Note 1 — GALVANISM,

It may not be improper here to observe, that my method of exciting muscular contractions, without metals, is very different from that proposed by others. I do not know that convulsions have ever been obtained in cold-blooded animals by means of warm-blooded. From observations I have made, I flatter myself with the hope of being able to obtain contractions without metals, even in the muscles of warm-blooded-animals. But to ensure the certainty of this method would require long practice, and a preparation attended with considerable difficulty. I however propose to attempt it on my return to Italy. Some philosophers, indeed, had conceived the idea of producing contractions in a frog without metals; and ingenious methods proposed by my uncle Galvani induced me to pay attention to the subject, in order that I might attain to greater simplicity. He made me sensible of the importance of the experiment, and therefore I was long ago inspired with a desire of discovering that interesting process. It will be seen in the Opuscoli of Milan, that I shewed publicly, to the Institute of Bologna, contractions in a frog without the aid of metals, so far back as the year 1794. The experiment, as described in a memoir addressed to M. Amorotti, is as follows: “I immersed a prepared frog in a strong solution of muriate of soda. I then took it from the solution, and, holding one extremity of it in my hand, I suffered the other to hang freely down. While in this situation, I raised up the nerves with a small glass rod, in such a manner that they did not touch the muscles. I then suddenly removed the glass rod, and every time that the spinal marrow and nerves touched the muscular parts, contractions were excited. Any idea of a stimulus arising either from the action of the salt, or from the impulse produced by the fall of the nerves, may be easily removed. Nothing will be necessary but to apply the same nerves to the muscles of another prepared frog, not in a Galvanic circle; for, in this case, neither the salt, nor the impulse even if more violent, will produce muscular motion.