Xo. XVELa.] APPEST)IX. 269 



I would gladly have occapied jonr attention ^th a few remarks 

 upon the relations of electricity to organic or cell-life. By a modifi- 

 cation of the aggregation of cells, a plant produces leaves, stalks, flowers, 

 or roots, which every gardener knows is, to a certain extent^ as much 

 under hxuaan control as digging, raking, or hoeing. Dnring the pre- 

 valence of the potato malady, I subjected the plant to every form of 

 electricity, and in every possible manner, over long periods, without 

 olitaining any result. 



There is. however, one remarkable circumstance to be noticed with 

 n^aid to the relation of electricity to cell-life, for I have fonnd that 

 electric currents stop the circulation of the blood, as suddenly as a stop 

 does a watch when put down ; and this entire stoppage of the circulation 

 extends not only to the blood-corpuscle, but also to the lymph-corpusde 

 wbich creeps so slowly along the side of the vesseL 



If we take a review of the functions of aniinal life, we find that all 

 sensations, the registration of impressioiis, thought, action, and other 

 phenomena of g-nimitl life, are voltaic etfe-r-is. and solely obedient to 

 phyracal laws : and to the idea of the performance of these functions we 

 assign the idea of vitality. life, therefore, is one word used to signify a 

 number of changes. It is no independent reality apart from the matter 

 which exbibits these phenomena. !S'either is it an imponderable attached 

 to matter; nor is it an aU-perva'Sing ether, or anima autndi, as some 

 philosophers would have us suppose. life, mind, memory, reason, thought, 

 come from organization, are purely physical phenomena, and cease at death. 

 Man, however, is immortaL Man, at all times and in all regions, has 

 believed in his immortality. Xow that which is mortal can have no 

 relation with that which gives to man his immortality. That which is 

 infinite must not be limited ; time must not be e-jiif onnded with eternity, 

 matter with space, the body with the soul, nor material actions with God. 

 Elecbo-hiolc^y, then, leads ns no less to infer, than religion 

 commands us to believe, " that the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and 

 we shall be changed." 



Xo. xvn.A. 



PEUrCIPLZS OF THE BXTMJlS" MDTD DEDUCED FEOM 

 PHTSICAIi LAWS ; bbisg a SEi^m to Eiekksjts op Electro- 

 B101.O6T. By AifKES Smke, F.B1.S. 



FB^FACE. 



Soke years since, M. Boret, the distingnished French publisher, did 

 me the honour of causing to be made a translation into the French lan- 

 guage of my ' Ekanents of Electro-Metallurgy,' in which it met witii as 

 signal a success as the original edition in this country. 



As s3on as M. Boret received my work on Electro-Biology, he also 

 caused it to be immediately translaied, and kindly wrote to me to know 

 whetiher I d^ired to make any additions to the 'Ruglish text. 



After a careful consideration, I determined to write a short epitome 

 of the Frindples of the Human Mind, deduced from £lecbo-Biol<^y, to 

 form an Appendix to that work. 



