ISS Galvanism. 



lames are interesting to naturalists in particular on acconnt 

 oi' the singularity of their organization. They resemble the 

 nwrmot in the form of the head ; the number, the nature, 

 and arrangement of their teeth ; and by the conformation 

 of their fore-feet, which they employ for burrowing in the 

 earth : but they differ by the existence of a bag under the 

 belly of the female, and by the whole apparatus of the or- 

 gans cf generation, which are like those of the sariqiie of 

 iJuffon. The hind-feet also are formed like those of that 

 animal, the thumb being separated from the other toes, and 

 destitute of claws. The tail is so short that it remains con- 

 cealed among the hair ; the latter is brown, tufted, aiid very 

 long. 



" The fascolomes in the menagerie are still young, and 

 larger than rabbits. Thev are remarkably gentle. They 

 TxiAj be touched, and carried from one place to another, 

 without showing the least fear, anger, or discontent. Their 

 gait is heavy and embarrassed : they live under the earth, 

 sleep in the day-time, and in the night go in quest uf food : 

 in general they have little activity and enerarv : they scratch 

 themselves like apes. They are fed with bread, milk, roots, 

 and all sorts of herbs." 



GALVANISM. 



A letter from Turin, dated 25th June, contains the follow- 

 ing particulars :- — " The experiments made by the Galvanic 

 Committee of Turin, and bv several members of the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, have greatly contributed to the rapid pro- 

 gress made by this part of the physical sciences : but what 

 ought to distinguish the success of the learned philos(iphers 

 cf which this committee is composed, is the advantage with 

 v/hich they have applied Galvanism to the animal oeconomy, 

 and the well -arranged scries of experiments they have made 

 to determine its influence on the different diseases with which 

 man may be afflicted. Of the various trials made with great 

 success by Rossi, Vassalli-Kaudi, and Giulio, we shall men- 

 tion that only of Rossi with tjalvanic piles of a new com- 

 position. Animated by the most ardent desire of rendering 

 Cialvanism usclul to suffering humanitv, Rossi constructed 

 disks with the cancerous tumours extirpated from a man in 

 the hospital of St. John. • He varied this apparatus by em- 

 ploving these new disks sometimes without moistening 

 them, and •sometimes moistening them in water mixed with 

 a tenth of its volume of oxvaenatcd )nuriatic acid. He 

 compared the results produced by these two different piles 

 vith those obtained by meiuis of the coinxnon pile, and by 



a fourth 



J 



