in relation to Dlseane. 51 



putrefaction, — it is clearly to be inferred that lesser degrees of 

 the same action must have definite effects, bearing proportion 

 to the intensity of the electrical changes or transferences tak- 

 ing place. The conclusions, best warranted by the facts we 

 possess, would direct us towards the blood and nervous sytem 

 generally, as the parts of animal economy most liable to be 

 thus affected. The influence of atmospheric electricity on the 

 latter is shewn in the various effects, already mentioned, on 

 the sensations and muscular power ; and the proof is greatly 

 strengthened, though indirectly, by the numerous experiments 

 which prove the influence upon these two functions, of electric 

 action from different sources, applied directly to the nerves 

 themselves.* The quantity or tension of the agent, as affect- 

 ing the body through the air, may be less, and its application 

 not so direct on the nervous system. The low average intensity 

 of animal electricity, as ascertained experimentally, must also 

 be taken into account. But with all these allowances, it is im- 

 possible that the effect should be wholly absent or different in 

 kind ; and circumstances may often greatly augment its degree, 

 disordering in the same ratio that balance which is most con- 

 ducive to the general well-being of life. 



The same reasoning applies equally to its influence on the 

 blood ; and though this part of the subject is even more ob- 

 scure, yet is there presumption that here the effects occur which 

 are of greatest import in the history of disease. All that che- 

 mistry has recently done to determine the nature and relation 

 of parts in the blood (concurrently with that great result which 

 Faraday has established of the identity of electrical and che- 

 mical action) justifies the belief that every material change of 

 balance between the electricity without, and that within the 

 body, must have effect on the state of the circulating fluid ; 

 transient and wholly inappreciable, it may be, in the great ma- 

 jority of cases ; in others, possibly, of longer duration and more 

 extensive in degree. The general relation of acid and alkali, 



* The researches of Humboldt, Miiller, Prevost and Dumas, Dr Wilson 

 Philip, Becquerel, and other physiologists, might be referred to in this place ; 

 — not equally certain in results, nor conducting their authors to the same con- 

 clusions, but concurring to shew the remarkable nature of this agency as a 

 stimolus oathe nervous and muscular systems^ if indeed it be nothing more. 



