350 ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY. 



that series of electric currents emanate from the spleen to the stom- 

 ach during digestion. 2. That the activity of these currents varies, 

 according to the degree of splenic distention by the hlood through the 

 vessels of the spleen. 3. That the currents of electricity are more 

 intense, in proportion to the blood's heat, to the pressure exerted on 

 the spleen during inspiration, and to the impulse and friction of the 

 circulation in the large splenic arterial branches. 4. That, in a mi- 

 nor degree, similar phenomena ensue, even out of the animal, when a 

 recent spleen is insulated, and then injected with warm water, but 

 still more so, with hot liquors, containing such saline ingredients as 

 prevail in the blood. 5. That a spleen recently taken from an ani- 

 mal, when insulated and injected with tepid fluid, determines a posi- 

 tive current towards the gastric surface of the spleen when tested del- 

 icately by gold and silver wires. 6. That contraction of erectile tissue 

 ensues when the extremities of a gold and silver wire touch at one 

 point the nerve, and at another the erectile tissue of the spleen. 7. 

 That contraction, to some extent, seems to be produced, when two 

 cups filled with water are united by a metallic arc, one end of a spleen 

 being immersed in one of the cups, and the opposite extremity in the 

 other cup. But so many uncertain deviations of the electrometer 

 needles occur during this experiment, that more experience is required 

 to arrive at surer data regarding this part of the trials. 8. That disks 

 or slices of spleen, placed upon each other, were in most instances 

 better voltaic piles than similar batteries constructed from equal 

 weight of brain, liver, kidney, pancreas, or even of muscular flesh. 

 9. That slices of spleen are better conductors than equal sections of 

 any of the above materials, particularly when moistened by warm sa- 

 line fluids, or even by tepid distilled water. 10. That the intensity 

 of galvanic currents along the vasa brevia, from the spleen to the stom- 

 ach, continues through the gastric coats in the recently swallowed 

 ingesta, and that the liquor called gastric juice seems thereby to de- 

 rive and exert some galvanic influence upon the pulpy aliment, where- 

 by chemical action and digestive assimilation appear to be set up and 

 maintained among dissimilar atoms of nutriment. 11. That, so far as 

 the stomach and its contents are concerned with electric agency, they 

 are more particularly to be considered as passive receivers or conductors 

 of galvanic influence, but that the spleen is endowed with active powers 

 of generating or creating voltaic evolutions, under favorable degrees- 

 of repletion of its vessels, tension of its erectile tissue, and of aux- 

 iliary thermo-electric principles. There are no other passages ex- 

 cept the veins and lymphatics to carry away any secretion or modified 

 fluid from the spleen to the stomach. But additional degrees of tem- 

 perature can be readily communicated by means of membranes and tis- 

 sues in actual contact. In like manner, the same conductors can rap- 

 idly convey electric energy to the stomach and its contents without 

 intermediate vessels or efferent ducts. Here I wish to avoid the anal- 

 ogy of parts of animals admitted to be endowed with independent elec- 

 tric powers, and also to omit arguments drawn from the anatomical 

 structure of the spleen, but I merely observe, that a natural pile or 

 soft battery seems to be constituted in the spleen by its links of soft 



