Produced by Sonya Schermann, Carol Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) AN ACCOUNT OF _THE LATE IMPROVEMENTS_ IN GALVANISM, WITH A SERIES OF CURIOUS AND INTERESTING _EXPERIMENTS_ PERFORMED BEFORE THE COMMISSIONERS OF THE FRENCH NATIONAL INSTITUTE, AND REPEATED LATELY IN THE ANATOMICAL THEATRES OF LONDON. BY JOHN ALDINI, PROFESSOR OF EXPERIMENTAL PHILOSOPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BOLOGNA, MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL AND GALVANIC SOCIETIES OF PARIS, OF THE MEDICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, ETC. TO WHICH IS ADDED, AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THE AUTHOR’S EXPERIMENTS ON THE BODY OF A MALEFACTOR EXECUTED AT NEWGATE. _&c. &c._ _ILLUSTRATED WITH ENGRAVINGS._ [Illustration: Medallions] _LONDON_: PRINTED FOR CUTHELL AND MARTIN, MIDDLE-ROW, HOLBORN, AND J. MURRAY, NO. 32, FLEET-STREET, BY WILKS AND TAYLOR, CHANCERY-LANE. 1803. EDITOR’S PREFACE. Few discoveries in modern times have excited so much curiosity as that of Galvanism. Ever since it was first made known by its celebrated Author, it has engaged the attention of the most eminent philosophers in Europe; and various researches have been undertaken to ascertain the principles on which it depends; and the laws to which it is subject. Though some of its singular properties are fully established, it must be allowed that the discovery is still in its infancy; but enough of it is known to prove its importance, and to induce philosophers to continue their researches, which there is every reason to suppose may lead to some very curious results. The experiments, indeed, which have already been made, seem to indicate that it may open a new field in the healing art; and it appears by a late report presented to the Class of the Exact Sciences of the Academy of Turin, that the medical application of it has been attended with the most beneficial effects in a case of confirmed hydrophobia. While Galvanism, independently of other advantages, holds out such hopes of utility in regard to objects so interesting to mankind; a work containing a full account of the late improvements which have been made in it, illustrated by a complete course of experiments, cannot fail of being acceptable to the public in general, and in particular to medical men, to whose department, in one point of view, it more essentially belongs.