Faraday to William Sharp¹   19 December 1853

Royal Institution, 19th Dec., 1853.

My dear Sir, - I have often experimented on the subject, and my results are all negative. Having an electro-magnet which could have the magnetic power developed and suppressed at pleasure, and which when excited, would sustain some tons weight, I have submitted the most delicate parts of my own organisation to it without being conscious of the least influence. I have placed the ball of the eye close up to a pole, either one or the other, and then put the power on and off, quickly and slowly, but without the slightest consciousness of the least change in any function of the eye or the parts about it. I have repeated the experiment with the nostrils; the tongue; the ear; with a wound; with a flesh cut;- but no effects have been produced.

Mr. Warren de la Rue constructed a beautiful electro-magnet with pointed poles so arranged that they could be brought very near each other;- animalcules of various kinds were placed between them, and then observed with a microscope. I predicted from my own experiments that nothing would occur of an extra character; and such was the result. The creatures shewed no difference whether the power was on or off ;- the motions and appearance of the Cilia, and other parts of the little animals, remained constantly the same.

I have worn a magnet about my person for some time, without the least indication of any effect; and when I have worked for hours together, and day after day, with powerful magnets, and amongst them that before referred to, I have not been conscious of any influence.

I believe that, as yet, we have not the slightest real evidence of the influence of a magnet, (acting only as a magnet,) upon an animal of the highest or of the lowest organisation, or upon any plant, as living object. Considered as inert matter they are all subject to the power, for I have found a living or a dead mouse to be equally diamagnetic.

Ever, my dear Sir, | Very truly your’s, | M. Faraday