258 Mh BAXTER, ON ORGANIC POLARITY. 



condition is partly produced and maintained by the various secretions that take place in the 

 animal body. How far the fluidity of the blood, and the vitality of the blood, as it is 

 called, are dependent upon this electric state or condition, are questions which must 

 necessarily arise in our minds. The particles of the blood, also, must under these circum- 

 stances exist in a state of self-repulsion ; and may not this fact, it may be asked, tend to 

 explain some of the phenomena connected with the circulation of the blood in parts not 

 dependent upon the vis a tergo action of the heart, and also those connected with the coagula- 

 tion of the blood when taken from the living animal ? These are questions that will arise ; 

 but I must not wander too far from our present object ; and therefore conclude this Section 

 by stating that a clue has now been obtained to the non-appearance of any effect upon the 

 galvanometer when the two electrodes are inserted into an artery and a vein, a fact previously 

 established by the experiments of Pouillet and Muller*. As the blood in the two vessels 

 is in the same electric state, no effect could occur upon the needle; thus proving the fact, well 

 established by Faeaday, that in order to obtain cdruent force the circuit form must be 

 given to the arrangement, i.e. that tlie electrodes must be brought into contact, or by means of 

 some conducting mass, with the anion and cation originating the powerf. 



Before entering upon the concluding remarks there are one or two points which must be 

 noticed. It may be supposed, 1st, that the effects that have been obtained may arise from 

 thermo-electric actions, since Becquerel| and Breschet have ascertained the existence of a 

 difference in temperature between the arterial and venous blood by means of a galvanometer ; 

 2ndly, that they may also arise from the actions that take place upon the surface of the 

 platinum electrodes. There can be no doubt that a part of the effects may be referred to 

 both of these circumstances, and they must therefore be taken into consideration when 

 judging of the final result upon the needle. As these objections have however been already 

 noticed in one of the original papers §, I cannot do better than refer to the experiments and 

 arguments there brought forward for their refutation. 



Concluding Remarks. 



The results recorded in the present and previous papers tend to establish the following 

 conclusion, viz, that the act of secretion in the living animal is accompanied with the mani- 

 festation of CURRENT force ; and the phenomena with which this act of secretion appears to 

 be the most intimately related are those that occur in the voltaic circle, as I have endeavoured 

 to point out in the present paper. A difficulty may arise to some minds in perceiving this 

 relation, from the circumstance that in the ordinary voltaic circle metals are employed. If 

 we bear in mind that the metals, although one of them is usually acted upon, serve princi- 

 pally as conductors, and that they are not essential for the development of the power, this 

 difficulty will be easily removed. Now as the manifestation of current force during the 

 actions which occur in the voltaic circle are considered as evidence of polar action, there can 



• Loc. cit. -f- Experimental Researches, Vol. ii. p. 51. 



$ Loc. cit. Tom. vii. p. 20. § Phil. Tranj. 18S2, p. 279. 



