XXXVl 
RRPORT—1847. 
xnents of previous discoveries, whicli tlie past year has seen, is, pcriiaps, that 
connected with the labours of the distinguished Tuscan philosopher, Mat- 
teucci; who on several former occasions has co-operated with this Associa¬ 
tion in the sections devoted to the advancement ol' the physical and physio¬ 
logical sciences. I refer in this instance to his experiments on the genera* 
tion of electric currents by muscular contraction in the living body. This 
subject he has continued to pursue; and, by the happy combination of the 
rigorous methods of physical experiment with the ordinary course of phy¬ 
siological research, Prof. Matteucci has fully established the important fact 
of the existence of^an electrical current—feeble, indeed, and such as could 
only be made manifest by his own delicate galvanoscojje—between the deep 
and the superficial parts of a muscle. .Such electric currents pervade every 
muscle in every species of animal which has hetn the subject of esperi- 
ment; and may, tlierefbre, be inferred to be a general phnjnomenon of ani¬ 
mat hte. Kveii after life has been extinguished by violence, these currents 
continue tor a short time; but they cease more speedily in the muscles of 
the warm-blooded than in those of the cold-blooded animals. 'I’he Asso- 
cmtion will find his own exposition of the physiological action of the electric 
Hants'” iS'/r Le9ons sur lea Phenon.ones Physiques des Corps Vi- 
mnde bvthose 
piovTni tl at University upon the- <7yamot.M cleclriUin 
cilS ir t J communicated by those fishes are due to electric 
diate and^Dowerfiil electric organs, which owe their most imme- 
orShL tKm S ‘he action oftlie nerves. In both these species 
batterieL-beSrh their peculiar organised 
renders the needle matiiietic'Tb-cn'^'^on living animals,— 
spark, and, in short e^crciso® ®h^**tiical compmmds, emits the 
electricity develoiied* in inortrnn^ other known ]>owcrs of the ordinary 
lahoratoo- ^ ^organic matter or by the artificial apparatus of the 
Etherization, a kindred subject_one m u t; k i i ■ 
ance is now attached_mi« "h>oh ilcep and just import- 
teucci’s investigations. ^ wnhtly follow the mention of Prof. Mat- 
■a ‘l'scoyery'’orthe 
nmn pain has been exiiericnccd .. value ot which in diminishing 
jcase, and e.spccially during the nerw''!^’^* ances, in every variety of 
operations. Seveml experiments f ° 
respectively to the funciions of sensaiioi/and '"’r appropriated 
and repcfttfd in connexion with ihi« « volition have been resumed 
Messrs. Flourcns and Longet have show»'^fi^^*^”i^'^ **'* '*‘0 nervous system, 
first affected, and are complttelv thoucrll / sensational functions arc 
operation of the vapour of ether •’tlim. ?h suspended under the 
finally, the motor Ld exeUo nmto ^ ^"'•‘^hral powers; and. 
Hat the Btunuliis of other applied so W I It ivould seem 
inal r' <l«ngLr-ind S as to produce 
unable to rally aud recover ffoni it but^Lr are sometimes 
extend no further than to the LLsil nf «« «”°«ed to 
g ncral rule, complete. It this recovery is, as a 
who** applic.'iiion with sucli success P*'*’Porty of ether «hich has led 
-K m His Providence, has 
atnt physicians and surgeons 
hu 
disease. 
