Vital and Physical Motion. 1 3 i 



tidn of those who cared to meddle in these matters v/as 

 directed exclusively to the static phenomena of animal 

 electricity. Then the only definite electrical ideas were, 

 charge on the one hand, and discharge on the other. 

 After the discovery of the galvanometer, the original 

 point of view was abandoned altogether, or nearly so, 

 and the attention diverted from the static to the current 

 phenomena of electricity; And herein, as I believe, was-, 

 an unmixed misfortune. In making out the electrical 

 history of living creatures there is work to be done which, 

 as will be seeri in due time, can only be done with the 

 electrometer ; and, for my own part, I am disposed to 

 assign to the new quadrant electrometer of Sir William 

 Thomson a position in these investigations which is 

 every whit as important as that which can be assigned 

 to the galvanometer, and to think that the apparatus 

 of any physiological laboratory would, to say the least, 

 be far from complete in which this instrument was 

 wanting. 



And thus, by the fact of the existence of animal elec- 

 tricity being now established beyond question, the way 

 is more prepared than it was in the days of Galvani for 

 the adoption of any view of vital motion in which animal 

 electricity has to serve as the basis. 



There are also others who must be named as taking 

 what is substantially the same view as that taken by 

 Galvani, and who have a just claim to be commemorated 

 in these introductory remarks, about whose views I 

 .would say, what I would also say about the views of 

 Galvani, that I xvas in complete ignorance Of them for 

 long after the time when my own thoughts on the sub- 

 ject had been made public. 



The name to be mentioned first in order here is that 

 of the late Dr. West, of Alford, in Lincolnshire. As early 



K 2 



