52 HISTORY OF GALVANISM. 



animal electricity, as he calls it, to be of a speci- 

 fically different kind from that excited by the pile, 

 or whether he supposes that the different parts of 

 the animal body have the power of generating the 

 same kind of electricity, without the aid of any ex- 

 ternal agent. He, however, deduces from his ex- 

 periments an inference in favour of Galvani's hy- 

 pothesis, of a proper animal electricity inherent in 

 the body, and not requiring the assistance of any 

 external agent for its development. 

 Remarks There are some points respecting" these experi- 



on Aldiui's . , 



experi- ments that require farther explanation. The most 

 obvious conclusion that we should draw from them, 

 would be that which was formed by Aldini him- 

 self, in favour of a proper animal electricity. But 

 if this be the case, they must be regarded as es- 

 sentially different from those of Galvani, where 

 an electricity of the usual kind was certainly ex- 

 cited. Perhaps the most probable supposition is, 

 that the parts of the body, in these experiments, 

 acted in a manner analogous to the pile which 

 was constructed by Sir H. Davy, in which elec- 

 tricity was developed by the action of two different 

 fluids upon carbon. There are, however, many 

 circumstances wanting to render this analogy 

 complete. 



Lagrave'a An important experiment was announced by 



pile Lagrave : he stated, that by placing upon each 



other alternate layers of muscular fibre and of 



brain, separated by a porous body, soaked in salt 



water, a pile was formed which produced the 



