Animal electricity

“ Here then we have a proof that animal electricity is not only subject to the laws of non-conducting bodies, but that it is affected different ways by the smallest obstacles of conducting bodies, and by different kinds of them. It is indeed so evident that a vacuum from its nature is unfit for conveying electricity, that, even if one be produced, not by the usual method, which is always attended with some defects, but in the most accurate manner possible, it is totally improper for being a conductor Pg 162 of the electric fluid. ”

“ It would be desirable to pursue these enquiries with the electricity of the Gymnotus, which is so much more powerful than that of the Torpedo; but if they are now to be reasoned upon, they seem to show a stronger analogy between common and animal electricity, than between Voltaic and animal electricity; it is however, I think, more probable that animal electricity will be found of a distinctive and peculiar kind. ”

“ There appears, however, to be little doubt that animal electricity is the real cause of this curious phenomenon, and that the force which is expended in the torpedo and electric eel, in giving shocks accompanied by slight electric sparks, may develop itself in these insects by producing a continuous light. ”

“ Pg 184
4. Poisons, mephitic air, aëriform fluids, and condensed air, do not prevent animal electricity from being excited.
5. The influence of a vacuum on animal electricity is various. In dead animals, if kept a long time in vacuo, the animal electricity is weakened: in living animals it is considerably increased. ”

“ The idea generally entertained, that all the contractions ascribed to animal electricity were to be ascribed only to external electricity, proceeding from the armatures, and not to any electric virtue in the animals, seemed to be strengthened. ”

“ Perhaps the crudest and most evident illustration of the production of electricity by animal metabolism is exhibited in the electric fishes: the torpedo, the Gymnotus (electric eel) , the Malapterurus (electric catfish) , the skate and others. In these forms, it is true, we find a special electric apparatus, consisting of some hundreds of columns made up of millions of superimposed plates or discs, arranged transversely to the length of the columns and separated from one another by an albuminous liquid, thus resembling a voltaic pile. ”

“ A conductor terminating in a Pg 160 ball seemed therefore to be most convenient for my purpose, that, by rendering it more difficult for the electricity to bring itself to an equilibrium, I might be able to produce a greater imitation of the intimate manner in which animal electricity adheres to the animals. But though in the above experiments I ascribe some part of the phænomena to the animal electricity being weakened in vacuo, I am of opinion that more is to be ascribed to the violent perturbation of the principles which the vacuum must have excited in the muscular and nervous parts. ”

“ Voltaic electricity is excited upon combinations of perfect and imperfect conductors, and is only transmitted by perfect conductors, or imperfect conductors of the best kind.
"Magnetism, if it be a form of electricity, belongs only to perfect conductors; and, in its modifications, to a peculiar class of them.
"The animal electricity resides only in the imperfect conductors forming the organs of living animals, and its object in the economy of nature is to act on living animals. ”

“ In speaking of the discovery of radium by Madame Curie, Professor Virchow said that he had often felt that our investigators had not taken sufficient notice of the force of animal electricity. The few experiments already made in applying to machinery electricity generated by the human body has opened up a field for observant scientists.
In many ways both birds and beasts contribute to the welfare of humanity, and the observing thinker will still find many more ways in which he can aid us. ”

“ Lehot’s contributions to the science of animal electricity are too numerous to be given here. Noad summarizes them in the translation from pp. 17, 18 of C. Matteucci’s “Traité des phénomènes ...” Paris, 1844.
He ascertained that in a recently killed animal contractions are excited by the electric current in whatever direction it may be applied, but, when the vitality of the animal has become diminished, if the current is sent in the direction of the ramifications of the nerves, contractions are produced only at the commencement of the current ”

“ If only one of the armatures be touched, no contractions take Pg 146 place; but if the arc be applied to both, they are immediately produced; which is a strong proof that the arc possesses the power of exciting the electricity inherent in animal bodies. Those philosophers would reason very incongruously who should ascribe the cause of these contractions to electricity communicated from the person, since they would thus allow to the person that animal electricity which they deny to the frog ”

“ That some kind of disagreeable sensation is occasioned by it, even in frogs, independent of that which must necessarily arise from irritation, and the contractions of their muscles, is evident from their restlessness, and expressions of uneasiness. In other animals, as I shall afterwards have occasion to shew, these expressions are still less equivocal: and, in man, we can ascertain both their degree and their kind. That they differ considerably from such as are 52 produced by electricity, will be proved when I come to speak of the effects of this influence upon our senses. ”

“ Taking off the head of an animal, or intercepting, in any way, the influence of its will upon the muscles of the part excited, has precisely the same effect. But the will is not able to controul the effects of electricity, when the electricity is otherwise sufficiently strong to excite muscles to contraction. I have repeatedly found that even by the strongest voluntary contractions of the muscles of my arm, I have not been able altogether to counteract the involuntary ones, produced by electrical sparks, nor have I found that frogs could ever counteract them. ”

“ Animals are dependent on several external agents for the support of existence. The oxygen of the air is necessary for respiration. Animal heat, as will be shown presently, is in a great measure dependent upon it. The external heat is so regulated that animal existence is comfortably supported. Electricity is without doubt an essential element in the living processes; and, indeed, many physiologists have been inclined to refer vital force to the development of electricity by chemical action in the brain. ”

“ This fish possesses a strong electrical power, and is capable of giving a very considerable shock through a number of persons forming a communication with it. This power was known to the ancients, but exaggerated by them with all the fables natural to ignorance; and it is only recently that the power has been ascertained to be truly electric. It is conducted by the same substances as electricity, and intercepted by the same. In a minute and a half, no fewer than fifty shocks have been received from this animal, when insulated. ”

“ These fishes then have the capacity to send out force-currents which produce in other animals and in man 'concussion of the limbs', or in extreme cases paralysis and even death. Through describing the process in this way we realize that electricity appears here as metamorphosed animal will, which takes this peculiar form because part of the animal's volitional system is assimilated to its sensory system in an exceptional manner. ”

“ And indeed I am not sure, if, in examining the newly discovered influence, by such a test, a sufficient quantity of electricity might 49 not be produced merely by the motion of the animals, subjected to the experiment, to occasion some fallacy in the result. Certain, however, it is, that although this influence did not affect the electrometer in these experiments, it produces infinitely stronger effects upon an animal, than any which can be produced by a quantity of electricity sufficient to affect an electrometer to a very high degree. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The agency of these creatures has been identified with electricity in the most general sense. The peculiar energy of the animal has been made to produce the effects which are produced by an electrical discharge or a voltaic current:—not only to destroy life in small animals, but to 611 deflect a magnet, to make a magnet, to decompose water, and to produce a spark. ”

“ But if this phænomenon takes place in conducting bodies the parts of which are homogeneous, there is no reason to deny that it may appear in animals in which provident nature has so intermixed conducting with non-conducting parts, in order that the action of animal electricity might not be short and transient, but constant and durable. ”

“ He had connected the phenomenon with a theory of his own: that electricity—that is, common friction electricity, the only mode of electrical action then known—was the medium of all nervous action; and this had led him into a protracted investigation of the subject, during which he had varied the original experiment in a thousand ways, and he had now suspended the frog's legs to the iron balcony, in order to discover if atmospheric electricity would have any effect on the muscles of the animal. ”

“ If held firmly by the tail, and pressed both above and below by a platinum rod to gather the true electricity, the animal contracts itself violently; but its movements are not always accompanied by electrical discharges, which demonstrate that the jets of electrical matter are not the result simply of the muscular contractions, but that they are subject to the will of the animal, and evidently given for resisting its enemies, and benumbing its prey. ”

“ No nutritive change, even in a single cell, can take place without a disturbance of electric equilibrium and the development of an electric current, be it ever so diminutive. Nerve force, electricity and "vital force" are identical in so far as they are all manifestations of electromagnetic energy. Every histological unit in an animal body is a diminutive battery in which such energy is evolved. ”

“ They found, by means of a wire insulated on baked wood, that the electric shock was transmitted instantaneously through the length of 12,276 feet.
Electricity transmitted in large quantities through living vegetables, destroys their vegetable life.
When transmitted, in the same form, through animals, it generally puts an end to animal life; though it is said that there are individuals who are not affected by it. Possibly the reason why some persons are not killed by very large electric shocks is, that their muscular system, or bodily organization, has something peculiar which protects them. ”

“ There can be no doubt that a peculiar susceptibility to excitement exists in some systems, and this is very strikingly shown in the disturbances produced by electric action; but in the experiments which have been brought forward we have only the evidence that a certain number of muscular contractions are exhibited in one animal by a current of electricity, giving a measured effect by the voltameter, which are different from those produced upon another by a current of the same power. ”

“ As little are we authorised to suppose, that the contractions were produced in consequence of the metals attracting the electrical fluid from the leg: for, since the leg was insulated, it is impossible that it should have received a new supply of electricity, after having been deprived by the metals of what it naturally possessed ”

“ The torrid zone produces more passionate characters, a heated atmosphere stimulation. Likewise with electricity. This is the reason why the presence of cats exercises such a magic influence upon highly-organized men of intellect. This is why these long-tailed Graces of the animal kingdom, these adorable, scintillating electric batteries have been the favorite animal of a Mahommed, Cardinal Richelieu, Crebillon, Rousseau, Wieland.”
“A woman wearing furs, then,” cried Wanda, “is nothing else than a large cat, an augmented electric battery?” ”

“ Another experiment showed that, like heat, electricity modifies oxygen as a supporter of animal life. Dr. Richardson placed three full-grown mice in jars, each containing a hundred cubic inches of pure oxygen gas. One of these animals was placed now in a temperature of 45° Fah.; another in a temperature of 75°; the third was placed in the same temperature as the first, but with this difference, that into the jar containing the animal there was introduced a pointed copper wire connected with the positive conductor of a frictional electric machine. ”

“ He remarks that there is no part of any animal with which he is acquainted, however strong and constant its natural action, which has so great a proportion of nerves; and he concludes that, if it be probable these nerves are not necessary for the purposes of sensation or action, they are subservient to the formation, collection or management of the electric fluid. ”