ANNOTATIONS AND ADDITIONS. 153 



and Cabuliare. Large vessels sail across the country over the 

 Steppe for 40 or 50 miles. 



(") p. 39. "To the mountain plateau of Antisana" 

 The great mountain plain or plateau surrounding the volcano of 

 Antisana is 2107 toises (13,473 English feet), above the level of 

 the sea. The atmospheric pressure at this elevation is so small that 

 the wild cattle, when hunted with dogs, bleed from the nose and 

 mouth. 



( 43 ) p. 39. "Bera andKastro." 



I have described the capture of the Gymnoti in detail in another 

 place. (Observations de Zoologie et d' Anatomic compare'e, vol. i. 

 pp. 83-87; and Relation historique, t. ii. pp. 173-190.) M. Gay 

 Lussac and I found the experiment without a circuit succeed per- 

 fectly with a living Gymnotus, which was still very vigorous when 

 brought to Paris. The discharge is solely dependent on the will of 

 the animal. We did not see any spark,- but other physicists have 

 done so on several occasions. 



( 43 ) p. 40. "Awakened by the contact of moist, dissimilar particles." 

 In all parts of organic bodies, dissimilar substances are in contact 

 with each other: in all, solids are associated with fluids. Thus, 

 wherever there are organization and life, there is also electric tension 

 or the play of the Voltaic pile, as the experiments of Nobili and Mat- 

 teueci, and especially the latest admirable labors of Emil du Bois, 

 teach us. The last named physicist has succeeded in " manifesting 

 the presence of the electric muscular current in living and wholly 

 uninjured animal bodies;" he shows that " the human body, through 

 the medium of a copper wire, can cause a magnetic needle at a dis- 

 tance to be deflected at pleasure, first in one and then in the opposite 

 direction." (Untersuchungen iiber thierische Electricetat, von Emil 

 du Bois-Reymond, 1848, bd. i. s. xv.) I have witnessed these 

 movements produced at pleasure, and have had the gratification of 

 seeing thereby great and unexpected light thrown on phenomena to 

 which I had laboriously and hopefully devoted several years of my 

 youth. 



