Punch,  26 (1854), 106.

Our Electric Selves

Anon

Genre:

Review, Spoof

Subjects:

Electricity, Physiology, Natural Law, Human Species, Gender, Analogy, Electrochemistry, Physics


    Discussion of a new book on 'electricity and the human body, and the modes of developing it' which plays on the fact that terms such as 'shocks', 'attraction', and 'repulsion' apply to both electricity and social behaviour. Explains that the laws governing the 'phenomena of mutual attraction and repulsion' depend on such factors as hair colour and 'sparks' given off by the eyes. Adds that treating 'the body as an electrical machine', the most 'eligible form' of the 'softer sex' is that which possesses an 'hour-glass' shaped apparatus. Notes that the human machine energetically decomposes water and can be most effectively insulated by removing its money.



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