218 ELECTRICAL INFLUENCE 



These terrestrial currents, as they have without doubt 

 a very important bearing on the structural conditions 

 of the rock-formations and the distribution of minerals, 

 require an attentive consideration ; but we must, in the 

 first place, examine, as far as we know, the influences 

 exerted, or supposed to be exerted, by electricity, in its 

 varied forms. 



The phenomena of vitality have, by many, been con- 

 sidered as immediately dependent upon its influence ; 

 and a rather extensive series of experiments has been 

 made in support of this hypothesis. The researches 

 of Philip on the action of the organs of digestion, when 

 separated from their connection with the brain, but 

 united with a galvanic battery, have been proved by 

 Dr. Reid to be delusive ;* since, as the organ is not 



anode (&vu, upwards, and 6$bs, a won/), the way which the sun rises; 

 and cathode (KOTO, downwards, and 65bs, a way), the way which the 

 sun sets- The hypothesis belongs essentially to Ampere. Objec- 

 tions to the Theories severally of Franklin, Dufay, and Ampere, with 

 an Effort to Explain Electrical Phenomena by Statical or Undulatory 

 Polarisation, by Robert Hare, M.D., Pennsylvania, will well repay 

 an attentive perusal. 



* Inquiry into the Laws of the Vital Functions. Philosophical 

 Transactions, 1815, 1822 ; Some Observations relating to the Func- 

 tions of Digestion, ibid., 1829: On the Powers on which the Func- 

 tions of Life in the more perfect animals depend, and on the manner 

 in which they are associated in the production of their more com- 

 plicated results, by A. P. W. Philip, M.D., F.R.S., L. and E. 

 The following extract from the last-quoted of Dr. Philip's Memoirs, 

 will give a general view of the conclusions of that eminent physio- 

 logist: " With respect to the nature of the powers of the living 

 animal which we have been considering, the sensorial and mus- 

 cular powers, and the powers peculiar to living blood, we have 

 found belong to the living animal alone, all their peculiar proper- 

 ties being the properties of life. The functions of life may be 

 divided into two classes, those which are affected by the properties 

 of this principle alone, and those, by far the most numerous class, 

 which result from the co-operation of these properties with those 

 of the principles which operate in inanimate nature. The nervous 

 power we have found to be a modification of one of the latter prin- 

 ciples, because it can exist in other textures than those to which 



