390 Matteucei’s Lectures on Living Beings. 
Art. XLV.—Matteucci’s Lectures on Living Beings.* 
Tue name of Matteucci has long been connected with re- 
searches on the physical phenomena.of living beings, and espe- 
cially with investigations into the agency of electricity in these 
operations. His mind has gone forward in experimental investi- 
gation, unbiassed by prevailing speculations, pursuing truth with 
the teachable spirit required of the student of nature, and with 
an earnestness and fertility of resource, rarely if ever exceeded. 
His statements are, therefore, entitled to the highest consideration. 
He finds no support for a common speculative opinion that an 
animal is a machine moved by electricity ; yet traces out analo- 
gies between the different forces that are of great interest. 
His lectures were delivered before the University of Pisa. 
They were published in Italian and have since appeared in French 
and English; the latter edition is from a corrected copy, by the 
author, with important recent additions. The topics treated of, 
—Electrical effects—Action of Gravity,—Light and Caloric,—Ner- 
vous foree—Muscular Contraction—Circulation— V oice—Hear 
—Vision. ‘The researches relating to muscular electricity and 
the relations between electricity and the nervous force have never 
been properly noticed in this Journal, and we continue this re- 
view of the work by citations of passages, which will exhibit, 
though imperfectly, the facts to the reader, referring to the wor 
vani’s usual method; that is, we cut it through the middle of 
its pelvis, separate carefully all the muscles of the thigh, and di- 
vide one of the lumbar plexuses as it passes out of the vertebral 
column. We then have a leg of the frog united to its long 
nervous filament or the crural nerve (see B, part of fig. 2, p- 394). 
The frog thus prepared,—which I have called the galvanosco- 
pic frog—is very useful in researches on the electric current. 
For this purpose we introduce the claws of a frog into a glass 
tube covered with an insulating varnish, take hold of the tube 
with the hand, and afterward bring any two parts of the body; 
ee 
* Lectures on Living Beings, by Carlo Matteucci, Professor in the University of 
Pisa, with numerous wood-cuts. Translated under the superintendence of eal 
pe Pereira, M.D., F.R.S., Vice President of the Royal Medical and Chirurgi¢ 
‘ 
