$0 APPENDIX. 



snd its office is evidently that of accumulating 1 within itself, in consequence of the 

 vital function with which it is endowed, the electricities circulating- in the body, so that 

 they may be discharged according- to the wants of the animal ; but the electricities 

 vhich. the anim.il thus accumulates and discharges cannot be said, from the evidence 

 which we as yet possess on the subject, to be identical with its nervous influence, noir 

 \yith the vitality of its system more than oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, or any other 

 fluid constantly present in, circulating through, and con.i/ming with the constituents 

 of the body, may he considered to be the source of its numerous manifestations. The 

 one fluid may accumulate in the system as well as the other, by means of the vital 

 operations of the organ in which the accumulation takes place, and it may be again 

 discharged in consequence either of an operation determined by the nervous influence, 

 or of some other process, and in fact, we find such a phenomenon actually taking place ; 

 but, are we to infer, on that account, that either the one or the other of these fluids 

 constitute the vitality of the system, or even that they are the source of vitality, when 

 it can only be shown to be a single function from amongst the many which the animal 

 exhibits ? We find that electricity is accumulated in, and discharged from, the electri- 

 cal apparatus of some fishes ; and we also perceive that oxygen and nitrogen are, in 

 like manner, accumulated in, and diacharged from the swimming bladders of other 

 iishes ; but these circumstances do not warrant us to infer that electricity is the nervous 

 influence of the former, more than that oxygen is the nervous influence of the latter; 

 or, that the vitality of the one is electricity, of the other it is oxygen. 



But, although the agency of the electricities have been extended, farther as respects 

 the animal kingdom, by some physiologists, than well ascertained facts can wan-ant, 

 it must be allowed, from the evidence which has been adduced, that they give rise to 

 very important phenomena when they are brought to operate on some of the animal 

 textures. It is these effects, or rather the stimulus which electricity imparts to the 

 sensible and contractile parts of the body, that constitute the chief physiological rela- 

 tions of electricity, and give a degree of plausibility to the doctrines of those who con- 

 sider that all the animal functions are discharged by the electricities in their electro- 

 motive condition. These circumstances require that we should notice at farther 

 length the effects of this agent on the animal system*. 



" According to Ritter, the electricity of the positive pole augments while the nega- 

 tive diminishes the actions of life. Tumefaction of parts is produced by the former, 

 depression by the latter. The pulse of the hand, he says, held a few minutes in con- 

 tact with the positive pole, is strengthened ; that of the one in contact with the nega- 

 tive is enfeebled ; the former is accompanied with a sense of heat, the latter with a feel- 

 Ing of coldness. Objects appear to a positively electrified eye, larger, brighter, and 

 red; while to one negatively electrified they seem smaller, less distinct, and bluish, 

 colours indicating opposite extremes of the prismatic spectrum." 



An electrical practitioner referred to by Dr. Ure, from whom the above paragraph 

 33 quoted, considers that his experience in the application of this agent in disease war- 

 rants him in referring its operation to three distinct heads : " first, the form of radii, 

 ,-vvhen projected from a point positively electrified ; secondly, that of a star, or the ne- 

 gative fire concentrated on a brass ball ; thirdly, the Leyden'explosion." 



The first acts, he considers, as a sedative ; the second as a stimulant ; and the last 

 has a deobstruent operation. Dr. Ure has found that the negative pole of a voltaic bat- 

 tery, gives more poignant sensations than the positive. 



The experiments of Dr. Philip with voltaic electricity have led him to infer that the 

 nervous influence is nothing else than this agent. This proposition has already been 



* Amongst the living tissues, the nervous is the best conductor of electricity ; there- 

 fore, when an electrical current is established through the body, it is transmitted by 

 this texture. If the electrical current consists only of one of the electricities, the 

 molecules composing the nervous texture tend to propel each other, or to disunite ; 

 and if the electrical action is very intense, they are actually decomposed, and con ;f 

 founded with the fatty matter which isolate the nervous fibres ; all the functions of the 

 nerves are instantly d'estroyed, the irritability of the muscles dissipated, and life is im- 

 mediately terminated. These effects are frequently witnessed from lightning. They 

 are not confined, however, to the nervous and muscular systems, all the soft parts are 

 more or less affected ; the blood does not coagulate, owing to the dissipation of the 

 rital influence giving rise to the phenomenon of coagulation and all the tissues 

 quickly into a state of putrefaction, 



