ELECTRICITY AND LIFE. 



GALVANT discovered, in 1794, that the muscles of ani- 

 mals experience contractions in contact with certain metals. 

 In his view, this contact merely calls out the discharge of 

 a fluid inherent in the animals themselves. The fact was 

 not to be contested, but its explanation was. Lively dis- 

 cussions in the schools of physiology followed fortunately, 

 with a clear understanding that the difficulty could only be 

 determined by experiments. A vast number were made, 

 the name of Volta being connected with the most remark- 

 able of them. Alexander Volta maintained, in opposition 

 to Galvani, that the electricity which produces contractions 

 in the muscles, far from originating in those organs, is in- 

 troduced by the metals used in the process. In proof of 

 this he constructed, in 1800, the pile that bears his name, 

 and which is an arrangement in which the connection of 

 two different metals becomes an abundant source of the 

 electric fluid. Galvani and Volta were two men of dis- 

 tinguished genius, who thoroughly understood physics and 

 physiology, and advanced nothing heedlessly. Their dis- 

 coveries were the point of departure for one of the most 

 admirable movements in all the history of science, a move- 

 ment which is still most active, and is the more remarkable 

 because it resulted but yesterday, as it were, in the com- 

 plete demonstration that Galvani and Volta were both in 

 the right. Science to-day proves that there is an electricity 



