OF GALVANIC ELECTRICITY. 81 



noticed, and it will be again referred to ; we shall only observe at this place, that his 

 experiments appear to show the extent to which the electro-motive agency, transmitted 

 through their voluntary nerves, may prove a stimulus to particular organs, and enable 

 them to perform their functions when these functions have been impeded by the re- 

 moval of a natural and requisite stimulus. We have at another place endeavoured to 

 Show that the functions which Dr. Philip has imputed to the cerebro-spinal nerves are 

 actually derived from another source ; that the operations of these nerves (with the 

 exception of the nerves of sense) are chiefly confined to the transmission of the cere- 

 bro-spinal influence, which is the natural stimulus to the vital endowment that the or- 

 gans receive from a different system the ganglial ; but that this stimulus cannot be 

 considered to be galvanism, merely because galvanism is a stimulus, and acts in a man- 

 ner which we have every reason to suppose other stimuli would act, if they were capa- 

 ble of being transmitted through, and be present in, every part of the body, on which 

 they are disposed to operate. It is the particular constitution of this agent, its pro- 

 perties, and its relations with the solids and fluids of the body, that give rise to its ac- 

 tive operation, and to phenomena liable to be confounded with those of the nervous 

 system, or even with those of life itself. 



What we have just new adduced has a stricter reference to the opinions of those 

 who consider that the nervous influence and galvanism are the same, we shall now re- 

 fer more particularly to the notion of the identity of this agent and life itself ; and 

 here we cannot do better than quote the very acute, conclusive, and unanswerable ob- 

 servations of Dr. Pring* (Principles of Pathoiogii^ on this subject. *' We observe that 

 electricity is related with life, and acts upon it T this is no proof of identity. We ob- 

 serve also that electricity will substitute in some instances the properties derived from 

 a nervous centre ; in this respect there is an identical property common to it and life, 

 which is also possessed by many other substances. We observe, also that the forma- 

 tion of heat, and the faculty of generating electricity, belong 1 to animals, and are de- 

 pendent upon their life. The faculty of generating electricity, in animals, does not 

 prove that electricity is even a constituent part of their life : it proves that it is a phe- 

 nomenon of their life ; but that it is a part of it, is no more to be concluded on this 

 account, than that urine, or mucusj &,c. is a part of life, because these are also products 

 of it. 



" We have made out then only one point of resemblance between life and electri- 

 city, which is, that electricity will in some cases substitute a property otherwise de- 

 rived from a nervous centre ; which property, applied to the stomach, will aid diges- 

 tion, in which respect, it has not yet been "found that more common stimuli resemble 

 it : applied to the voluntary muscles, it will produce their contraction, and in this re- 

 spect the property is a common one to many other substances, which no one ever 

 thought of identifying with life. But even the properties which are said to depend 

 upon a nervous centre, are not all of them substituted by electricity, which will stimu- 

 late muscular contraction, like many other substances, but like those substances also, 

 it is incapable of conferring sensibility ; or if electrical influence ever excites sensation 

 in paralytic limbs, it is only because their sensibility is not totally extinct, and will 

 therefore admit of sensation under the application of this, or of any other stimulus, of 

 a powerful kind. 



" We have seen that electricity can do a very little which is also done by life ; there 

 is then analogy in one property, but to be the same identity, there must be analogy in 

 all ; or to approach to such identity there must be at least a general analogy. The liv- 

 ing principle maintains itself by assimilation from exposure to its elements ; electricity 

 is not capable of maintaining itself from its elements, but must be produced from them. 

 Muscular power in the animal system is related with mind, and directed by volition ; 

 we have no evidence that mind, or volition, independently of the properties which dis- 

 tinguish t'ue living state, can so ally itself with electricity.' Animal life confers sensibi- 

 lity on structures ; electricity can merely excite sensation in common v ith chemical and 

 mechanical stimuli. The organic life produces from a common material, arranges and 

 renovates, in the muscular system, the particles which compose muscle ; in the tendons, 

 those of tendon ; in the membranes, those of membrane : in the bones, the constituents 

 of these structures ; and of all otlu "s, with all their circumstances, however diversified, 

 Now if electricity were capable of doing all this, there would then be established only a 

 general resemblance with life ; analogies would afterwards be sought for, corresponding 



* We recommend the physiologist to study closely the physiological and pathologi- 

 cal writings of this most acute and philosophical writer. 



Li 



