HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 15 



knowledge; but with respect to others, we can 

 have no hesitation in pronouncing them to be er- 

 roneous.* 



One of his doctrines, to which this remark Remarks 

 applies, is the opinion that the galvanic influence U) 

 is not electrical, an opinion which he embraced 

 after long deliberation, and, as he supposed, after 

 duly considering all the phenomena, and carefully 

 weighing the arguments on both sides of the ques- 

 tion. As at this period the whole that was known 

 of the effects of galvanism was their action upon 

 the organs of the living body, Humboldt was led 

 to suppose that it was entirely a vital action, or 

 that it depended upon something essentially con- 

 nected with the living body ; he however differed 

 from Galvani and Valli, who regarded it as a 

 proper electrical phenomenon, depending upon 

 electricity evolved from the different parts of the 

 body itself, without the addition of any extrane- 

 ous substance. Humboldt's experiments were 

 brought forward in such a manner, as to im- 

 press upon his readers the idea that they were 

 performed with the most scrupulous regard to 

 accuracy ; yet owing to the novelty of the subject, 

 and no doubt also, in a considerable degree, to the 

 extremely delicate nature of the substances on 

 which he operated, it appears that many of them 



* Ann. de Chim. xxii. 51 ; Journ. de Pbys. xlvi. 465, and 

 xlvii. 65; Experiences sur le Galvanisnie, Traduction par 

 Jadelot, 1799. 



