28 ANALOGY WITH 



satisfactory. By connecting a prepared leg of one frog with the 

 nerve and external muscle of another, violent contractions 

 ensued, and by connecting the interior of a series of frogs' legs 

 with the exterior of the next, and so on, a hattery was formed 

 whose effects were very considerable. From all these facts there 

 can scarcely remain much doubt on the matter. Dr. Watson, in 

 his Lectures on Medicine, observes, " I incline to the opinion 

 that the influence which originates in the grey matter, and is 

 transmitted by the white, will be found at last to consist in, or be 

 nearly allied to, electricity." And that most profound philoso- 

 pher, Faraday, remarks, " that from the time it was shown that 

 electricity could perform the functions of the nervous influence, 

 he has no doubt of their very close relation ; and they probably 

 are the effects of one common cause." Sir John Herschel too 

 says, that the present state of electrical science warrants the 

 belief, that the brain and spinal marrow form an electrical organ 

 which is spontaneously discharged along the nerves at brief in- 

 tervals, when the tension of the electricity reaches a certain 

 point. 



Such are the arguments which have been adduced in favour of 

 the identity of the Nervous and Electrical forces. But recently 

 Matteucci has totally denied their analogy, and from his exten- 

 sive researches on the subject, much weight should be attached to 

 his opinion. It would be impossible within the limits of so small 

 a work to present to the reader anything like a complete account 

 of the experiments upon which his opinion is founded. We 

 shall, therefore, content ourselves with briefly stating his views, 

 referring the reader, who may be anxious to pursue the enquiry 

 to the elaborate work of the philosopher to whom we allude.* 

 Matteucci is of opinion, that although at a first view apparently 

 identical, and that possibly the one is capable of giving rise to 

 the other, the nervous and electrical forces differ as much from 

 each other as any other forces of matter light and heat for 

 example ; and that the analogy between the two former is but of 

 the same nature as between heat, light, and electricity; nay, 



* Traite des Phenomenes Electro-Physiques des Animaux par C. Matteucci, 

 Paris. 



