Galvanic Society^ Vans, 369 



E.vper'ime?it IT. 



Tf the Galvanic apparatus has produced only a minimum of 

 effeft, which maft be the cafe, ift, When the apparatus con- 

 lilb of only one ftorv ; 2d, When the fuhftances which com- 

 pofe this (lorv are by their nature not much calculated for de- 

 velopine; the Galvanic efi'eft, or when they can produce it 

 only in tlie weakeft degree; it mav happen under both thefe 

 circuniftances that the organ of talle will not be affecled by 

 any favour. But in this cafe it will be fufficient to let the two 

 lower ends of the platina wires reft for a moment on the two 

 extremities of the apparatus, and then to applv thefe two wires 

 to each other without deranging their extremities, which are 

 placed in the mouth. This new contatl will neccHarily pro- 

 duce a more iutenfe effecl than the former, and if it be re- 

 quired to increafe it Hill further, it may be done bv applying 

 alternately the lower ends of ihe p'alina wires, iirft to the two 

 extremities of the batterv, and then to each other. Thefe 

 repeated contafts will develop the peculiar favour of the fluid, 

 which is the certain fign of its influence. 



This ingenious procefs, then, puts the tongue, that dif- 

 pofable inftrument, in poflTeffion of a new gahatiofcopa^ 

 which, as appears to us, will be to Galvanifm what Volta's 

 condenfer is to ele£lricitv, fince by its means the (lightcfl 

 (liadcs of the Galvanic effect may be detefted. 



C. Nauche, preiident of the fociety, in the fame fitting 

 communicated fomc fafts in regard to the medical applica- 

 tion of Galvanifm in cafes of hemiplegia. It refults from 

 them, that the means of giving a flronsi Itimulus to the parts 

 aflfefted, fuch as the hand or lesj; for example, is, to make 

 one of the extremities of the pife (o communicate with the 

 former, and the other extremity with the fpinul apophyfes of 

 the fixth and feventh cervical vertebrne. If the leg be af- 

 fecled, the foot and twelfth dorfal vertebra mu!l be made to 

 communicate with the two extremities of the pile. The vital 

 ai'^ion will then fecm to be conveyed as if by undulation ta 

 all the mufcular organs in order to reftore motion. 



The prefident oljferved alfo, that in cafes of great extremity, 

 wliere it is neccHarv to increafe in an extraordinary degree 

 the excitement of the organic forces, one extremity of the 

 pile mufl be brouuht iiuo communication with the funniiit 

 of the vertebntl coluum, and the other with the fpinal apo- 

 phyfes of the firlt lumbar vertebrip. The patient fubjccled 

 to this experiment will perceive flafhes, certain favours and 

 fi nfations, more or iefs painful, in the llomach, in the in- 

 teliiiiul canal, and in the vifcvra of the bread and the abdo- 

 men. The miifeles of the trunk and ihcjfc of the extremities 

 V'ill i)e violent Iv contradcd. 



Vol. XV. No. 60. Bb A luil 



