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 — John Shaqi
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
If you hold in your hand, moistened with salt water, the muscles of a
prepared frog, and apply the crural nerves to the tip of your tongue,
you will immediately see violent contractions produced in the frog.
All suspicion of any stimulant exerting an action in this case, may be
removed by repeating the experiment with the frog held in the dry
hand: the muscular contractions will then cease, unless the action of
Galvanism in the frog, or in the animal machine, be uncommonly
powerful; in which case contractions may be produced without
establishing an arc from the nerves to the muscles.
EXPERIMENT II.
I held the muscles of a prepared frog in one of my hands, moistened by
salt water, and brought a finger of the other hand, well moistened,
near to the crural nerves. When the frog possessed a great deal of
vitality the crural nerves gradually approached my hand, and strong
contractions took place at the point of contact. This experiment
proves the existence of a very remarkable kind of attraction, observed
not only by myself, but also by those whom I requested to repeat the
experiment.
EXPERIMENT III.
The above experiment requires great precision in the preparation, and
a considerable degree of vital power in the frog. I have been informed
by Professor Fontana, in a letter lately received from him, that this
phænomenon depends on very delicate circumstances, which he proposes
to explain. He assures me, at the same time, that he has twice seen
the nerve attracted, in this manner, by the muscle. Being desirous to
render this phænomenon more evident, I formed the arc, by applying one
of my hands to the spinal marrow of a warm-blooded animal, while I
held a frog in the other, in such a manner that the crural nerves were
brought very near to the abdominal muscles. By this arrangement the
attraction of the nerves of the frog became very sensible. I performed
this experiment for the first time, at Oxford, before Sir Christopher
Pegge and Dr. Bancroft, and repeated it in the anatomical theatres of
St. Thomas’s and Guy’s hospitals.
EXPERIMENT IV.
I made the same observations on the body of a man as I had before made
on the head and trunk of an ox. Having obtained the body of an
executed criminal, I formed an arc from the spinal marrow to the
muscles, a prepared frog being placed between, and always obtained
strong contractions without the aid of the pile, and without the least
influence from metals. I obtained the same result, in a certain
degree, from the bodies of men who had died a natural death.
EXPERIMENT V.
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