out the least experience for its foundation, and 

 without explaining" satisfactorily a single pheno- 

 menon. 



One conjecture however deserves our notice, 

 since it is deduced from experience in unorga- 

 nised bodies, and might therefore, after previous 

 examination, have been approved or rejected, viz. 

 that the nerves were instruments for an electric 

 process, which determined as well the movement 

 of the body, as the nature of the secretions and 

 re-production of parts. The power of electricity 

 to produce a quick contraction of the muscles, 

 gave occasion to compare it to the operation of 

 the will; and the conclusion drawn from it was/ 

 that the latter was nothing else than an electric 

 discharge between the nerve and the muscular 

 fibres. GAL.VANI, the discoverer of that modifi T 

 cation of electricity, which now bears his name, 

 has more than any other defended this doctrine; 

 but although he has not wanted followers, the in* 

 sufficiency of his hypothesis is now pretty generally 

 acknowledged. THOMAS BTJNZEN, a Dane, laid 

 bare the crural nerve of a frog, and endeavoured 

 to cut it obliquely in such a manner that the me* 

 dulla could be placed in immediate contact with 

 a part of a muscle. He then formed a pile of from 



