Muschenbroek and Linnæus had made various experiments of a strong kind
with water and wire. The former, as appears from a letter of his to
Réaumur, filled a small bottle with water, and having corked it up,
passed a wire through the cork into the bottle. Having rubbed the
vessel on the outside and suspended it to the electric machine, he was
surprised to find that on trying to pull the wire out he was subjected
to an awfully severe shock in his joints and his whole body, such as he
declared he would not suffer again for any experiment. Hence the Leyden
jar, which owes its name to the University of Leyden, with which, we
believe, Muschenbroek was connected.--_Faraday._