THE BORDERLAND OE CHEMISTRY AND ELECTRICITY. 
213 
motion in the needle, and that motion is the resultant of the force called 
electricity. I cannot show the experiment in so large a room with my 
apparatus, as the galvanometer is not large enough for everyone to 
see. But with the galvanometer I have it is possible with the heat of 
the hand only to produce a sufficient current to cause the needle to 
rotate. 
Now if chemical action produced by organic or inorganic mixtures 
gives electricity, then the chemical action constantly taking place in 
our bodies must produce the same force, namely electricity, which can 
be seen and tested in that fish known as the Electric Eel. How or in 
what way this animal is able to store a force so that at will it can, when 
disturbed, give a considerable shock to any person touching it, is not 
I believe, very well understood. But there is the practical demon¬ 
stration. 
Chemical action produces heat in our bodies, most undoubted¬ 
ly by the process of digestion of food, for without that food, 
life, as we know it, ceases to exist for want of proper nutrition of 
the body—then the body, with its various bones, muscles, nerves, is 
fairly well represented by the steam-engine. The combustion of fuel 
necessary to produce the heat for raising the temperature of the water 
so that steam at certain pressures shall be given off, and so act on 
valves arranged to produce power, which we can see at any time on 
examining a locomotive which produces inorganic motion similar 
to the organic motion of animals. The stomach of the animal 
represents the furnace, the blood circulating represents the steam 
and water in tubular boilers, and the various limbs and motions 
of the body the motions of the driving-wheels of the engine. As the 
digestive organs are more or less impaired they do not receive the re¬ 
sults of a proper chemical action or combustion, although there is 
no visible heat, still we know it is there by testing the heat produced 
in the body by means of thermometers, this combustion due to silent 
digestive action more or less complete causes robust or feeble health. 
Doctors may possibly be able, if in time, to induce a proper 
heat-giving action; of course the action is complicated, but the fun¬ 
damental principle is the same. A new start, by means of drugs, 
change of diet, and even change of air, may be induced, but it all 
means the same thing. Drugs—chemical action ; proper diet—chem¬ 
ical action; change of air—chemical action; for change of air means 
a purer atmosphere and a quickened oxidation of the blood produced 
through the medium of the lungs by respiration. This chemical 
action in the body must produce electricity, for it is well known and 
well proved that chemical action is always co-existent with electrical 
action. 
There is a pamphlet written by a French scientist who described 
his experiments connected with animal electricity. I have seen it 
quoted, and I believe if my recollection of this matter is correct, that 
the experiments took the form of measuring the electric current pro¬ 
duced by the motion of muscles, such as fingers, arms, legs. I am 
