Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/404

Many strange and unaccountable occurrences are attributed by ignorant people to "animal magnetism," some even going to such an extreme as to refuse to shake hands with other persons for fear of parting with some of their precious magnetic properties. Where there is much smoke there must be some fire, as the old adage goes, and although the marvellous stories current in a certain class of literature are wholly untrue, animal electricity undoubtedly exists. All boys who use a comb to smooth out their tangled locks upon a cold winter morning, no doubt hear and wonder at the crackling of the electricity as the comb passes through their hair. Many of my readers have probably tormented poor puss by holding her in a dark closet, and watching the sparks fly from her fur as, with a pitiless hand, it was briskly rubbed the wrong way until a severe scratch or bite from the cat warned them that she took no interest in such scientific experiments. A less cruel and more entertaining experiment is to cut out a lot of little paper figures, and the next cold day, when your hair begins to snap and stand on end in its effort to follow the electrified comb, hold the comb over the figures; the little puppets will immediately appear to be endowed with life and commence to jump and dance, or stick to each other and to the comb (Fig. 237), as if fastened by glue.