ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE 65 



Circuit from skin and metal, through galva- 

 nometer, to skin and metal. Deflection, nil. 



" (b) Repeated with right hand. Deflection, nil. 



" (c) Terminals allowed to touch. Deflection, nil. 



" (d) Same position electrodes, left hand. Thumb 

 approximated to electrodes. Deflection, slight. 

 Thumb touching negative pole electrode. Deflec- 

 tion, negative. Thumb touching positive pole 

 electrode. Deflection, positive. 



" (e) Same experiment repeated with right hand and 

 right thumb gave a reverse result, i.e., 



_j- pole deflection negative, 

 pole = deflection positive." 



In order to reconcile these results with the views of 

 physiologists we should have to assume 



(1) There are no sweat-glands in or moisture upon the 



fingers of either hand, and 



(2) That the thumbs only contain sweat-glands or 



exhibit moisture, and that their secretion or the 

 moisture is of so opposite a character, chemically, 

 as to instantly change the polarity of the elec- 

 trodes touched by them. 



No comparison is possible between the currents set up 

 by a galvanic cell and those emanating from the human 

 body. The former is a simple generator of electricity ; 

 the latter a complex system from which electricity or 

 neuro-electricity is constantly bemg given off. It is only 

 necessary to establish a difference of potential at two 

 points in one or more bodies to obtain deflections, due to 

 direct or derived circuits. Owing to the absence of 

 sebaceous glands in them, the palms of the hands and soles 

 of the feet are, no doubt, the natural " earths " of the body, 

 but nerve-energy must escape, to a greater or lesser extent, 

 from every square inch of the skin. 



Again, examine, galvanometrically, by means of the 

 hand-to-hand deflection, a number of persons until three 



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