12 



LOCALIZED ELECTRIZATION. 



current also produces phenomena of calorification in the deepest 

 parts of the organism. Tlie sensation that I experienced was such 

 as might be produced by the circulation of a hot fluid in the limb 

 galvanized. After a certain time, a deep continuous current pro- 

 duces a sensation of heat that becomes insupportable ; but I have 

 not found that the limb is actually raised in temperature.'' By 



^ When I first recorded this experiment, 

 I committed the error of not describing 

 the manner in which it was performed ; 

 and as it has api^eared to some to be diffi- 

 cult, if not impossible, I now detail the 

 circumstances : — At the time wlieu M. 

 Despretz, Member of the Institute of 

 France, conducted at the Sorbonne his 

 beautiful researches into the simplicity 

 of the elementary bodies, I found in liis 

 laboratory a Bunsen's pile of 120 elements 

 of the ordinary size, and with the carbon 

 in the middle. It was with this pile that 

 I worked. It is probable tliat it no longer 

 possessed its full power ; since it had been 

 a long time in action, and had been used 

 for numerous experiments. Still its power 

 was such that, on grasping in each hand 

 a metallic rheophore, covered with leather 

 thoroughly wetted, I found it difficult 

 to support the shock caused by the 

 comph-tion of a current of from forty to 

 fifty elements. In order not to expose 

 myself to the shock of the action of 120 

 elements, I opposed to the passage of tlie 

 current the resistance of a column of dis- 

 tilled water, ten centimetres in length, by 

 jdacing in the circuit a tube filled with 

 tlie water ; such as will be described here- 

 after (Chap. IV.) under the name of a 

 moderating tube. After having received 

 the shock of the compktionof the current, 

 which was thus greatly weakened, I 

 gradually increased its power, by dimi- 

 nishing the distance that it had to pass 

 througli water, until tiie continuous cur- 

 rent reached me in its full force. I was 

 surprised to find that I could bear this 

 current long enough to efiect the ex- 

 periment of which I have recorded the 

 results. My skin remained unchanged, 

 because my hands and the rheojihores 

 were freely wetted, because the epiilermis 

 of the palm of the hand is tliick, and 

 because the experiment was only of short 

 duration. The skin of other parts of the 

 body, if exposed to such a current, would 

 doubtless have been burnt more or less 

 deeply, and would have suflered intoler- 

 able pain. Tlie method pursued had the 

 advantage, by avoiding cutaneous pain, 

 of rendering it possible to analyse the 

 deeper sensations caused by the passage 

 of such a current in a longitudinal direc- 

 tion through the nerves and muscles of 



the upper extremities. I was unable to 

 continue the experiment witli the pile of 

 120 couples longer than from thirty to 

 forty seconds ; although I could bear tlie 

 current from 20 or 30 couples for from ten 

 to twenty minutes. Subsequontlj' I tried 

 experiments with a pile of 40 elements of 

 protosulphate of mercury, such as I shall 

 describe shortly (one of tliese elements is 

 nearly equivalent to two of Daniell's). I 

 immersed each of my hands in a basiu 

 placed in communication with one of the 

 electrodes ; and in this way allowed the 

 continuous current to pass for nearly ten 

 minutes. I could have borne it for a much 

 longer time. The first time that I pvo- 



' ceeded in this way, I felt, after two 



■ minutes of the continuous current, a kind 

 of fibrillar oscillatory contraction in the 

 flexors of the thumb ami fingers. A sen- 

 sation of somewhat painful stift'ness, in 



[ the same regions, led me to infer the 

 existence of a continued spasm, altliough 

 I could not prove this by the movements 

 of the tliuml) and fingers. The operation 

 was followed by a feeling of fatigue in the 

 arms. On tlie day following, the same 

 experiment, performed in the same man- 

 ner and under similar conditions, yielded 

 an almost identical result. The feeling 

 of fatigue that I experienced in the an- 

 terior regions of the forearms and arms, 

 if not exactly painful was at least very 

 uncomfortable. I have repeated the ex- 

 periment very often upon myself, and also 

 upon otlier persons ; and I have always 

 observed, during the passage of tlie con- 

 tinuous cm-rent, sometimes the fibrillar 

 c/mtractions, sometimes only the sensa- 



i tiou of stiffness in the muscles of the 

 forearm, or of the arm, but in an irregular 

 manner. A similar trial made with the 

 lower extremities by placing the feet in 

 basins connected with the poles of the 

 pile, produced only numbness and fatigue ; 

 I have sometimes seen fibrillar con- 

 tractions. Each exi^eriment commonly 

 lasted from ten to twenty minutes. (I 

 shall return to this subject in the third 

 chapter.) 



I ought to add that, in all my experi- 

 ments made upon either the superior or 

 inferior extremities, by plunging the hands 

 or feet in basins of water connected with 

 the pile, sensations of piicking were felt 



