure , fear , and to preach a real religion in place of the convenient and oblious religion of the augurs , arc offences more dangerous to society , and ing more loudly for a ' warning , ' than even a squib in the Charivari , or the ression of liberal sentiments in a Review . Hig h morality and rational j ion have always been the nurses and allies of that liberty which is ntial to their existence , and the new Reformation , if it is not stifled , will , ime , shake more thrones . l ^ e should be sorry to speak with disrespect of Voltaire , or to fail in acwledg ing the services which were rendered to humanity by his clear and etrating genius , and his quick and warm , if somewhat shallow heart . He with wonderful ability , and with a courage which at the present day we scarcely appreciate , the work of his hour ; and that work was necessarily ; ructive . He and his school failed , and under the circumstances could but fail , while pulling down the old moral and religious system , to found ! w system on a better basis . Gradually undermined by the persevering rts of a succession of philosophic and political assailants , the vast edifice he French monarchy and church at last fell in , and the nation was left unit any faith but the false faith of political perfectibility or , we should ier say , of the immediate advent of political perfection . Hence that ss of social chimeras , unbridled personal ambition and extravagant fac-, into which France , at the hour of hope and fancied regeneration , id herself plunged , and from which , in spite of noble efforts , she has er again fairly emerged . Public liberty and social progress are possible r with self-ubnegation and self-devotion in individual citizens , and witha strong code of individual morality , based on conviction , self-abnegation self-devotion never have existed , and never can exist . \ Vorks like those tf . Jules Simon , quickening each man ' s moral perceptions and confirmin each man ' s heart the dominion of the moral law , lay the foundation which the edifice of French liberty will rise again , built up by tho hands > atriots , and guarded by their devotion . * et us then earnestly wish to M . Simon success in his beneficent career , we augur that ho will be successful , belying in this respect the parallel he defeated spiritualists of Rome . In every nation of modern times the e of the spiritual elements to which works like his appeal is incomparr greater tlian was the force of similar elements in the ancient world . Jarful leprosy has indeed come over French society , but it has not yet k to the stuto which is painted by Juvenal , nnd beneath this base luxury ; lusscs whoso virtue is preserved by free labour—n source of regenernunknown to declining Greece or Rome . But besides this , and more l this , the modern regenerator of a fallen nation is supported by the pnthy of the other nations of the civilized world . European , society is ' like a ship in compartments of which not only may one float while ther sinks , but the one which floats may redeem the other from the p . And M . Jules Simon has touched the sympathies of tliis country as [ as of his own . For we too are somewhat in the same position as France jelf . We too live amidst the tumbling down of creeds nnd churches , the decay of those institutions which are connected with them : nnd wo have reason to be thankful to tho philosopher who , beforo the old supts utterly fiiil us , tries to give society the elements of a rational religion of a positive moral fuith .

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    NTo . 381 , Jtoy 11 , 1857 . 1 T . H E LEADER . 665 ^^^^^^^^^^^ M ^^^ i ^ a ^ fc ^^^ B ^ BMMB ^ B ^^ P ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ . ¦ ' »_ __ & . ^^ ' * ^ ^ ¦ ' **¦ ^ h b * a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), July 11, 1857, page 665, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2200/page/17/