424 
really the caufe of a higher price to their 
neighhours; but againft their only friends, 
againft the middle-men, who, had they 
been let alone, would have come in with 
their capitals, and, by making the price 
higher to the rich immediately after har- 
veft, would have made the price lower to 
the poor during the whole remainder of 
the year. 
MISORHETOR. 
Sa 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
HISTORICAL ACCOUNT of the ORIGIN 
and PROGRESS of the NEW and INTE- 
RESTING SCIENCE of GALVANISM, 
and of the PUBLICATIONS that have 
appeared on that important SUBJECT. 
(Continued from page 127, No. 84.) 
Experiments on the Nervous Syftem with 
Opium and Metalline Subftances, made 
chiefly with the View of determining the 
Nature and Efie&ts of Animal Ele&ricity, 
by Alex. Monro, 1793, 43 pages, ato. Lon- 
don, for Johnfon; and Edinburgh, for 
Bell and Bradfute, &c.—Experiments and 
Obfervations relative tothe Influence late- 
ly difcovered by Mr. Galvani, and com- 
monly called Animal Eletricity, by Ri- 
chard Fowler, 1793, 176 pages, 8vo. Edin- 
burgh and London —A. Monro’s und R. 
Fowler’s Abhandlungen uber Thierifche 
Eleétricitat und IhrenEinflufs auf das Ner- 
venfyftem, 1796, 180 pages, vo. Leipzig, 
for Weygand, (A German tranflation of 
the above treatifes). 
R. MONRO premifes in his publi- 
D cation fome obfervations on the 
circulating and nervous fyfiems in frogs, 
by which he chicfly intends to confirm an 
opinion, propofed by him feveral years 
before, that the nerves receive their ener- 
gy not wholly from the head and fpinal 
marrow, but that the texture of every 
nerve is fuch as to be able to furnihh it ; 
or, that the ftru€ture of every nerve 1s 
fimilar to that of the brain. He endea- 
vours, at the fame time, to fhew, that 
Fontana’s opinion is inadmiffible, accord- 
ing to which poifons operate by the 
changes they produce on the mafs of 
blood. He then proceeds to ftate his own 
Galvanic experiments, together with the 
faéts which feem to be proved by them. 
Although the nerve that makes part of 
a Galvanic circle has been cut tran{verfely, 
yet the mufcles in which it terminates are 
convulfed, if the divided parts of the 
-werve are brought in contact with each 
other. Jf the metals compofing parts of 
the circle remain fteadily in contaét with 
each other, the convulfons ceafe; but on 
Hiftorical Account of Galvanifin. 
7. 
} june i, 
their being feparated from each other and - 
again rejoined, the convulfions repeatedly 
enfue. The effeéts are the fame, though 
the dead parts of an animal or pure water 
make parts of the circle, and even though 
the dead animal parts are in contact with 
the mufcles. A mufcle may be convulfed, 
although it makes no immediate part of 
the Galvanic circle, but the convulfions 
are not excited unlefs the metals are in 
contact with each other, and unlefs both 
metals are alfo in contact with the animal 
fubitances, or with the water which makes 
part of the circle. On placing a plate of 
zinc between the upper-lip and the gums, 
and on applying a plate of gold to the 
upper or under part of the tongue, if the 
two metals are brought in contaét with each 
other, the perfon imagines that he fees a 
flath of lightning : bur, after performing 
this experiment repeatedly, the author 
conftantly felt a pain in the upper jaw, at 
the place to which the zinc had been ap- 
plied, which continued for an hour or 
more. In one experiment, after he had 
applied a blunt probe of zine to the /ep- 
tum narium, and repeatedly touched with 
it a crown-piece of filver applied to the 
tongue, and thereby produced the appear- 
ance of a flafh ; feveral drops of blood 
fell from that noftril, The author con-. 
cludes from his experiments, that the 
fluid, which, on the application of me- | 
talline bodies to animals, occafions cen--: 
vulfions of their mufcles, is ele€trical, or 
refembles greatly the electrical fluid: that 
it does not operate dire&tly on the mufcu- 
lar fibres, but merely through the medium 
of their nerves: that this fluid, and the ~ 
nervous fluid or energy, are not the fame, 
but differ effentially in their nature: that 
it ais merely ae a ftimulus to the nervous 
fluid or energy, and that the Galvanic ex- 
periments have only fhewn a new mode of 
exciting the nervous fluid or energy, 
without throwing any farther or direét 
light on the nature of this fluid or energy. 
The firf? fection of Dr. Fowler's publi- 
cation is devoted to the examination of 
the query :—‘* Are the phenomena, ex. 
hibited by the application of certain dif- 
ferent metals to animals, referable to elec- 
tricity ?? The mutual contact of two 
different metals with each other, i$} 7n° 
every cafe, neceflary to the effect. When 
metals are either calcined or combined 
with acids, they are no longer capable of 
exciting contraétion. In eftimatmg the 
comparative powers of different metals, as 
excitors, the author found zine by far the 
mott efficacious, efpecially when in contact 
with gold, filver, molybdena, flee}; or 
| copper. 
