made on Me?} and Animals. !37 



elude that the blood of the vense cavse deposited in the right 

 auricle, though surcharged with carbon, has not power to 

 destroy vitahtVj hke the blood in the pulmonary veins, 

 which, according to the received doctrine of animal heat, 

 is charged with the recent product of respiration, and which 

 is afterwards deposited in the left auricle. In this case, 

 Haller, and all those who believe that carbon is the de- 

 stroyer of vitality, would be wrong, or the said theory 

 must be defective. For the left auricle, which during the 

 hfe of animals that respire, and which have the heart di- 

 vided into four cavities, is in contact with the blood, charged 

 with the products resulting from respiration, is of all the 

 cavities of the heart that which loses vitality soonest, — 

 though, according to Humboldt, oxygen is the nourish- 

 ment of vitality ; while the right auricle, which is the la>t 

 to lose it, is, during the life of these animals, forced to re- 

 ceive the blood surcharged with carbon. 



IV. Galvanic Experiments wade on a Man decapitated 

 January the 22d. 



Thermometer 61°*; barometer 27 inches ; pile 50 disks: 

 solution, muriate of soda. 



A voung man, thirty years of age, stout and robust, was 

 decapitated on the 22d of .January at noon. The body was 

 transported to the anatomical theatre of the hospital of St. 

 John, where it arrived at six minutes after noon. T he per- 

 sons present werc_, Vassalli-Eandi and myself, professor 

 Anselmi, Geri, Giorcelli, and Massi, members of the col- 

 lege of surgery, the chief of the gendarnjcrie of the 27ll> 

 division, and several others. As soon as it arrived, the 

 experiments were begun. 



The object of the fn-st experiment was to excite the dia- 

 phragm. The conductor of the positive part was applied to 

 the spinal marrow, where it was cut, and that of the ne- 

 gative to the pit of the stomach : very strong expirations 

 were immediately produced, and the glass plate was co- 

 vered with vapour. The heart was put in niotion, and 

 was still in that state when the cavity of the thorax was 

 opened to excite it by the mechanical stin)iilus of the scalpel ; 

 and by tl^ese means also it experienced contractions. Those 

 excited at the commencement of the experiment, and which 

 had already decreased, were renewed. The pile was then 

 tmploved as before, and the diaphragm cxhibiled contrac- 

 tions so strou'r, that they niade those of the heart four limes 



* 5 Rcaom. = 43-7 Fnlir. 



