on the Ageiicy of Galvanism. 79 



be classed with the phenomena observed in any other part of 

 nature, we have no reason to believe that we shall ever be able 

 to refer them to any more general principle. 



" Whether the vital principle be something superadded to 

 bodies, or only a peculiar arrangement of their constituent parts, 

 the fact is, that it bestows on matter certain properties, (in con- 

 sequence of which, neither mechanical nor chemical agents pro- 

 duce the same effects on living, as on inanimate, matter.) It is 

 essential that our expressions should convey this fact, and no 

 more. The galvanic experiments which have been laid before 

 the reader go far to prove, that galvanism has nothing in common 

 with this principle, because these experiments exhibit them 

 acting parts in the animal economy wholly of a different nature. 



" I here wish particularly to state what, although fully ex- 

 pressed in the first edition of this Treatise, has yet been over- 

 looked by some in alluding to my opinions, that the effects ob- 

 served from galvanism in the above experiments, are its effects 

 on parts endowed with the vital principle, wholly ceasing, and 

 by no means renewable when this principle is extinct. Galvanism 

 seems capable of performing all the functions of the nervous in- 

 fluence in the animal economy, but neither the nervous influence 

 nor galvanism can excite the actions of animal life, except in parts 

 endowed with the vital principle. Parts endowed with this 

 principle collect the nervous influence and apply where it is 

 wanted, to act on parts also endowed with the same principle ; 

 but the nervous influence itself seems to be nothing more than 

 that influence, which operates in the production of all galvanic 

 phenomena." Page 248, 249. 



" It would appear from these observations, that the nervous 

 influence, or galvanism, in exciting the muscular fibre, as in the 

 formation of the secreted fluids, and the evolution of caloric 

 from the blood, operates by effecting a chemical change. Thus 

 the phenomena of the nervous power seem to be only another 

 field in which galvanism exhibits those striking chemical powers 

 which we have seen it display in other instances." Page 2.50. 



It will place what has been said in a clearer point of view, 

 if I present to the reader a concise statement of the principles 



