3 HISTORICAL SKETCH. CHiP. I- 



That certain fish have the power of giving a 

 shock to the human body has been long known, 

 and even employed by the natives of the country 

 in which they are found for remedial purposes ; just 

 as the phys-icians in the middle of the eighteenth 

 century were in the habit of employing the shocks 

 from the electrical machine in the cure of disease. 

 The shock from the fish and that fi:om the Leyden 

 jar led philosophers to entertain the belief, that 

 they were identical as to their nature, and due to 

 the same power, viz. Electricity; whence arose the 

 term. Animal Electricity. 



In 1773, Walsh'', in his experiments on the 

 Torpedo, proved to a certain extent this identity: 

 he obtained the spark, but could not get any evidence 

 of attraction and repulsion. He compared the action 



since that period in the Philosophical Transactions of the 

 Eoyal Society of London, and in the various continental 

 scientific Journals. 



Du Bois Eeymond's large work in German, an ahstract of 

 which has appeared in English, edited by Dr. Bence Jones, 

 entitled. Animal Electricity, London, Churchill, 1852; tmd to a 

 Review of the same by Prof. Tyndall, in the British and Foreign 

 Medical Review, Jan. 1854, p. 141. 



Bapport sur les Memoires reUUifs mix Phinomenes Eledm- 

 Physiologiques present4s d TAcadSmie, par M. E. dtj Bois 

 Eeymond. Comples Eendus, vol. xxxi. p. 28. 



De la Eive's Treatise on Electricity, translated by Walker, 

 .3 vols. Longman. 



A Paper published in the Edinburgh New Philosophical 

 Journal, Oct. 1855, entitled, A brief Beview of the Presetit State 

 of Organic Electricity. By Prof. Goodsie, F.R.S.L. and E. 



>> Philosophical Transactions, 1773. 



