2O8 ELECTRIC POWER EXCITES 



that the skin and most of the internal membranes 

 are in opposite electrical conditions. It has been 

 found by experiment that galvanism is capable 

 of performing all the functions 'of the nervous in- 

 fluence in the animal economy. 



So numerous are the muscles in certain classes 

 of animals, that it seems indispensably requisite 

 that some general pervading principle, like that 

 of electricity, should act upon them in aggregated 

 numbers, as well as singly. It has been computed 

 that in the animal structure of a single pentecrinis 

 of the class of zoophytes, " there are more than 

 one hundred and fifty thousand bones, each having 

 its appropriate antagonistic muscle. There must 

 be consequently three hundred thousand muscles 

 to be operated on by the will of the animal." 1 



As myriads of frogs' legs might be simultane- 

 ously contracted by the transmission of a single 

 electric current through them all, so might this 

 array of muscles be similarly acted upon at once, 

 or in sections, by transmission of electric currents 

 subject to the will of the animal. 



By the transmission of a current from electric 

 machines through the motor nerves, art may over- 

 come Nature in controlling animal motive -power, 

 in despite of an opposing will. 



Many years ago, while a youthful student of 

 anatomy and physiology, the writer witnessed ex- 

 periments with galvanic batteries, on the motor 



1 Owen's lecture on Reproduction. 



