22 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



attention at the time when it was published, as it 

 directly opposed the current of popular opinion. 

 But many of the statements have been since veri- 

 fied by succeeding philosophers; and when we 

 consider that it was written before the discovery of 

 the pile, it must be regarded as displaying much 

 sagacity and nice observation. 



In this state the science of galvanism remained 

 until the year 1800. It was generally admitted, 

 that the immediate agent in producing the pheno- 

 mena was the electric fluid, and that the actions 

 exhibited by the animal body depended merely 

 upon its extreme sensibility to small quantities of 

 this fluid. The experiments principally consisted 

 in different combinations of conducting substances 

 with parts of the animal body, composing what 

 was called the galvanic arc or circle. The chemi- 

 cal effects had been little attended to, except by 

 Fabroni ; and his remarks, although truly ingeni- 

 ous, must be regarded rather as the first glance 

 of a series of important facts, than as constituting 

 their complete development. 



