248 Prof. E. Wartmann^s fourth Memoir on Induction. 



give them here, because similar results have recently been 

 announced by M. Ducros*. 



131. The animals subjected to experiment were a rabbit 

 three months old, a chicken nine months old, and some frogs 

 of both sexes. They are all very sensitive to electric shocks. 

 The action of aether upon them is also very powerful, espe- 

 cially on the frogs, which should not be moistened with this 

 liquid. 



132. The rabbitand the chicken appeared to have recovered 

 their sensation sooner under the influence of the shocks of 

 induction than by simple exposure to the air. In the frogs 

 no difference in this respect was remarked. 



133. The aetherization was effected by plunging the animal 

 into a glass cylindrical vessel, in which boxes were arranged 

 furnished with sponges moistened with aether ; it was covered 

 with a piece of linen dipt in water. The internal atmo- 

 sphere was removed from time to time by removing the co- 

 vering. 



134. The most remarkable case was presented by the 

 chicken. A quantity of aether, more than sufficient to produce 

 insensibility, was injected into its rectum. When it arrived 

 at this state, two or three shocks of the electro-electric appa- 

 ratus (110.) were passed from one wing to the opposite leg, 

 which shocks were effected by a Grove's pair; immediately the 

 eyes opened. On continuing the discharges in a very inter- 

 mittent manner, the animal was seen to struggle, to rise on 

 its feet, and then to fly to the end of the laboratory, relapsing 

 gradually into an insensible sleep under the influence of the 

 portion of injected aether which had not as yet produced its 

 effect. 



135. The rabbit and the chicken were subjected to several 

 successive setherizations. The former, young and weak, 

 died six or seven hours after the fourth trial (injection). At 

 the end of fifteen hours its body was stiff, as if death had re- 

 sulted from natural causes. Its nerves exhibited the soften- 

 ing mentioned by some anatomists. The chicken, on the 

 contrary, survived, and even on the following day laid an egg 

 with a soft shell. It subsequently produced several others 

 perfectly healthy. It did not appear to feel the effects of the 

 shocks or injections to which it had been subjected. It ate 

 corn greedily, and the rabbit lettuce leaves, as soon as the 

 stupefaction produced by the aether had terminated. 



136. Experiments were made on the frogs and the chicken ; 

 one while with the effect of the induced currents successively 



* Comptes Rendus de l* Academic des Sciences de Paris, sitting of the 

 22nd of February 1 847, p. 286. 



