< Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu
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THE ELECTRICAL GIRL.

move with great violence; she felt herself attracted to it, but, so soon as she touched it, it retreated before her, or was even upset. The following morning similar phenomena were observed; and before long public opinion was very decided in affirming that Angélique Cottin was possessed of a devil, and that she should be brought before the parish priest. But the curé was a man of too much common-sense to heed their request for an exorcism, and resolved to see the facts for himself. The girl was brought to the curé's house, and there the phenomena were repeated, though not with the same intensity as before: the table retreated, but was not overturned, while the chair on which Angélique was seated moved in a contrary direction, rocking the while, and giving Angélique great difficulty in keeping her seat. These effects were so remarkable as to attract a great deal of attention; and so many came to see the demonstrations that the girl's relations, who were in straitened circumstances, thought to make a lucrative business of her singular faculty by exhibitions from time to time. Various professional men testified to her performances, of which the following letter from Dr. Beaumont-Chardon, of Mortagne, gives the usual account:

"This is what I saw," says this physician.
"1. Repulsion and attraction, bounding and displacement of a massive table; also of another table, mounted on casters, about three metres by two; another square table, in oak, about a metre and a half in size; an arm-chair, of mahogany, very massive. All these movements took place from the voluntary or involuntary contact of Angélique's clothes.
"2. When she was seated, overturning and repulsion of the young girl and the person who was occupying the same chair; a momentary adherence of the chair to the girl's dress was seen several times. Cessation of these effects when the chair and the young girl were placed upon glass or oil-cloth, or when the girl was placed upon the chair without having the feet of the latter touch the floor, effects generally less upon waxed floors or carpets.
"3. Great disturbance noticed in the girl, recalling that which is produced by an electric discharge, when a piece of wood, a stick, a shovel, or tongs, was brought in contact with the vertebral column. My finger held toward her forehead, or the top, and above all, the back of her head, either by actual contact, or at a distance of two centimetres, produced the same effect as it had done when brought in contact with the elbow of the left arm—disappearance of this effect when a piece of oil-cloth was interposed between the arm and the object.
"4. Painful and insupportable sensation of itching when one or two iron rods, strongly magnetized, were held several centimetres from the extended fingers of her left hand, or from her head; non-magnetized iron did not produce this effect. A magnetized needle, suspended horizontally from the ceiling by a long thread, deviated from the direction of the terrestrial magnetic axis, and oscillated at the approach of the girl's left arm.
"The young girl was generally heavily charged when I was near her, because I did not arouse in her any feeling of mistrust, but always endeavored to spare her suffering; I thought that, in order to appear to the best advantage, her mind must be free, and she herself gay and lively, although her will seemed to be entirely void of influence."
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