Electricity and Galvanism. 129 



tions ceasing the instant the circuit was broken by removing the 

 hand from the ear. 



The intensity of these contractions was much increased by combin- 

 ing two or three heads so as to form a sort of battery, just as 

 Matteucci forty years after found to be the case with his pigeon 

 and rabbit battery. 



Exp. B. — Aldini, having soaked one or his hands in salt and 

 water, held a frog's leg by its toe, and, allowing the ischiatic nerves 

 to be pendulous, he brought them in contact with the tip of his 

 tongue. Contractions instantly ensued from a current of electricity 

 traversing the frog's leg in its route from the external or cutaneous to 

 the internal or mucous covering of the body. By this very interest- 

 ing experiment Aldini demonstrated the existence of the musculocu- 

 taneous current and completely anticipated its re-discovery by Donne 

 some five-and-thirty years after. 



Aldini in connection with this experiment, declares that the pendu- 

 lous nervous filaments were distinctly attracted by the tongue ; and to 

 this marvellous and hitherto uncorroborated statement calls to witness 

 the then physicians and professors of Guy's and St. Thomas' Hos- 

 pitals, as well as two well-known fellows of this College, Sir Christo- 

 pher Pegge and Dr. Bancrost, to whom he states he shewed this 

 experiment at Oxford. 



Exp. C. — The proper electricity of the frog was found by Aldini 

 to be competent to the production of contractions. For this purpose 

 he prepared the lower extremities of a vigorous frog, and, by bending 

 up the leg, brought the muscles of the thigh in contact with the 

 lumbar nerves : contractions immediately ensued. This experiment 

 is now a familiar one, and has been repeated and modified lately by 

 Miiller and others. 



Exp. D. — A ligature was loosely placed round the middle of the 

 crural nerves, and one of the nerves applied to a corresponding 

 muscle : contractions ensued ; but, on tightening the ligature, convul- 

 sions ceased. 



This statement is very important, as upon its accuracy or error 

 depends what has been regarded as one of the tests of the identity 

 or diversity of the electric and nervous agencies. It was repeated 

 soon after Aldini's announcement of the fact by an Italian physician 



