SILLIMAN'S JOURNAL. 



187 



on the globe. The remarks on the Physio- 

 logical Discoveries of Ehrenberg and others, 

 at the close of the following extract, are the 

 strongest illustrations of this : 



In physiolo<Ty, the most remarkable of the disco- 

 veries, or rather improvements of previous discove- 

 ries, which the past year has seen, is, perhaps, tiiat 

 connected with the labors of the distinguished Tus- 

 can philosopher, Matteucci ; who, on several former 

 occasions, has co-operated with the Association in 

 the sections devoted to the advancement of the phy- 

 sical and physiological sciences. I refer in this in- 

 stance to his experiments on the generation of elec- 

 tric currents by muscular contraction in the living 

 body. This subject he has continued to pursue ; 

 and, by the happy combination of the rigorous mr - 

 thods of physical experiment with the ordinary 

 course of physiological research. Prof. Matteucci 

 has fully established the important fact of the exis- 

 tence of an electrical current — feeble, indeed, and 

 such as could only be made manifest by his own de- 

 licate galvanoscope — between the deep and the su- 

 perficial parts of a muscle. Such electric currents 

 pervade every muscle in every species of animal 

 which has been the subject of experiment ; and may 

 therefore, be inferred to be a general phenomena of 

 living bodies. Even after life has been extinguish- 

 ed by violence, these currents continue for a short 

 time ; but they cease more speedily in the muscles 

 of the warm-blooded than in those of the cold- 

 blooded animals. The Association will find his own 

 exposition of the physiological action of the electric 

 current in his work, " Lec^ons sur les Phenomenes 

 Physiques des Corps Vivants," 1847. 



The delicate experiments of Matteucci on the 

 Torpedo, agree with those made by our own Fara- 

 day (whom 1 may call doubly our own in this 

 place, where he is a Doctor of our University) upon 

 the Gymnotus clectricus, in proving that the shocks 

 communicated by those fishes are due to electric 

 currents generated by peculiar electric organs, 

 which owe their most immediate and powerful sti- 

 mulus to the action of the nerves. In both species 

 of fishes the electricity generated by the action of 

 their peculiar organized flatteries — besides its be- 

 numbing and stunning effects on living animals — 

 renders the needle magnetic, decomposes chemical 

 compounds, emits the spark, and, in short, exercises 

 all the other known powers of the ordinary elec- 

 tricity developed in inorganic matter, or by the ar- 

 tificial apparatus of the laboratory. 



Etherization, a kindred subject, — one to which 

 deep and natural importance is attached, — may not 

 unfitly follow the mention of Prof. Matteucci's in- 

 vestigations. 



It IS the subject of the influence of the vapor of 

 ether on the human frame — a discovery of the last 

 year, and one the value of which in diminishing hu- 

 man pain has been experienced in countless instan- 

 ces, in every variety of disease, and especially dur- 

 ing the perlormance of trying and often agonizinir 

 operations. Several experiments on the tracts and 

 nerve roots appropiated respectively to the func- 

 tions of sensation and volition, have been resumed 

 and repeated in connexion with this new agency on 



the nervous S3'stem. Messrs. Flourens and Longet 

 have shown that the sensatorial functions are first 

 affected, and are completely, though temporarily, 

 suspended under the operation of the vapor of ether; 

 then the mental or cerebral powers ; and finally, 

 the motor and excito-motor forces are abrogated. 

 It would seem that the stimulus of ether applied 

 so largely or continuously as to produce that cH'ert 

 is hill of danger — and that weak constitutions are 

 sometimes unable to rally and recover from it ; but 

 that when the influence is allowed to extend no fur- 

 ther than to the suspension of sensation, the recov- 

 ery is, as a general rule, complete. It is this re- 

 markable property of ether, which has led to its 

 recent application with such success as may well 

 lead us to thank God, who. in his providence, has 

 directed the eminent physicians and surgeons 

 amongst our brethren in the United States to make 

 this discovery ; a discovery which will long place 

 the name of Dr. Charles T. Jackson, its author, 

 among the benefactors of our common nature. 



At the same time, much careful observation on 

 the modus operandi of this most singular agent, 

 seems still requisite, before a general, systematic, 

 safe, and successful application of it can be esta- 

 blished for the relief of suffering humanity. So 

 great, however, is the number of well-recorded in- 

 stances of its having saved the patient from the 

 pain of a surgical operation without any ill efiect 

 in reference to his subsequent recovery, as to make 

 the subject of the influence of the vapor of ether 

 upon the nervous system, and the modification of 

 that influence on diflerent temperaments, one emi- 

 nently deserving the attention of the physiological 

 section of tiie British Association. 



With regard to the functions of the primary divi- 

 sion and parts of the brain itself, there has been of 

 late a happy tendency to substitute observations on 

 the modifications of those parts in the series of the 

 lower animals in the place of experimental mutila- 

 tions on a single species, in reference to the ad- 

 vancement of cerebral physiology. Experiment is, 

 no doubt, in some instances, indispensable : but we 

 ought ever to rejoice when the same end is attain- 

 ed by comparative anatomy rather than by ex 

 perimental vivisections ; and every true philosopher 

 will concur with my most eminent friend, Profes- 

 sor Owen, in his doubt, (I quote his own words,) 

 "whether nature ever answers so truly when put 

 to the torture, as she does when speaking voluntari- 

 ly through her own ex})erimcnts, if we may so call 

 the ablation and addition of parts which compara- 

 tive anatomy offers to our contemplation." — Owen's 

 Hunterian Lecture, Vertebrata, p. 187. 



I was always struck with that passage in the 

 " Life of Sir. W. Jones," in which that great man, 

 who united so many claims to the admiration of 

 mankind, declined to accept the ofJ'er of a friend 

 to collect, and in collecting to put to death, a num- 

 ber of insects in the eastern islands, to be transmit- 

 ted to Calcutta. He did not, of course, deny the 

 value and importance, and, in one sense, the ne- 

 cessity, of forming such collections ; but he limited 

 the right of possessing them to those who could 

 use them ; and he would not have one of those, the 

 wonders of God's animal world, put to death for 

 the mere gratification of his own unscientific cu- 



