Prof. E. Wartm&nn* sjburth Memoir on Induction. 24-9 



direct and inverted, at anotlier with inverted currents only, 

 employing the arrangement above described (127.)« There 

 w^as no perceptible difference between the two methods of 

 electrifying, even on circulating the inverted currents from 

 the feet to the wings, or vice versa. 



§ XVI. Action of Induced Currents on Albumen. 



137. Brande was the first who pointed out the coagulation 

 of albumen on the positive pole of the battery. M. Matteucci, in 

 treating of the physiological action of electric currents *, says, 

 that if the pole which was first positive be rendered negative, 

 the albumen is not seen to redissolve, and that consequently 

 an electric current may very well produce a cataract, but not 

 destroy it. On the other hand. Prof. Zantedeschi affirms that 

 he has seen the liquefaction of the albumen at the negative 

 polef. Repeated experiments have never shown me this re- 

 turn to the fluid state, and lead me to adopt entirely the con- 

 clusion of the celebrated physiologist of Pisa. 



138. The coagulation of albumen does not present any re- 

 markable phase, when, under the immediate influence of a 

 battery, we substitute either direct or inverted induced cur- 

 rents, or the voltaic current rendered intermittent and strength- 

 ened by the reaction of the induction which it has engendered 

 in its own conductor and in the neighbouring conductor (124-.). 

 But the phaenomenon changes when the liquid is traversed by 

 induced currents in alternate directions. 



139. Through the inducting wire A of an electro-electric 

 machine furnished with a bundle of iron wires, I passed the 

 current of five Grove's pairs of 0™'l square surface. The 

 extremities x and y of the induced wire B (fig. 7) terminated 

 in cups gg full of mercury. The circuit was closed by two 

 platina wires a, b of l"^"^ in diameter, one part immersed in the 

 cups, the other in the glass o full of the white of egg. The 

 latter immediately coagulated around each wire, especially 

 round that which communicated with the extremity of the 

 circuit B, from whence proceeded the inverted induced current, 

 and which corresponded to the positive termination of the 

 rheophorus A. At the end of a few minutes some bubbles of 

 gas appeared on the circumference of the coagulum. Some, 

 having increased in volume, rose lightly to the surface of the 

 viscous medium in which they were formed. The albumen, 

 riddled with holes, by which the gas escaped and continued 



* Lezioni sopra ifenomenifisico-chimici del corpi viventi, p. 173. Pisa, 

 1844. 



t Trattato del Magnetismo et delta ElettricUd, vol. ii. p. 511. Venice, 

 1845. % 



