1865.] restoring the Life of Warm-blooded Animals, fyc. 367 



manifested, with facial movements extremely like life ; and these move- 

 ments, by repeating the injection, were sustained for an hour. This expe- 

 riment shows that heat alone was the restorer of the muscular irritability. 



Electricity as an excitant of the circulation. Electricity, in the form 

 of electro-galvanism, was employed in several experiments and in various 

 ways to excite the heart. The little battery of Legendre and Morin, with 

 the addition of the metronome so as to regulate the stroke, was the instru- 

 ment used, and artificial respiration was combined with the electric process. 

 In one experiment the negative pole from the battery was passed along the 

 inferior cava into the right side of the heart, and the opposite pole, armed 

 with sponge at its extremity, was placed over the heart externally. Suffi- 

 cient action was excited to produce a pulmonic current by the contraction 

 of the right ventricle. The left side of the heart also contracted on receiv- 

 ing blood, an arterial circuit was made, and the animal exhibited for the 

 moment all the signs of reanimation. In another case the insulated pole 

 from the battery was passed into the left side of the heart of a dog, the 

 opposite pole being placed on the divided chest-wall. There was immediate 

 action of all the muscles of the chest, but the heart was uninfluenced. In 

 a third case a current was passed from the brain along the whole length of 

 the spinal column, and artificial respiration was sustained for half an hour. 

 On opening the body, the heart was found full of blood on both sides and 

 was contracting, but not with sufficient force to produce a circuit. 



In a fourth case, a dog being the subject of experiment, electric com- 

 munication between the right side of the heart and the external part of the 

 organ was set up with artificial respiration, as in the first experiment of 

 this kind, only that the poles were reversed, and at the beginning of the 

 experiment the pole applied ultimately to the heart externally was placed 

 for a few minutes previously over the intercostal muscles. In this experi- 

 ment the heart did not respond at all, although the thoracic muscles made 

 vigorous contractions. 



The inference which I draw from these experiments with electricity on 

 the heart is, that by rapidly establishing a direct circuit between the blood 

 in the right side of the heart and the external surface of the organ, using a 

 moist conductor from the positive pole for the external surface, a sufficient 

 contraction may (I had almost said, by a fortunate accident) be induced in 

 the right ventricle to drive over the pulmonic current of blood, and to allow 

 of its oxygenation by artificial inflation of the lungs. This fact at first 

 sight looks small ; but I value it beyond measure, because it has demon- 

 strated that, when the action of the heart has ceased, the chest of the ani- 

 mal being open and all the conditions for reanimation being most unfa- 

 vourable, the mere passage of blood from the right to the left side of the 

 heart is sufficient to reestablish the action of the left side ; that the left 

 side thus reacting can throw a blood-current into the arteries ; and that 

 upon the reception of blood by the system, general muscular action and 

 rhythmical action of the muscles of the chest are reproduced. 



