When Professor Aldini left this country, the manuscript, written in French, together with two printed Latin Dissertations, was put into the Editor’s hands, in order that they might be prepared for the press. A translation of these forms the principal part of the work: and an Appendix has been added, containing the author’s experiments on the body of a malefactor executed at Newgate; experiments of a similar kind on the bodies of three criminals decapitated at Bologna; and an experiment lately made at Calais, which seems to show that Galvanism is susceptible of being conveyed to a very considerable distance through the water of the sea. The Editor thinks it necessary to observe, that the principal experiments, of which an account is given in this work, are illustrated by proper engravings, and that the title page is embellished with a representation of the gold medal presented to the Author, as a mark of their respect, by the medical professors and pupils of Guy’s and St. Thomas’s Hospitals. LONDON, _May 12th, 1803_. CONTENTS. PART I. PAGE OF THE NATURE AND GENERAL PROPERTIES OF GALVANISM. PROPOSITION I. _Muscular contractions are excited by the development of a fluid in the animal machine, which is conducted from the nerves to the muscles without the concurrence or action of metals_ 3 PROP. II. _The Galvanism excited, in the preceding experiments, is not owing to the communication nor to the transfusion of the general electricity, but to an electricity peculiar to animals, which acts a very distinguished part in the animal economy_ 6 PROP. III. _Galvanism develops itself in a powerful manner, independently of metals, by means of the human animal machine_ 8 PROP. IV. _Muscular contractions can be excited, under certain conditions, without establishing a continued arc from the nerves to the muscles_ 11 PROP. V. _The effects of Galvanism, in the preceding experiments, do not depend on the action of any stimulant, which occurs in performing the experiments, and ought not to be confounded with the effects of that action_ 12 PROP. VI. _Galvanism is excited in the animal machine without any intermediate body, and merely by the application of the nerves to the muscles_ 14 PROP. VII. _The heterogeneity of metals contributes, in a great degree, to excite muscular contractions with more facility, but is not absolutely necessary to their production_ 19 PROP. VIII. _The Leyden flask, the Voltaic pile, and animal substances, have the faculty of absorbing principles from the atmospheric air in an insulated plenum_ 21