Galvanism

“ It is, no doubt, an interesting and valuable bit of information for the physicist that galvanism was named after its first discoverer; the fact is one of which no student, no well-informed man even, should be ignorant; but one may use the word galvanism as well for all practical purposes without ever having heard of Galvani; and thousands do it every day. ”

“ Galvanism is the principle of life. There is no other vital force than the galvanic polarity. The heterogeneity of the three terrestrial elements in a circumscribed individual body is the vital force. The galvanic process is one with the vital process.
885. Organism is galvanism residing in a thoroughly homogeneous mass. The galvanic column is no organism, because it only admits the galvanic process just as the planet does, in individual places. A body only, which is zinc-pole, silver-pole and moist pulp at every conceivable point, is an organism. ”

“ Galvanism tamed into an alphabet—a Gamut, and its metal harp-strings stretched across the earth malgre'' mountains and the sea, and so men's minds defying the twin monsters Time and Space; and now, gold revealed in the East and West at once, and so mankind now first in earnest peopling the enormous globe. ”

“ The agency of galvanism explains why porter has a different and more pleasant taste when drunk out of a pewter-pot than out of glass or earthenware; why works of metal which are soldered together soon tarnish in the place where the metals are joined; and why the copper sheathing of ships, when fastened with iron nails, is soon corroded about the place of contact. ”

“ And hence I define galvanism as the electric fire, or grand agent, only partially separated from its combinations; by which I refer principally to oxygen and hydrogen.’ After illustrating this principle, by referring to the circumstances in which the chemical agency of galvanism appears more conspicuous than that of electricity, he adds, ‘thus we perceive, that when the grand agent of nature is more perfectly separated from its combinations it is ELECTRICITY ”

“ The sketch of the history of galvanism is divided into three periods. The first treats of the discoveries attaching to muscular contraction, and alludes to the observations of Sulzer, Galvani, Fabbroni, Humboldt, Pfaff, Fontana, Valli, Monro, Vassalli-Eandi, Fowler, Smuck, Marsigli, Grapengieser, Giulio, Rossi, Aldini and Wells. ”

“ Brown-Séquard galvanized the entire bodies of animals immediately after death. Galvanism can not operate in any of the modes in which the stroke of lightning may have operated, except the single one of producing muscular convulsions. If, therefore, after the bodies have been galvanized, the duration of rigidity is much shortened and putrefaction much accelerated, it is reasonable to ascribe the same effects when produced by lightning to the property which galvanism shares with lightning, and not to those which it does not. ”

“ Galvanic experiments do not succeed so well in a room crowded with persons, as when only two or three individuals are present.
8. Galvanic contractions are more powerful the instant the animal is deprived of life, than some time after; and therefore more violent agitations can be produced in the living animal.
9. Volta concluded that Galvanism was generated by the metal, and not by the animal upon which he operated. ”

“ Professor Volta, in a letter which he addressed to me, in Brugnatelli’s Journal, observed, “that various parts of animals can excite Galvanism, independently of metals.” Galvani, a short time before his death, proposed two ingenious methods of obtaining this result, and gave me a description of them. This, however, has not been able to destroy the incredulity of some philosophers, who hitherto have confounded Galvanism with metallic electricity, under an idea that all contractions proceed from irritation, produced by the action of metals. ”

“ On this occasion a man of great research in natural philosophy was with us, and, excited by this catastrophe, he entered on the explanation of a theory which he had formed on the subject of electricity and galvanism, which was at once new and astonishing to me. ”

“ GALVANISM OUTDONE.
We have heard of the very dead being endowed, by galvanic action, with the temporary powers of life, and on such occasions the extreme force of the apparatus has ever received the highest praise. The Syncretic march of mind rectifies the above error—with them, weakness is strength. Fancy the alliterative littleness of a “Stephens” and a “Selby,” as the tools from which the drama must receive its glorious resuscitation! ”

“ It may be laid down as a principle, that, in all cases where animation is suspended, and the principle of irritability not destroyed, the stimulus of Galvanism and electricity, if prudently employed, may rouse the dormant energies of vitality, and restore the system to its natural state of activity. ”

“ The individual, taken in a strong sense, is an entire planet taken up into Singulars, a triplicity of the elements in the particular or special unity. In galvanism there consequently issues forth for the first time an individual, which is equivalent to a cosmic totality. Galvanism is the metatype of the planet. All other and profounder processes are not total in character, nor metatypes of a whole system, but only moieties thereof. ”

“ The phænomenon of the extrusion of the fæcal matters from the trunk of an ox, by means of Galvanism, was Pg 124 observed also by Professor Mojon of Genoa, and his brother, to take place in human bodies. Considering the animal fluids separately, I have found that very great variations are produced in them by Galvanism. But before I give an account of the experiments which I made on this subject, I shall describe the apparatus I employed.
The animal fluid destined to be exposed to the action of Galvanism is put into a glass vessel (Plate III. fig. 6.) ”

“ In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries many great discoveries were made in science, and many names of discoverers and inventors have been preserved in scientific words. Galvanism, one branch of electricity, took its name from Luigi Galvani, an Italian professor, who made great discoveries about electricity in the bodies of animals. Every one has heard of a galvanic battery, but not everybody knows how it got its name. ”

“ A.D. 1803.—Basse (Frédéric Henri) , of Hamel, makes one of the earliest trials of the transmission of galvanism through water and soil, the results of which appear in his work, “Galvanische Versuche,” etc., published at Leipzig the year following. ”

“ A Description of the Galvanic Trough and Pile. Professor Volta’s first contrivance for manifesting Galvanism in a more vigorous manner than had hitherto been done, was what he called a couronne de tasses. This consisted of tumblers of glass, half filled with water, or salt and water. These glasses or tumblers, were so placed that a metallic arc, in form of a C, could be fixed with one leg in one glass, and the other in the next glass. On one end of each arc, was fastened a small plate of silver or copper, and on the other end, a similar plate of zinc or tin. ”

“ It is impossible to enter upon the subject of galvanism, or Voltaic electricity, without recurring to the circumstance which first betrayed the existence of such an energy in nature, and to the sanguine expectations which the discovery so naturally excited. ”

“ Magnetism has been discovered in modern times to have so close a connexion with galvanism, that they may be said to be almost different aspects of the same agent. All the phenomena which we can produce with magnets, we can imitate with coils of galvanic wire. That galvanism exists in the earth, we need no proof. Electricity, which appears to be only galvanism in equilibrium, is there in abundance ”

“ In galvanism, sensibility, as a reagent, reduces all quality of bodies, for which it is a reagent to an original difference. All bodies which, in a chain, at all affect the sense of taste or that of sight, be their differences ever so great, are either alkaline or acid, excite a negative or positive shock, and here they always appear as active in a higher than the merely chemical power. ”

“ Paris, 1802. Both dissertations review galvanism from its origin and make mention of many works which had not up to that time appeared in print.
In the first volume of his “Elements of Galvanism,” London, 1804, Mr. C. H. Wilkinson devotes the entire Chap. VIII (pp. 188–260) to Reinhold’s able review of galvanism, wherein are first cited Gardiner (author of “Observations on the Animal Economy”) , Lughi, Klugel and Gardini as “anterior to the discovery of the [327] doctrine of animal electricity.” ”

“ That though medicine is capable of affording considerable aid in cases of drowning and of asphyxia, it presents us with no means so powerful as Galvanism. The experiments made at London, Jan. 17, 1803, on the body of Forster, executed for murder, have fully convinced me of the activity of this stimulant.
5th. That in cases of melancholy madness, when other Pg 131 remedies fail, Galvanism may be employed with the greatest hopes of success, provided the disease does not proceed from a vitiated constitution, or a general derangement in the animal machine. ”

“ While Galvanism, independently of other advantages, holds out such hopes of utility in regard to objects so interesting to mankind; a work containing a full account of the late improvements which have been made in it, illustrated by a complete course of experiments, cannot fail of being acceptable to the public in general, and in particular to medical men, to whose department, in one point of view, it more essentially belongs. ”

“ There is a vague analogy here with the effect of galvanism upon bodies recently dead, which derives some little force from the fact that the bodies least disposed to respond to the stimulus of galvanism are those which form the exceptions to the almost universal exhibition of rigidity—those, namely, which have been killed by lightning, and by blows on the pit of the stomach. ”

“ I received an account of this phænomenon at Milan, several years ago, from the celebrated Volta, who produced it by applying a conductor of zinc in such a manner, that one end of it touched the bulb of the eye, and the other the tip of the tongue armed with a plate of tin. In administering Galvanism for diseases of the eyes, it is much better to employ the pile. To excite the appearance of a flash of light, it is not necessary that the eyes should be open; it takes place even if they are shut, and covered with a bandage in a darkened apartment. ”

“ The fourth class comprehends those who, though not actually deprived of sight, have it much weakened in consequence of disease, or of some other cause.
The administration of Galvanism does not hold forth much hope of a cure to persons belonging to the first two classes. I however resolved to attempt some experiments on this subject at Bologna ”

“ The universal galvanism cannot exist, without establishing itself as an infinity of individual galvanisms. As magnetism is only associated with the net of metallic veins, so is the absolute only, with the universality of its finite positions. The number of organisms is infinite, both in coexistence as also in consecutive existence. ”

“ Galvanism is now applied to persons apparently dead, from drowning, hanging, or exposure to noxious gases. In such cases, the body should be divested of its clothing, and placed in a warm bed nearly approaching the natural temperature, and at the same time slight Galvanic shocks should be passed through the body, in such a direction as to affect the heart.—Thus by combining this, with the usual means, the most advantageous consequences may be expected. ”

“ The reader may suppose, as it was proved to be the virtue of galvanism to set the dead muscles doing those acts to which the living ones had been longest habituated, that I, upon being charged, could do nothing less than throw myself upon my hands and knees, and go galloping about the table, as I had been used to do over the lawn, when master Tommy was mounted upon my back. ”

“ Some very interesting tricks have, doubtless, at times been exhibited by the help of galvanism and electricity. We have read of a conjuror by such help confounding a powerful Arab, by first letting him lift with ease a box, and afterwards rendering it impossible for him to raise it, when an electric current had, to his dismay, paralyzed all his strength. It is evident that an experiment of this kind could not be safely attempted by any but a very experienced person. ”

“ Through thousands of years chemical forces slumber in matter till the contact with the reagents sets them free; then they appear; but time exists only for the phenomena, not for the forces themselves. For thousands of years galvanism slumbered in copper and zinc, and they lay quietly beside silver, which must be consumed in flame as soon as all three are brought together under the required conditions. ”

“ Again, in physics, we may multiply force, not only by the number of our elements, but by their size and arrangement. In galvanism two large elements or cells may be made to exhibit greater energy than many small ones in the aggregate of equal superficial extent, yet not precisely the same energy. ”

“ X treats of the all-important effects of galvanism upon man, and makes allusion to the experiments of Hunter, Pfaff, Fowler, Munro, Robison, Hecker, Carradori, Achard, Grapengieser, Schmuck, Ludwig, Creve, Webster and Volta. ”

“ Pure metals, formed into small piles, must be subjected to observation, and ought to be placed under equal bells, at the same temperature as that of the atmosphere. Until it be proved that the absorption of oxygen in the above experiments is merely a chemical effect, altogether unconnected with the action of Galvanism, I think I may be allowed to avail myself of it to prove the proposed analogy. ”