128 EULOGY ON ALEXANDER VOLTA. 



it would scarcely have attracted bis attention ; if remarked at all, the 

 extent of the observation would have been that the extreme sensibility 

 of the frog would render it a very good electroscope. Here was a case, 

 however, though a rare one, where ignorance was great gain, for Galvani, 

 though a skillful anatomist, knew very little of electricity. The muscu- 

 lar movements witnessed by him appeared inexplicable ; a new world 

 seemed opening before him. He applied himself to the task of varying 

 the experiments in a thousand ways. 



It was in doing this that he discovered an entirely new fact, the fact 

 that a frog, even though killed for a long time, manifests very intense 

 contractions,without the intervention of any foreign electricity, by merely 

 placing a metallic plate, or, better still, two plates of dissimilar metals, 

 between a muscle and a nerve. The astonishment of the professor of 

 Bologna was then quite justifiable, and that of all Europe with him. 



An experiment, in which the legs, thighs, and trunks of animals dis- 

 membered for hours manifested the strongest convulsions, darting about 

 and appearing to return to life, could not long remain uninvestigated. 

 After analyzing it in all its details, Galvani supposed the effect to be 

 produced on the principle of the Leyden jar. According to him, the 

 animals were merely reservoirs of electricity; positive electricity having 

 its seat in the nerves, and negative in the muscles, the metallic plate 

 interposed between these organs being simply the conductor by means ol 

 which the discharge is effected. 



These views captivated the public; physiologists seized hold upon 

 them ; electricity usurped the place of the nervous fluid then occupying 

 so large a space in the explanation of the phenomena of thP principle 

 of life, though, by a strange oversight, no one had attempted to ])rove 

 its existence. In a word, all flattered themselves that they had found 

 the physical agent which conveys external impressions to theseHsorium, 

 which makes, among animals, nearly all of the organs subservient to 

 their intelligence, and the movements of the arms, legs, and head obe- 

 dient to the will. But, alas ! these delusions were not of long duration. 

 The whole beautiful romance was dispelled by Volta's critically severe 

 experiments. 



This ingenious physicist first created convulsions, not merely as Gal- 

 vani did, by interposing two dissimilar metals between a nerve and 

 muscle, but by simply bringing them in contact with a muscle. 



From this moment the principle of the Leyden jar was acknowledged 

 to have no connection with the phenomenon ; there was no longer any 

 possible comparison between them. The negative electricity of the 

 muscles and the positive electricity of the nerves were pure hypoth- 

 eses, without any solid foundation ; the phenomena seemed to have no 

 connection with anything known, but were obscured, by an impenetra- 

 ble veil. 



Volta, nevertheless, was not discouraged. He claimed that, in his 

 own experiment, electricity was the cause of the convulsions ; that the 



