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
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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
The cortical substance in the left hemisphere was uncovered, and an
arc being extended from it to the right ear, the movements of the face
were exceedingly sensible in the part opposite to the uncovered
hemisphere. I repeated the experiment different ways with the same
results, and found, as I suspected, that this process put an end to
the anomaly observed in regard to the membranes and cortical
substance, which at first seemed to withstand the general action of
the Galvanic fluid, though it produced an effect on the other parts of
the brain. Dr. Mondini took care to remove the superfluous moisture,
both from the membranes and cortical substance, in order to prevent
all suspicion that it might facilitate a communication, in any manner,
with the medullary substance.
EXPERIMENT XLVI.
Dr. Mondini, with his usual ability, having exposed in the brain the
medullary substance, the corpora striata, the corpus callosum, the
thalami nervorum opticorum, and the cerebellum, and an arc being
formed of all these parts, we fully confirmed the results of the
experiments which had been before made on the bodies of other
criminals.
EXPERIMENT XLVII.
Having observed these phænomena in the head, we proceeded to the
trunk, which gave us results no less interesting. The body was sound
and robust, and indicated a constitution replete with vital energy. By
forming an arc from the spinal marrow to the biceps muscle, very
strong movements were produced throughout the whole body, and
particularly in the arm, which could not be bent without very great
exertion.
EXPERIMENT XLVIII.
By again applying the arc, according to the method detailed in the
41st experiment, the violence of the contractions was much increased.
The trunk was thrown into strong convulsions; the shoulders were
elevated in a sensible manner; and the hands were so agitated that
they beat against the table which supported the body.
EXPERIMENT XLIX.
A silver probe was inserted into the spinal marrow, and one of the
hands immersed in a solution of muriate of soda. I then applied one
extremity of the arc to the most distant part of the probe, and the
other to the surface of the water, by which means the Galvanism was
made to exercise its action without any immediate contact of the
animal parts. When this arrangement was formed, the arm, which hung
over the edge of the table, moved towards the breast, passing over the
space of about a foot and a half. By employing, at the same time, the
two piles composed of a hundred plates of copper and zinc, the
contractions were much increased. But this augmentation of force did
not exactly follow the ratio of the combined activity of the two piles
united.
EXPERIMENT L.
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