EXPERIMENT IV.
I think it proper here to mention a very curious observation which I made lately at Paris, in company with professor Huzzard, and in the presence of the Commissioners of the National Institute. On applying the spinal marrow of a prepared frog to the cervical muscles of a horse’s head, separated from the body, no muscular convulsions took place; but if, at the same time, another person touched with his hand,
moistened by a solution of muriate of soda, the spinal marrow of the horse, convulsions were always produced in the frog, though there was no communication between the persons, except that formed by a floor on which they stood.
PROPOSITION 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.
EXPERIMENT I.
Having placed the trunk of a calf ([Plate I.] fig. 2.) on an insulated table, I made a longitudinal incision in the breast, in order to obtain a long series of muscles uncovered. I then arranged two insulated persons in such a manner that the one with a finger, moistened by salt water, touched the spinal marrow of the calf, while the other applied the spinal marrow of a frog to the muscles of the trunk. Every time this arc was formed, muscular contractions were produced in the frog. When the two persons let go each other’s hands, the contractions ceased. I repeated this experiment, with the same success, on the insulated head of an ox, conveying the arc from the spinal marrow of the frog to the tongue. Frogs were as violently affected when the experiment was made with the insulated trunks of different kinds of birds.
This experiment, in my opinion, affords a decisive proof that the Galvanic fluid is peculiar to the animal machine, independently of the influence of metals, or of any other
foreign cause. In these experiments, indeed, we have some animal machines, so combined that the result is strong contractions in the frog. All the bodies were insulated; and, therefore, it cannot be supposed that the contractions were occasioned by the direct influence of that general principle, which pervades every body in nature. Hence it is evident, whether it be ascribed to the action of the animal chain, formed by the arms of the persons, or to the animal pile, formed by the trunk of the calf, that we shall still be obliged to acknowledge the action of a principle which belongs to the organization of the animal machine, without having any dependence on metals.