226 ELECTRIC CURRENT. LECT. XII. XIII. 



convinced that Galvani's assumption was not erroneous, 

 since a great number of facts discovered by him are cer- 

 tainly due to the electricity developed in, and proper to, 

 animals. 



The contractions excited in the frog, or in any other 

 animal living or recently killed, when one of its nerves is 

 traversed by the electric current, are quite independent of 

 all animal electricity. It is by the examination of this first 

 fact, that we shall commence our study of the action of 

 electricity upon animals. 



For some years after the discoveries of Galvani and 

 Volta, every journal and every work teemed with particu- 

 lars relating to them. The convulsions and the leaps 

 observed in recently killed animals that are submitted to a 

 sufficiently powerful electric current, at first gave hopes of 

 the possibility of the restoration of life. This illusion, of 

 course, soon disappeared, and science withdrew within the 

 proper limits of its domains. Valli, Lehot, Humboldt, 

 Aldini, Marianini, and Nobili^have subsequently studied 

 the physiological action of the electric current. 



As I cannot possibly here relate all their experiments, 

 I must limit myself to a notice of those matters which, in 

 the present state of science, appear to be best established. 



Effects of the Current on the Sciatic Nerves. In this 

 rabbit, which you observe is firmly fixed by its four paws 

 to the table, I expose the sciatic nerve in both thighs. I 

 separate it as much as. possible from the surrounding parts, 

 then wipe it with some unsized paper, and introduce be- 

 neath it a band of gummed taffeta to insulate it completely 

 from the neighbouring tissues. You perceive the effect 

 produced when I transmit the current from a pile of ten 

 elements along the nerve, by applying the two conductors 

 at a little distance from each other, in such a manner that 

 its direction is from, the central part of the aervous system, 





