Phenomena of the Electric and Nervous Influences. 33 



city repel each other ; and I found that when a solid resting on 

 a fluid surface was highly electrified, no adhesion took place 

 between them ; and the following experiment will show how 

 this also applies to the passage of liquids through tubes. 



9. In the bottom of a tin tube (a), about 

 an inch in diameter and three or four inches 

 long (fig. 2), fix several metallic capillary 

 tubes (c) two or three inches long, opening 

 into the large tube. Now fill the tube (a) 

 with water, and suspend it by the wire (w) 

 to the prime conductor of an electrical ma- 

 chine. As long as the machine is not in ac- 

 tion and the tube and water remain unelec- 

 trified, the water will not run through the 

 capillary pipes, but will be completely ar- 

 rested by the most minute, while through 

 those of a larger diameter it will fall in slowly 

 succeeding drops. But on turning the ma- 

 chine, and thus electrifying the apparatus, 

 the water will instantly run through all the 

 pipes with a rapidity proportionate to the 

 force of the electricity, because the particles 

 of the water and the sides of the pipe being 

 in like states of electricity, repel each other, 

 or at least the electricity overcomes the na- 

 tural attraction that exists between solids 

 and fluids, and the water is as free to flow as 

 it would be in a tube of such larger diame- 

 ter that the bulk of liquid contained therein 

 is beyond the sensible attraction or force of 

 adhesion of the pipe. 



10. This curious experiment is but a counterpart of what 

 occurs in the living frame ; and here, the diameter of the ca- 

 pillary vessels being but little greater than that of the blood 

 corpuscles, the adhesion would act upon every particle of this 

 fluid were it not counteracted by neuro-electric influence, if I 

 may be allowed the term. 



11. The force of the heart was calculated from experiment 

 by M. Poiseulle, who ascertained the blood to be propelled 

 with a force that would sustain a column of mercury six inches 

 in height, which is equal to a pressure of three pounds on the 

 square inch, and it is easily proved such a pressure would be 

 insufficient to circulate the blood through a body possessing 

 no living neuro-electric power to overcome adhesion ; for let 

 us suppose a proportionate pressure applied to a syringe in- 

 serted into the aorta, for the purpose of injecting all the arte- 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 19. No. 121. July 184-1. D 



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