Another of Aldini’s curious experiments was the production of very powerful muscular contractions upon the heads of oxen and other animals recently decapitated, by introducing into one of the ears a wire connecting with one of the battery poles and into the nostrils or tongue a wire communicating with the other pole. Thus were the eyes made repeatedly to open and roll in their orbits while the ears would shake, the tongue move and the nostrils dilate very perceptibly (De la Rive, “A Treatise on Electricity,” 1856, Vol. II. p. 489, and 1858, Vol. III. p. 588; Pepper, “Voltaic Electricity,” 1869, pp. 287, 288). In the experiments which Aldini made during 1804 upon corpses, the body became violently agitated and even raised itself as if about to walk, the arms alternately rose and fell and the forearm was made to hold a weight of several pounds, while the fists clenched and beat violently the table upon which the body lay. Natural respiration was also artificially re-established and, through pressure exerted against the ribs, a lighted candle placed before the mouth was several times extinguished.
For the experiments of the eminent French physiologist and anatomist Marie François Xavier Bichat, of Vassalli-Eandi, Giulio, Rossi, Nysten, Hallé, Mezzini, Klein, Bonnet, Pajot-Laforest, Dudoyon, Berlinghieri, Fontana, Petit-Radel, Alizeau, Lamartillière, Guillotin, Nauche and others upon animals and men recently decapitated, see Bichat’s “Recherches Physiologiques sur la vie et la mort,” Paris, 1805; Francesco Rossi’s “Rapport des expériences,” etc., Turin, 1803; P. H. Nysten’s “Nouvelles Expériences Galvaniques,” etc., Paris, 1811, and also the latter’s “Expériences faites ... le 14 Brumaire, An. XI.” (Consult likewise, J. R. P. Bardenot, “Les Recherches ... refutées,” Paris, 1824, and, for an account of Bichat consult F. R. Buisson, “Précis historique ...” Paris, 1802; Larousse, Vol. II. pp. 703, 704; “Biog. Univ.,” Vol. XI. pp. 2–19.)
In Aldini’s “Account of Galvanism,” printed for Cuthell and Martin, London, 1803, it is said (p. 218) that, on the 27th of February 1803, he transmitted current through a battery of eighty silver and zinc plates from the West Mole of Calais harbour to Fort Rouge, by means of a wire supported on the masts of boats, and made it return through two hundred feet of intervening water.
References.—J. B. Van Mons’ treatise on animal electricity in Tome III of the sixth year of the “Magasin Encyclopédique”; Fowler, in “Bibl. Britannica,” May 1796; Giulio e Rossi (“Gior. Fis. Med. di Brugnatelli,” 1793, Vol. I. p. 82); P. Sue, ainé, “Hist. du Galvanisme,” Paris, An. X, 1802, Vol. I. pp. 31, 67, 73; Vol. II. p. 268; Brugnatelli, Annali di Chimica, Vols. XIII. p. 135; XIV. p. 174; XIX. pp. 29, 158; “Opuscoli Scelti,” Vols. XVII. p. 231; XIX. p. 217; XX. p. 73; XXI. p. 412; “Mem. Soc. Ital.,” Vol. XIV. p. 239; Poggendorff, Vol. I. p. 27; “Bibl. Britan.,” Vol. XXII. 1803, pp. 249–266; “Galvanische und elektrische ... Körpern,” 4to, Frankfort, 1804; “Bull. des Sc. de la Soc. Philom.,” No. 68; J. C. Carpue, “Bibl. Britannica,” Nos. 207, 208, p. 373; Phil. Mag., Vols. XIV. pp. 88, 191, 288, 364; XV. pp. 40, 93; Cassius Larcher, M. Daubancourt et M. Zanetti, ainé (Ann. de Chimie, Vol. XLV. p. 195); also Larcher, Daubancourt et M. de Saintiot (Précis succinct, etc., Paris, 1803); W. Sturgeon, “Scientific Researches,” Bury, 1850, p. 194; M. Kilian, “Versuche über restitution ...” Giessen, 1857; Gilbert, IV. 246; J. Tourdes (“Décade Philos.” No. 3, An. X. p. 118); Francesco Rossi (“Bibl. Ital.,” Vol. I. p. 106; Phil. Mag., Vol. XVIII. p. 131; and in the “Mémoires de Turin”); J. J. Sue, “Recherches Physiol.,” etc., 1803, p. 77; Vassalli-Eandi (“Expériences sur les décapités ...” Turin, 1802 and “Recueil ... de Sédillot,” Vol. II. p. 266); C. H. Wilkinson, “Elements of Galvanism,” etc., London, 1804, 2 Vols. passim; Report of MM. Chappe, Robillard and Silvestre (“Bull. des Sciences de la Soc. Philom.,” No. 21 for March 1793; also Jour. de Phys., Vol. XLII. p. 289); M. Payssé (“Jour. de la Soc. de Pharm.,” first year, p. 100); Dr. Crichton (“Rec. Périod. de Litt. Méd. Etrangère,” Tome II. p. 342); J. Louis Gauthier, “Dissertatio,” etc., Hales, 1793 (“Com. de Leipzig,” Tome XXXVI. p. 473); Gardiner’s “Observ. on the animal œconomy”; Humboldt (“Soc. Philom.,” Vol. I. p. 92); Alex. Monro’s “Experiments,” etc., Edin., 1793, 1794 (“Trans. Edin. Roy. Soc.,” Vol. III); Felice Fontana, “Lettere ...” 1793; Joseph Izarn, “Manuel du Galvanisme,” Paris, An. XII, 1804, pp. 97, 138, 141, 160, 163, 285; Louis Figuier, “Exposition et Histoire,” Vol. IV. pp. 307–308, 358, 360–363, 365, 366, 370, 371.
A.D. 1793.—Fowler (Richard), a very ingenious physician, of Salisbury, makes known in Edinburgh his “Experiments and Observations relative to the influence lately discovered by Galvani and commonly called Animal Electricity,” of which a very complete review is made by Dr. G. Gregory at pp. 374–381, Vol. I of his “Economy of Nature,” etc., third edition, published in London during the year 1804.
Dr. Fowler observed that the contractions in a frog are excited by making the metals touch under water even at the distance of an inch from the divided spine of the animal. He succeeded in causing the heart to contract, but could not produce the same effect upon the stomach and intestines. He also found, as did Prof. John Robison, of Edinburgh, at the same period, that the senses of touch and smell are unaffected by the metals, but that when these are applied to the eye, or, what is better, when they are thrust up between the teeth and the lips, and then made to touch, a flash of light is rendered visible. This is the case also when the metals are placed between the gums and the upper and lower lips, as proven by the experiments of Dr. Rutherford and of Mr. George Hunter, of York. Fowler likewise observed that all pure metals prove excellent conductors of the galvanic influence and that living vegetables afford it a ready passage, but that stones and oils seem to be possessed of no conducting power whatsoever.
In conjunction with Mr. Alexander Munro, Fowler published a work on animal electricity (translated into German under the title of “Abhandlung ueber thierische elekt.” etc.), while, in the “Bibliotheca Britannica” for May 1796, mention will be found of the observations of Dr. Fowler respecting the muscular irritability excited by electricity, as well as on the reproduction of the nervous substance, on the action of poisons, on the phenomena of muscular contraction, etc. etc.
References.—“Essays and Observations,” etc., Edinburgh, 1793, in Library of the Royal Institution; Gilbert Blane’s paper read to the English Royal Society, of which an extract can be found in Bacher’s “Medical Journal,” Vol. XC. p. 127; Figuier, “Exp. et Hist. des Princip. Déc.,” Vol. IV. p. 309; C. H. Wilkinson, “Elements of Galvanism,” London, 1804, Chap. VI. et passim; eighth “Encyc. Brit.,” Vol. XXI. p. 634.
A.D. 1793.—Dalton (John), LL.D., F.R.S. (1766–1844), a very able English natural philosopher and the illustrious author of the “Atomic Theory of Chemistry and of the Constitution of Mixed Gases,” gives in his earliest separate publication, “Meteorological Observations and Essays,” the result of many experiments upon the electricity of the atmosphere, made by him at Kendal and at Keswick during the seven years ending May 1793.
He proved, as Sir David Brewster expresses it, that the aurora exercises an irregular action on the magnetic needle, that the luminous beams of the aurora borealis are parallel to the dipping needle; that the rainbow-like arches cross the magnetic meridian at right angles; that the broad arch of the horizontal light is bisected by the magnetic meridian; and that the boundary of a limited aurora is half the circumference of a great circle crossing the magnetic meridian at right angles, the beams perpendicular to the horizon being only those on the magnetic meridian.