34 OUKBENT FORCE CHAP. IV. §. I. 



the voltaic circle ; but instead of the secreted product 

 combining with the other electrode, as the acid does 

 in the voltaic circle, it passes away. In the animal 

 the current may be supposed to be dependent upon 

 the decomposition — if I may so term it — of the arterial 

 blood, being as it were separated into its two ele- 

 ments, the secreted product and venous blood, just 

 as the muriate of soda is decomposed and separated 

 into its two elements, muriatic acid and soda. 



At present, it may be remarked, that no opinion 

 as to the mode in which the secretions are effected 

 is being given ; I am only endeavouring fo ascertain 

 now what does occur, and to what class of phenomena 

 these actions, those of secretion, bear the greatest 

 resemblance. This subject will again come under 

 our notice. 



Before proceeding to shew that in other organs 

 there exists the same manifestation of current force 

 during secretion, I cannot omit noticing the opinion 

 that WoLLASTON entertained in regard to the question 

 now under consideration, and shall therefore quote 

 his own words: "At the time," says Wollaston', 

 " when Mb. Davy first communicated to me his im- 

 portant experiments on the separation and transfer 

 of chemical agents by means of the voltaic apparatus, 

 which was in the autumn of 1806, I was forcibly 

 struck with the probability that animal secretions 

 were effected by the agency of a similar electric 

 power; since the existence of this power in some 

 >■ FhilosophicEil Magazine, vol. zxxiii. p. 488. 



