When we sleep, in consequence of the excitability being exhausted, the breathing becomes free, and a great quantity of oxygen is received by the lungs, and combined with the blood, while very little of it becomes exhausted by the actions of the body, for none, excepting those which are called involuntary motions, are carried on during sound sleep: so that in a few hours the body recovers the excitability which it had lost: it is again sensible of the impressions of external objects, and with the return of light we wake.
These facts afford satisfactory proofs that the excitability of the body is proportioned to the oxygen which it receives: but in what manner it produces this state of susceptibility, and how it is exhausted by stimulants, we have yet to learn.
The following theory may perhaps throw some light upon the subject. I propose it, however, merely as an hypothesis, for we have no direct proofs of it, but it seems to account for many phenomena.
It is now well known, that while the limb of an animal possesses excitability, the smallest quantity of electricity sent along the principal nerve leading to it, produces contractions similar to those produced by the will. This is instanced in the common galvanic experiment with the limb of a frog, which I had formerly occasion to show.
From the effects produced, when a stream of electricity is sent through water, I think it not improbable that hydrogen and electricity may be identical. When a piece of zinc and silver are connected together, and the zinc is put in a situation to decompose water, and oxidate, a current of hydrogen gas will separate from the silver wire, provided this be immersed under water; but when it is not, a current of electricity passes, which is sensible to the electrometer.
Now there appears no greater improbability in the supposition that hydrogen, in a certain state, may be capable of passing through metals, and animal substances, in the form of electricity, and that when it comes in contact with water, which is not so good a conductor, it may combine with caloric, and form hydrogen gas, in which state it becomes incapable of passing through the conductors of electricity: I say there appears no greater improbability in this, than that caloric should sometimes be in such a state, that it will pass through metals, and animal substances, which conduct it, and at other times, as when combined with oxygen or hydrogen, it should form gases, and be then incapable of passing through these conductors of heat. Galvanic effects may be produced by the oxidation of fresh muscular fibre without the aid of metals, and contractions have been thus produced in the limb of an animal; and we have already noticed, that when this contraction ceases, it may be restored, by moistening the limb with oxygenated muriatic acid.
The excitability of the body may, most probably, be conveyed by respiration, and the circulation of the blood, which tend continually to oxidate the different parts: and hydrogen or electricity may be secreted by the brain, and sent along the nerves, which are such good conductors of it, and by uniting with the oxygen of the muscle, may cause it to contract; but as the oxygen will, by this union, be diminished, if the contractions be often repeated, the excitability will thus be expended faster than it can be supplied by the circulation, and will become exhausted. But will facts bear us out in this explanation? To see this, we must examine the chemical nature of the substances which produce the greatest action, and the greatest exhaustion of the vital principle: namely, those which produce intoxication.
Fermented liquors differ from water, in containing carbon and more hydrogen: these produce intoxication: but pure spirits, which contain still more hydrogen, produce a still higher degree of intoxication, and consequent exhaustion of the excitability. Ether, which appears to be little more than condensed hydrogen, probably kept in a liquid state by union with a small quantity of carbon, and which easily expands by caloric into a gas, which very much resembles hydrogen gas, produces a still greater degree of intoxication: so that we see the action produced by different substances, as well as the exhaustion of excitability which follows, is proportioned to the quantity of hydrogen they contain.
There is another circumstance which seems to strengthen this idea. The intoxicating powers of spirits are diminished by the addition of vegetable acids, or substances which contain oxygen, which will counteract the effects of the hydrogen. Thus it is known that the same quantity of spirit, made into punch, will not produce either the same ebriety, or the same subsequent exhaustion, as when simply mixed with water.
Recollect however that I propose this only as a hypothesis: its truth may be confirmed by future observations and experiments, or it may be refuted by them: but it is certainly capable of explaining many of the phenomena, which is one of the conditions required by Newton's first rule of philosophizing.