26 CUERENT FORCE CHAP. IT. 



of the blood, &c. is owing to the immediate agency 

 of a modification of electricity, we have in the prin- 

 cipal digestive organs a kind of galvanic apparatus, 

 of which the mucous membrane of the stomach and 

 intestinal canal, generally, may be considered as the 

 acid or positive pole, whUe the hepatic system may, 

 on the same view, be considered as the alkaline or 

 negative pole. He also quotes an experiment of 

 Matteucci as, in some degree, confirming his 

 opinion. 



Donne "=, upon applying one of the electrodes of a 

 galvanometer to the stomach and the other to the 

 liver, obtained an effect upon the needle, and the 

 result of this experiment was subsequently confirmed 

 by Matteucci*. 



The suggestion thus thrown out, that the stomach 

 and liver formed poles similar to those of a galvanic 

 pUe, having apparently received some confirmation 

 fi-om experimental evidence, it now became of some 

 importance to ti'ace out the circuit, the path of the 

 current ; and, if possible, the origin of the power, so 

 as to complete the whole evidence necessary for the 

 proof of the truth of the suggestion. 



Eeasoning upon these facts, and assuming that 

 the stomach and liver did actually form the two poles 

 similar to those of a galvanic circle, it was reasonable 

 to suppose that the electric current would pass/roro the 

 stomach to the liver by the blood in the portal vein. To 



- BEOQtJEREt, Traite de VElectricUS, torn. i. p. 387. 

 i Ibid. torn. iv. p. 800. 



