071 Electric Cuireiiis in Warm-blooded Animals. 275 



completed, which being closed, the needle never returned to 

 its first position, but, on the contrary, it always kept itself at 

 a distance all the time that the experiment and the deviation 

 lasted, according to a fixed or certain mark, sometimes of 

 three, sometimes of four, of seven, and even of fifteen degrees. 

 Twenty-seven experiments are described in this memoir : the 

 authors sum up the results of them in five propositions, which 

 are the following: — 



Prop. 1. Ill 'warm-hlooded animals there is an electro-vital 

 or neuro-electric ctirrent, tiohich we will call external or cuta- 

 neous, which is found in the cutaneous tissue, and directs itself 

 constantly from the extremities to the cerebrospinal axis by 

 mea7is of the galvanometer. The intensity of this current, ac- 

 cording to the experiments which have been made, is generally 

 greater with stylets of iron than with those of silver. 



Six experiments support this proposition. 



Prop. 2. In warm-blooded animals there is an electro-vital 

 current, which goes from the cerebrospinal axis to the internal 

 organs situated beneath the skin ; for this reason we will call 

 it electro-vital internal current. By means of the galvanometer 

 we see that it is constantly directed from the cerebrospinal axis 

 to the other viscera, or, if you will, from the nerve to the muscle. 

 The intensity of the internal current is in ge7ieral greater with 

 the iron stylets tha7i with tJiose of silver. 



Eight experiments served to establish this proposition. 



Prop. 3. The electro-vital cu7-re7it i7i warm-blooded a7iimals 

 grows weaker in proportio7i as it comes less f-om life : death 

 havi7ig take7i place, it p7-oceeds i7i an opposite direction to that 

 in which it was directed duri7ig life. 



This proposition rests upon eight experiments. 



Prop. 4. Pain weake7is or suspejids the electro-vital curre7it; 

 it eve7i cha7iges the direction of it if it is very great. The vo- 

 lunm7y or convtdsive auto7natic moveme7its give, 07i the C07itra7y, 

 a very st7-07ig current, vohich may be 7iamed discharge of cu7-7'e7it. 



A single experiment appeai'ed sufficient to the authors to 

 establish this proposition. 



Prop. 5. The electro-vital current either ca7mot be discovered 

 or meas7ired, or does 7iot really exist i7i the dijfere7it parts of 

 the same viscus : it is very feeble, a7id pe7haps it is even ?mll 

 from viscus to viscus. 



Four experiments support this proposition. 



The experiments which have served to establish each of the 



five propositions are followed by summary annotations of the 



authors. Although they appear to me to be very interesting 



for one who is occupied in such researches, I did not think it 



T2 



