THEORY OF GALVANISM. 105 



modification in its nature, or mode of action, we 

 must conclude, that there may be some intermediate 

 or indeterminate state,, which might be referred to 

 one or the other with almost equal propriety. 



To recur then to the former definition : " Gal- Definition, 

 vanism is a series of electrical phenomena, in 

 which the electricity is developed without the aid 

 of friction, and where we perceive a chemical ac- 

 tion to take place between some of the bodies em- 

 ployed." This definition may perhaps be thought 

 to limit the science too much, and to remove from 

 it many facts which have always been regarded as 

 galvanic. For example, a great number of the 

 original experiments of Galvani himself, and his 

 contemporaries, where contractions were excited 

 in the muscles of animals, by the application 

 of the two metals, many of those of Fowler, 

 and the first set of Volta's experiments, would, 

 according to this definition, be reduced to the 

 effects of common electricity. To this objection we 

 may reply, that wherever moisture comes in con- 

 tact with the zinc, or more oxidable metal, it is not 

 improbable that some chemical action is produced, 

 but that it is very slight, and has therefore not 

 been noticed. If, however, upon a strict examina- 

 tion, it is found not to be the case, and that there 

 is actually no change in the chemical condition of 

 any part of the apparatus, it must be admitted 

 that, according to our present ideas, the phenomena 

 are not to be referred to galvanism. The first un- First pro- 

 equivocal experiments where the chemical effects n 



ments. 



