M. M atteucci on the influence of Electricity 



Art. VII. — On the Influence of' Electricity on Animal Putre- 

 faction. By Charles Matteucci. 



Animal substances, withdrawn from the influence of Hfe, 

 quickly undergo a change, and exhale fetid gas previous to 

 their destruction. Air, water, and heat, are the external 

 causes which give rise to this new order of compositions. 

 Water contributes to it by softening the fibres and by uniting 

 itself to the products of putrefaction : heat, when it is mode- 

 rate, separates them, and by destroying their cohesion, disposes 

 them for new combinations : air exercises the most marked in- 

 fluence by yielding a part of its oxygen to the carbon, the 

 hydrogen and the azote of the animal substances ; hence comes 

 the carbonic acid, water, carbonate of ammonia, and the ace- 

 tic acid, which are the principal products of animal fermenta- 

 tion. The animal fibre then suffers this change, principally 

 on account of the oxygen of the atmosphere which combines 

 with it ; and consequently, by taking away the action of the 

 . /xygen, we may, in this respect, prevent putrefaction. No- 

 thing, however, is more easy than to change the affinities of 

 bodies, and, for this purpose, it is sufficient to change their 

 electric state. Setting out, from these principles, Sir H. Davy 

 made his fine and useful discovery for preventing the oxida- 

 tion of copper which sheaths the hulls of vessels. By thus 

 considering oxygen as a body eminently electro-negative, we 

 may prevent its combination with the animal fibre by esta- 

 blishing in them an analogous electric state, that is, a state of 

 negative electricity. 



Persuaded from some experiments of M. Bellingeri of 

 Turin, and others not yet published which I have myself 

 made, that animal substances, when they are put in contact 

 with metals, establish themselves in an electric state, I deter- 

 mined to place some pieces of muscle upon plates of zinc, 

 others on plates of copper, and I left others by themselves. 

 In the course of a day I perceived that putrefaction had already 

 begun in the pieces of muscle which were left to themselves, 

 while no alteration showed itself in those which were in con- 

 tact with metals. I afterwards perceived that the products of 



