488 On the Agency of Electricity on 



without any vividness of effect, and the compounds are 

 highly inflammable, and emit ammonia, and the one phos- 

 phuretted and the other sulphuretted hydrogen gas, by the 

 action of water. 



[To be continued.] 



LXXXVI. On the Agency of Electricity on Animal Secre- 

 tions. By VVm. H. Wollaston, M.D., Sec. R.S. 



At the time when Mr. Davy first communicated to me his 

 important experiments on the separation and transfer of che- 

 mical agents by means of the Voltaic apparatus, which was in 

 the autumn of 1806, I was forcibly struck with the proba- 

 bility that animal secretions were affected by the agency of 

 a similar electric power ; since the existence of this power 

 in some animals was fully proved by the phsenomena of the 

 Torpedo, and of the Qymnotus Electricus ; and since the 

 universal prevalence of similar powers of lower intensity in 

 other animate was rendered highly probable by the extreme 

 suddenness with which the nervous influence is communi- 

 cated from one part of the living system to another. 



And though the separation of chemical agents, as well as 

 their transfer to a distance, and their transition through 

 solids, and through fluids which might be expected to op- 

 pose their progress, had not then been effected but by power- 

 ful batteries ; yet it appeared highly probable that the weakest 

 electric energies might be capable of producing the same 

 effects, though more slowly in proportion to the weakness 

 of the powers employed. 



I accordingly at that time made an experiment for eluci- 

 dating this hypothesis, and communicated it to Mr. Davy 

 and to others of my friends. But though it was conclusive- 

 with regard to the sufficiency of very feeble powers, it did 

 not appear deserving of publication, until I could adduce 

 some evidence of the actual employment of such means in 

 the animal ceconmy. 



As I am not accustomed to making experiments on living 



animals, 



