It is on the nervous system that the most considerable action of electricity is exerted.  A strong charge passed through the head, gave to Mr. Singer the sensation of a violent but universal blow, and was followed by a transient loss of memory and indistinctness of vision.  If a charge be sent through the head of a bird, its optic nerve is usually injured or destroyed, and permanent blindness induced; and a similar shock given to larger animals, produces a tremulous state of the muscles, with general prostration of strength.  If a person who is standing receive a charge through the spine, he loses his power over the muscles to such a degree, that he either drops on his knees, or falls prostrate on the ground; if the charge be sufficiently powerful, it will produce immediate death, in consequence, probably, of the sudden exhaustion of the whole energy of the nervous system.  Small animals, such as mice and sparrows, are instantly killed by a shock from thirty square inches of glass.  Van Marum found that eels are irrecoverably deprived of life when a shock is sent through their whole body; but when only a part of the body is included in the circuit, the destruction of irritability is confined to that individual part, while the rest retains the power of motion.  Different persons are affected in very different degrees by electricity, according to their peculiar constitutional susceptibility.  Dr. Young remarks, that a very minute tremor, communicated to the most elastic parts of the body, in particular the chest, produces an agitation of the nerves, which is not wholly unlike the effect of a weak electricity.

The bodies of animals killed by electricity, rapidly undergo putrefaction, and the action of electricity upon the flesh of animals is also found to accelerate this process in a remarkable degree.  The same effect has been observed in the bodies of persons destroyed by lightning.  It is also a well-established fact, that the blood does not coagulate after death from this cause.

Transplanting Shrubs in full Growth.

Dig a narrow trench round the plant, leaving its roots in the middle in an isolated ball of earth; fill the trench with plaster of Paris, which will become hard in a few minutes, and form a case to the ball and plant, which may be lifted and removed any where at pleasure.—­French Paper.

Freezing Mixture.

A cheap and powerful freezing mixture may be made by pulverizing Glauber’s salts finely, and placing it level at the bottom of a glass vessel.  Equal parts of sal ammoniac and nitre are then to be finely powdered, and mixed together, and subsequently added to the Glauber’s salts, stirring the powders well together; after which adding water sufficient to dissolve the salts, a degree of cold will be produced, frequently below Zero of Fahrenheit.  But Mr. Walker states, that nitrate of ammonia, phosphate of soda, and diluted nitric acid, will on the instant produce a reduction of temperature amounting to 80 degrees.  It is desirable to reduce the temperature of the substances previously, if convenient, by placing the vessels in water, with nitre powder thrown in occasionally.