58 _ Galvanic Experiments performed 
made hy the side of the sterno-cleido-mastoideus. Since this 
nerve is distributed to the diaphragm, and since it communicates 
with the heart through the eighth pair, it was expected, by 
transmitting the galvanic power along it, that the respiratory 
process would be renewed. Accordingly, a small incision having 
been made under the cartilage of the seventh rib, the point of 
the one insulating rod was brought into contact with the great 
head of the diaphragm, while the other point was applied to the 
phrenic nerve in the neck. This muscle, the main agent of re- 
spiration, was instantly contracted, but with less force than was 
expected. Satisfied, from ample experience on the living body, 
that more powerful effects can be produced in galvanic excita- 
tion, by leaving the extreme communicating rods in close-con- 
tact with the parts to be operated on, while the electric chain. 
or circuit is completed, by running the end of the wires along 
the top of the plates in the last trough of either pole, the other 
wire being steadily immersed in the last cell of the opposite pole, 
I had immediate recourse to this method. The success of it was 
truly wonderful. Full, nay, laborious breathing instantly com- 
menced. The chest heaved, and fell; the belly was protruded, 
and again collapsed, with the relaxing and retiring diaphragm. 
This process was continued, without ‘interruption, as long as I 
continued the electric discharges. 
** In the judgement of many scientific gentlemen who wit- 
nessed the scene, this respiratory experiment was perhaps the 
most striking ever made with a philosophical apparatus. Let it 
also be remembered, that for full half an hour before this period, 
the body had been well nigh drained of its blood, and the spinal 
marrow severely lacerated. No pulsation could be perceived 
meanwhile at the heart or wrist; but it may be supposed that, 
but for the evacuation of the blood,—the essential stimulus of 
that organ,—this phenomenon might also have occurred. 
*¢ Exp.3.—The supra-orbital nerve was laid bare in the fore- 
head, as it issues through the supra-ciliary foramen, in the eye- 
brow: the one conducting rod being applied to it, and the other to 
the heel, most extraordinary grimaces were exhibited every time 
that the electric discharges were made, by running the wire in 
my hand along the edges of the last trough, from the 220th to 
the 227th pair of plates ; thus fifty shocks, each greater than the 
preceding one, were given in two seconds: every muscle in his 
countenance was simultaneously thrown into fearful action ; rage, 
horror, despair, anguish, and ghastly smiles, united their hideous 
expression in the murderer’s face, surpassing far the wildest re- 
presentations of a Fuseli or a Kean. At this period several of 
the spectators were forced to leave the apartment from terror or 
sickness, and one gentleman fainted. 
“ Exp. 
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