2 88 INQUIRY AS TO THE EXISTENCE OF CURRENT FORCE DURING SECRETION. 
nature of the forces concerned in the process of secretion ; as it might, however, be 
considered premature to do so, we shall defer our observations to a future opportu- 
nity, and conelude by merely drawing attention to the resemblance first suggested, 
we believe, by Wollaston, between the polar decompositions which occur in the de- 
composing cell of a voltaic circle and the process of secretion in living animals. 
The facts which the experiments related in the present paper tend to establish are 
as folloM^s : — 
First. That, during biliary secretion, the hile and venous hlood flowing from the 
hepatic veins are in opposite electric states. 
Secondly. During urinary secretion, the urine and venous hlood flowing from the 
renal vein are in opposite electric states. 
Thirdly. During mammary secretion, the milk and the venous hlood flowing from 
the mammary veins are in opposite electric states. And, 
Lastly. That when a circuit is formed between the mucous membrane of the lungs 
and blood {arterial) in the left ventricle of the heart, we obtain evidence of current 
force. 
