2$g SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS, ACCOUNT OF BOOKS, &c. 



AbftraSt of the late Experiments of ProfrJJbr Aldini on 

 Gulvanifm. 



Galvanic experi-^yi. ALDINI, Profefibr at the Inftitute of Bologna, and ne- 

 fpCDtsof Aldmi. . c ■ . . ■ j u- 



pnew or tne celebrated Galvani, after having made his expe- 

 riments at the National Inftitute of France, has viiited London, 

 and given an accurate account of his experiments and disco- 

 veries lo the Royal Society, before whom the fame was read 

 on the 25 th Iaft. I have the pleafure to communicate fome 

 of the principal fads which he has had thegoodnefs to commu- 

 nicate to me, which appear calculated to throw much light on 

 fome of the moft difficult phenomena of nature. 

 The theory that Various philofbphers have coniidered the metals as not ab- 

 BeMted m anf-^ omteI y necefiary for the production of galvanifm, and Mr. 

 tnalj, Davy has proved it in the pile : It has alfo been indiftin&ly 



apprehended or conjectured in the way of theory, that the gal- 

 vanic or electric matter was excited, collected, or generated in 

 the bodies of animals, where it was confidered as the great 

 caufe or inftrument of mufcular motion, fenfation, and other 

 jerified by AI- effe&s highly interefting, but very little underftood. Profefibr 

 *""> Aldini has the diftinguiflied merit of having placed this propo- 



rtion in the rank of eftabliihed truths. He has fucceeded in 

 exciting mufcular contractions by the fimple application of the 

 nerves to themufcles of a prepared frog, without the Ieaft fuf- 

 br fubftituting picion ofany ftimulusarifing from contact. He has alfo given 

 part of an ani- motion to the limbs of a final I cold blooded animal by the gal- 

 Se metallic pile, vanic energy of an animal with warm blood ; an experiment 

 The head of an never before imagined. He takes the head of an ox recently 

 ox convulfes cut gr anf j applying the finger of one hand wetted with fait 

 water to the fpinal marrow, he holds in the other hand the 

 mufcle of a frog prepared (that is by difle&ion) in fuch a di- 

 rection that its crural nerves ftiall touch the cervical mufcles 

 on the tongue of the ox. Every time of this contact ftrong 

 contractions are produced in the frog. If a chain of feveral 

 perfons be formed holding hands, the fame effecl takes place ; 

 but the contacts do not produce any efictt if the chain of con- 

 nection be broken or interrupted. Here then we have the moft 

 decided fubftitutjon of the organized animal fyftem. in tlie place 

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