44. VaJJali-Eandi, GiuUo^ and Rojfis Galvanic 'Expenmen'Sm 



executed criminal conftaDtly remained motionlefs and infen-- 

 lible to the Galvanic current. But in this experiment, be- 

 fore tryiii£f the heart, a confiderable time was employed in 

 making trials on the voluntary organs, the fenlibility of which 

 to Galvanifm had already been acknowledged. But the ve^y 

 reverfc of this method ought to be followed; for I will here 

 repeat, that excitability, by means of the Galvanic fluid,, is 

 cxtjnguidied in the heart a^ long time before it becomes ex- 

 tinct in the voluntary mufcles. This is fo certain, that while 

 iio part of the heart, tried externally and internally, prefented 

 any fign of contra£lions, the diaphragm, and the mufcles of 

 the upper and lower extremities, gave very ftrong ones. 



In our experiments which were begun five minutes after 

 death, the heart ceafcd to be fenfible to the Galvanic agept. 

 about the fortieth minute ; and this was the cafe in the tem- 

 perature of + 25 ; while the voluntary mufcles retained their 

 Galvanic excitability for whole hours. In other experiments 

 made by Aldini, the contracStility of the voluntary mufcles 

 exided three hours, and even five hours, after death. 



In the oxen fubjefted to Galvanic experiments by Aldini, 

 the excitability of thg heart muft have been extinguifhed 

 fooner, fince the at^ion of the Galvanic fluid, of the pile 

 produced no contraiilions, though applied immediately after, 

 death. 



If contractions were obferved in the voluntary mufcles 

 under the fame circumftances, it was becaufe thefe mufcles, 

 which lofe much fooner than the heart their excitability in 

 regard to mechanical ftimulants, retain it much longer than, 

 thai organ in regard to the Galvanic agent. What then is 

 the caufe of this divcrfity, which fcems contrary to every ana- 

 logy, and which, however, is proved by fails ? It is (lill in- 

 volved in much obfcurilv : but it is not yet time to tear the 

 dark veil which conceals it; we are not yet enlightened by a 

 fufiicient number of fails; and the few fcattered data which 

 we have been able to collect, cannot yet be conneitcd in a 

 manner capable of encouraging us to attempt to rend the 

 veil at prefent. 



We fhall not here fpeak of the aftonifhment with which 

 the fpeilators were ftruck when they faw the contrailions of 



perature was cold, and the interval between thetiroeof execution and that 

 of the txperinicnr too loner. «' I was authorized," favs Bichat, " in the 

 Avinter of the vcar 7, to make various trials on the bodies oF unfortunate 

 perfons who had been gnillotincd. I had them at my difpofal from thirty 

 to forty minutes after execution. It was always impollihie for me to pro- 

 duce the leaft motion hy arming cither the i'pinal marrow and the heart, 

 or the latter organ and the nerves which' it receives from the ganglions 

 by the fympaihtiic, or from the brain by the par vagum. 



thct 



