S2 Mechanical PJiilosophy. [Chap. Iw 



a rcmarkal)Ie property observed in several fished, 

 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 f. In 1762, 

 Sulzer, a German, in his Theory of agreeable and 

 disagreeable Sensations, gave some hints of a curi- 

 ous effect resulting from the junction of two pieces 

 of different kinds of metal, and applying them, 

 thus joined, to the tongue; but these hints seem 

 to have been disrej^arded, and were soon buried in 

 oblivion. In 1791 professor Galvani announced a 

 discovery made by hiin, that the muscles of dead 

 animals might be stimulated and brought into ac- 

 tion, by means both of artificial and atmospherical 

 dectricity. He also discovered, that, independent 

 of any collection of the electric fluid for the pur- 

 pose, the same action might be produced in the 

 dead animal, or even in a detached limb, merely by 

 making a communication between the nerves and 

 the muscles with substances that are conductors of 

 the electric matter J. Galvani*s first experiments 

 were made on de^di frogs ; but the discovery, soon 

 after being announced, was pursued ; experiments 

 were made on different animals ; and a number of 

 new facts, tending to show the connexion betvvcen 

 Galvanism and electricity, and the circumstances 



* These are the torpedo, tlie gymnotiis clcctrkus, tlie sifunm 

 ckctricKs, and a fourth, found near one of tJic Co7noro islands, by 

 lieut. William Patterson, of A\hich an account is given in the 

 7C>lli vol. of the Philosophical Transaciiom. 



t See Additional Notes — (G). 



X Aloj/sii Galvani de Viribus Electric iiatia, Sec. 4to, BonoDiac, 

 i7yi' 



