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♦ 
XI. Observations on the Influence , which incites the Muscles of 
Animals to contract in Mr. Galvani's Experiments. By Wil- 
liam Charles Wells, M. D. F. R. S. 
Read March 19, 1795. 
Mr . Volta, in his letters to Mr. Cavallo, which have been 
read to this Society, not only has shewn that the conclusions, 
which Mr. Galvani drew from his experiments on the appli- 
cation of metals to the nerves and muscles of animals, are in 
various respects erroneous, but has also made known several 
important facts, in addition to those which had been disco- 
vered by that author. As he appears, however, from these 
letters, to have fallen into some mistakes himself, and has cer- 
tainly not -exhausted the subject which he has treated in them, 
I shall venture to communicate to this learned body a few ob- 
servations I have made respecting it, which may contribute 
both to correct his errors, and to increase our know 1 edge 
of the cause of those motions, which have been attributed by 
Mr. Galvani and others to an animal electricity. These ob- 
servations will be so arranged, as to furnish answers, more or 
less satisfactory, to the following questions : Does the incite- 
ment of the influence which, in Mr. Galvani's experiments, 
occasions the muscles of animals to contract, either wholly, or 
in part, depend upon any peculiar property of living bodies ? 
What are the conditions necessary for the excitement of this 
influence ? Is it electrical ? 
