272 Report on Zantedeschi and Favio's Memoir 



vohic/i is that it is the effect of a vital reaction^ xvJiether anatomical 

 or voluntari/, and that it is, if not the cause of life, at least that 

 immediate and special effect which life alone can p>r6duce and 

 maintaifi ; that this current may he discovered (sonde) and ob- 

 tained in a manner more or less evident, according to the nature 

 of the metals and the form of the instruments ; that it proceeds 

 in the direction of from nerve to muscle', that it is intimately 

 connected, 'with the energy and xmth the physiological changes of 

 life; that it has nothing in common taith the electro-chemical 

 and thermo-electrical currents; that the convulsive inovements 

 of animals augment it, ivhilst, on the contrary, ])ai?i xveakens it; 

 that the same difference exists with it as between animal life 

 and organic life, folloxmng thus, in the frst case, the phases of 

 anifnal life and dying with it; and in the second case, still ex- 

 isting so long as organic life can endure, cdthough animal life 

 has ceased. The current which is obtained from organic Ufe 

 was named by the Professors of the University of Pisa, the 

 cardiac current. 



From this corollary', we might be led to see in this electro- 

 physiological doctrine much analogy with that of the electro- 

 vitalists. The difference, however, is very great ; the authors 

 of this memoir, recognizing the vital force as a primitive force, 

 by which matter, obeying the common laws of nature by its 

 intrinsic virtue, changes into animated matter. 



The authors having proved that the force of the neuro-elec- 

 tric current depends upon the nature of the metals which are 

 employed, made use of iron, then of silver instruments; they 

 propose however trying those of platina. The results which 

 they give are obtained then with iron and silver instru- 

 ments. 



The apparatus necessary for the experiment consists of a 

 galvanometer, — of two metallic stylets, which are also called 

 sounds or reophores (whether they are of iron, of silver or of 

 platina), soldered metallically to the two extremities of the con- 

 ducting wire of the galvanometer, — and of a living animal. 



The galvanometer is placed in an isolated spot and far from 

 anything composed of metal, particularly of iron ; it is fixed 

 where it neither undergoes jogs or shocks. At a little di- 

 stance from this galvanometer should be a kind of small coffer 

 rather shallow, made entirely of wood and without an atom 

 of iron ; a living animal is slightly fastened in this coffer, 

 which is brought into the circuit of the galvanometer in the 

 following manner : — 



One of the metallic stylets which were just mentioned, and 

 which should be furnished with an insulating handle, is sud- 

 denly plunged {plo?ige) into some part of the living animal, 



