On animal electricity : being an abstract of the discoveries of Emil Du Bois-Reymond / edited by H. Bence Jones.

Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On animal electricity : being an abstract of the discoveries of Emil Du Bois-Reymond / edited by H. Bence Jones. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    which he has coloured vividly and drawn most accurately. The following passage may be taken as an example in which the relation of Galvani and of Volta to the new discoveries in electricity is beautifully shown. “No one, who has read Galvani’s writings, can, without reverence, turn away from the simple picture of that man, whose restless yet blind labours and naive desire for knowledge were destined to bear such fruits. Every one will easily excuse his having wandered in that way which we shall soon see him take. The problem presented to him was an equation with two unknown quantities, one of which was the galvanism which Volta discovered, the other animal electricity, which latter, after half a century, now again appears claiming its proper place. “ Galvani really discovered not only the funda- mental physiological experiment of galvanism properly so called (the contraction of the frog when touched with dissimilar metals), but also that of the electricity inherent in the nerves and muscles. Both of these discoveries were, however, hidden in such a confusion of circum- B 2