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experiment of touching the tongue with two pieces of metal, and 

 thereby exciting a metallic taste, occurs in Theorie generate dn Plaisir, 

 by Sulzer, 1767. Through the kindness of Professor Patrizi, of 

 Modena, I am able to add a portrait of S. MARIANINI, a favourite 

 pupil of Volta's (Como 1745-1826), whose name is associated with 

 the general law of electrical stimulation of nerve and the sensory 

 effects produced by the electric current. I have purposely left 

 aside the experiments on the electricity of fishes, but one may recall 

 the attempt of Cavendish (1776) to imitate the effects of the torpedo. 

 Darwin also discusses fully the importance of electrical organs in 

 any theory of evolution (Origin of Species, 1850), under the heading 

 " Special Difficulties of the Theory of Natural Selection," 



F. C. DONDERS. 



1818-1889. 



" Holland has produced more perhaps than its share of men whose names are likely 

 to be held in lasting honour by mankind, and amongst them hardly one greater or nobler 

 as a hero of science than Frans Cornelis Donders. In him, rare gifts of nature were so 

 happily blended, and turned to such good account for the advantage of his fellow-men, 

 as to make him an illustrious example of how much may be accomplished for our race in 

 those quiet paths of life in which he was content to pass his days." (W. Bowman.) 



BORN at Tilburg in 1818, his early reveries were of the priest- 

 hood. He entered the University of Utrecht, and soon became 

 specially interested in physiology, as taught by Schroeder van 

 der Kolk. For a time he acted as a military surgeon and soon 

 thereafter was lecturer on anatomy, histology, and physiology in the 

 military medical Academy in Utrecht. In Utrecht he remained for 

 the rest of his days. At that time G. F. MULDER was helping 

 to build up the new physiological chemistry, and he and Donders soon 

 became fellow-workers. At that time also JAC. MOLESCHOTT 

 was visiting Utrecht. Moleschott in his reminiscences, Fiir meine 

 Freunde (1895), gives a charming account of the life in Utrecht in the 

 late forties. Mulder clearly grasped the idea of the chemistry of the 

 cell, and with the aid of Donders and Peter Harding founded histo- 

 chemistry. Moleschott translated Mulder's work into German, and it 

 appeared in English as Chemistry of the Vegetable and Animal 

 Physiology, translated by Fromberg and Johnston (1849). At the 

 time there was a bitter dispute between Liebig, then in Giessen, and 

 Mulder on the protein question. " An unnatural, and in some respects 

 unworthy, excitement had found its way into the crucibles and ink- 

 stands of Giessen, and Liebig and his pupils, like the wandering 



