14 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



galvanism is identical with electricity, because 



every substance which is a conductor of one of 



these principles is also a conductor of the other.* 



iiumWdt's An interesting set of experiments was performed 



rn^u" about this time by Humboldt, on the irritability 



1 ^opi 



of the muscular fibre ; the object of which was to 

 prove that this property depends immediately upon 

 a specific proportion of the chemical elements 

 which enter into the composition of the muscle. 

 When certain agents were applied to a muscle, 

 he conceived that its contractile power was in- 

 creased, in consequence of some change that had 

 been effected in its chemical composition, or even 

 that the contractility might be restored after it had 

 been destroyed, while, on the contrary, there were 

 other agents which seemed to be equally powerful 

 in depriving the muscles of their irritability, in 

 consequence of an opposite change in their che- 

 mical constitution. He employed the galvanic 

 influence as a test of the presence of the irritability 

 of the muscle ; and he was led, in the course of 

 his experiments, to inquire into the nature of this 

 influence, and to make many curious observations 

 concerning it, which were derived from a very 

 elaborate train of experimental research. He was 

 induced to form some conclusions very different 

 from those that had been adopted by Galvani, 

 Volta, and the authors that had preceded him, 

 some of which were important additions to our 



* Phil. Trans, for 1795. 



