[ 32 ] 
This derives from a particular fecret con- 
llitution, or from what, to make ufe of 
medical language, is termed idiofyncrafy. 
I have not been able to afcertain that 
fowls feel the fhocks excited in their wings, 
fey the means above-mentioned. Can 
this be attributed to the fmall fliare of fen- 
fibility poflefled by this fpecies of animal? 
Very often I have lacerated the flefh of 
their thighs, without their Ihewing any 
figns of pain, and they have begun to 
feed very quietly as foon as turned out. 
Notwithftanding, in fowls, the muf- 
cular force is very great. Is the irritabi¬ 
lity, or in other words, the vis infita of 
the mufcular fibre, in an inverfe ratio to 
its fenfibility ? 
After the communication between 
mufcle and mufcle, it was natural enough 
to imagine that between nerve and nerve. 
Profeffor Galvani had already obferved, 
that if one touched the coating of the 
fpine, 
