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 LondonAldini, Giovanni
Science
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
Aldini, Giovanni
Electricity -- Early works to 1850
Being desirous to examine, according to the principles of Galvani, the
power of an arc of animal moisture in warm-blooded animals, I
recollected that I had several times observed simultaneous convulsions
produced by these means in two frogs, and recently in the heads of two
oxen, the arc being conveyed from the one to the other in different
ways.
I placed the two heads in a straight line on a table, in such a manner
that the sections of the neck were brought into communication merely
by the animal fluids. When thus arranged, I formed an arc from the
pile to the right ear of one head, and to the left ear of the other,
and saw with astonishment the two heads make horrid grimaces; so that
the spectators, who had no suspicion of such a result, were actually
frightened. It was however observed, that the convulsions excited in
the heads disposed in this manner, were not so strong as those
produced when I performed the experiment on each head separately. It
is certain that, in this experiment, the arc of animal moisture
supplies the place of a continuation of the nervous and muscular
fibres.
EXPERIMENT XXVIII.
Having tried the effect of Galvanism on the exterior part of the head,
I proceeded to examine the phænomena exhibited by the interior organs
when treated in the same manner. I therefore removed the upper part of
the cranium by a section parallel to its base, uncovered the pia
mater, and established an arc from one of the ears to the medullary
substance. On the application of the arc strong convulsions were
observed in the face. While preparing the brain for my experiments, I
remarked that, in dividing the muscles of the forehead, at each stroke
of the dissecting knife, very strong contractions, which continued
after the dissection was finished, were excited in the muscles of the
face. I was informed that this is an uncommon phænomenon in anatomical
dissections; and therefore I shall leave it to anatomists to determine
whether it was occasioned, either in whole or in part, by the
preceding action of the pile.
EXPERIMENT XXIX.
Having then separated the lobes of the brain, I applied the arc to the
corpus callosum, to the ears or to the lips, and found that the whole
osseous box and the muscles of the face were violently agitated. Some
of the spectators even imagined that the corpus callosum itself was
affected by a peculiar convulsion; but it is possible that this
emotion was owing to a mechanical impulse which shook the whole head.
New experiments will, therefore, be necessary before any thing further
can be said in regard to this observation.
EXPERIMENT XXX.
Having carried the dissection to the olfactory nerves, and even to the
crossing of the optic nerves, I formed an arc from these parts to the
lips and the eyes, and obtained contractions, but very weak in
comparison of the preceding. I observed that on touching the optic
nerves with one of the arcs no sensible convulsions were produced in
the eye-lids.
EXPERIMENT XXXI.
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