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.