200 C. H. Matteucci's ResearcJies relative to the Torpedo^ 



the encepbalus, and that of the spinal marrow) be made sepa- 

 rately or simultaneously. 



M. Matteucci having entirely separated from a great tor- 

 pedo one of the electrical organs, without detaching the epi- 

 dermis, one of the plates of the galvanometer was inserted in 

 the organ near the outward edge, the other plate was put in 

 communication with one of the four nerves : the needle devi- 

 ated four degrees in the common direction of the discharge of 

 the torpedo; on tying the nerves there was no longer any 

 deviation ; this result appears to us very remarkable. 



The above observations, which we have not been able to 

 confirm from the wantof torpedos,goto prove, 1, that the elec- 

 tricity which produces the discharge proceeds from the last 

 lobe of the brain, and is transmitted by the nerves to the or- 

 gan ; 2, that the discharge ceasing under the influence of 

 the electric current, when the nerves are tied, must, in order 

 to be transmitted, find in the nerve a particular molecular dis- 

 position ; a conclusion to which the electro-physiological 

 phaenomena of the frog equally lead, as one of us (M. Bec- 

 querel) has indicated in various places in his treatise on elec- 

 tricity. 



Since the ever-memorable epoch when Gal vani demonstrated 

 that the contact of two different metals in communication with 

 the muscles and nerves of a frog sufficed to make it contract, 

 the experiments have been varied infinitely in the hope to 

 discover in this phagnomenon the cause which constitutes life 

 in animated bodies. The most remarkable fact, for which we 

 are also indebted to Galvani, is that which relates to the con- 

 tractions produced by the simple contact of the muscles and 

 nerves without the intermediary of metallic armatures. It is 

 now nearly demonstrated that this action does not proceed 

 from a chemical action, but from the inherent current of the 

 frog, which has been indicated with so much sagacity by M. 

 Nobili. 



On the other hand, Ritter and several other philosophers* 

 have remarked that the irritability in those parts which are 

 separated from the body of the frog does not at the same 

 time cease in the entire course of the nerve; it begins by 

 leaving off* at those parts nearest to the brain and ends by 

 those which are most distant. Miiller moreover maintains 

 that a nerve tied oY compressed ceases to be a conductor of 

 the agent which circulates in the nerves, whichever it be; it re- 

 mains nevertheless a good conductor of electricity. Matteucci 

 noticed a similar fact in the torpedo, as we have remarked ; 



• MUller's Manual of Physiology, p. 603. 



