28 Mechanical Philosophy. 



PISH and Lord Mahon are the only distinguished 

 writers on electricity, in the English language, who 

 have attempted, like ^pinus, to introduce the 

 mathematical form of investigation into this sci- 

 ence. The publications of Dr. Priestley, Mr. 

 Cavallo, and Mr. Adams, on the subject, are 

 also worthy of honourable notice. The first, be- 

 sides his excellent History of Electricity, instituted 

 a number of original experiments ; suggested many 

 important inquiries; improved the electrical ap- 

 paratus; and, on the whole, did much to advance 

 our knowledge of this branch of philosophy. The 

 latter gentlemen, in addition to many new expe- 

 riments, have presented to the world condensed 

 and very satisfactory views of the subject, both in 

 a philosophical and medical view, and have con- 

 tributed much to render it popular and useful 



GALVANISM. 



To this chapter belongs some notice of that prin- 

 ciple or influence, discovered a few years ago, by 

 Dr. Galvani, a philosopher of Bologna, and 

 since, in honour of him, denominated Galvanism. 

 It was first called Animal Electricity, a name which 

 had been, for a number of years before, given to 

 a remarkable property observed in several fishes, 

 of conveying a shock, or a benumbing sensation 

 to those who touched them.^ But this property 

 was always found to be extinct or dormant in such 

 animals, immediately after their death. In 1762, 

 SuLZER^ a German, in his Theory of agreeable and 

 disagreeable sensations, gave some hints of a curi- 



h These are the Torpedo, the Gymnotus Electrkusy the Silurus ElectricuSf 

 and a fourth, found near one of the Comoro islands, by Lieut. William 

 Patterson, of which an account is given in the 76th vol, of the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions, 



