Human electricity : the means of its development

Preface

The information contained in the following pages is intended only as a means of inciting in the reader a desire for more. The subject treated of is exceedingly interesting, as it is connected with a department of science which not only presents an endless variety of beautiful illustrations, hut it is one which is working its way among the utilities of commercial enterprise, and the conveniences and necessities of social life.

My special object has been to invite attention to Electricity in its various relations with vitality. This is no longer a topic for vague speculations or uncertain conjectures — to he doubted or believed according

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to the fancy, or the prevailing fashion, in such matters. Animal Electricity in general, and Human Electricity in particular, are established facts ; as easily proved as that air, and food, and water, are necessary to the sustentation of animal life.

That which has been too long concealed underneath the technicalities of scientific phraseology, I have here attempted to put into popular, and, I hope it may prove, intelligible language. If one subject more than another deserves to be classed among the “ common things,” which ought to be known and understood by us all, I believe it to be Electricity as operating within and around us ; and which exercises a powerful influence over our capabilities for enjoying life, if, indeed, it he not one of the principal causes of health and disease.

J. O. N. R.

Black Bock,

Bbighton, Jan. 23rd, 1854.

Contents

<k

CHAPS. PAGES.

I. — Some Needful Explanations 1 — 9

Appendix

ADDITIONAL NOTES. PAGES.

A. — Animal Magnetism jjj

B. — Pooh-pooh xji

C. — Galvani xjv

D. — Volta xix

E. — Galvanism xxj£

E. — Oersted xxiii

G. — Stephen Gray xxjv

H. — Chirrup of the Cicada xxv

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CONTENTS.

ADDITIONAL NOTES. ^ I1 AGES.

I. — Gilbert xxv

J. — Electricity of the Human Body xxvii

K. — A Loadstone Mountain xxix

L. — Making Magnets xxxi

M. — Difficulties in obtaining Information xxxv

N. — Identity of Magnetism and Dia-Magnetism (?)... ib.

O. — Solar and Lunar Magnetism xxxvi

P. — Much Valuable Information Lost ....... xxxvii

Q. — Matteucci xxxviii

R. — Du Bois-Reymond xxxix

S. — “ An Old Device” ib.

T. — Od xliv

IJ. — Table-Moving xlvii

V. — The Quarterly Review. — “ Dominant Ideas” . ... li

W. — Ozone lvii

X. — Metallic Respirators lx

Y. — Miasma not Gas lxi

Z. — General lxii

A. A. — Electrical Fish ib.

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Chapter I. Some Needful Explanations

HIS book is not intended for scientific readers. It contains very little which is not, or which ought not to he, known and easily understood, by those who make any reasonable pretensions to the study of natural philosophy; especially that interesting, just now increasingly interesting, part of experimental investigation included under the comprehensive term — electricity. It is possible that some few things in the following pages may be the means of suggesting an occasional thought, or of giving a different direction to those which already exist ; so that by turning old thoughts into new channels, the lines

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of divergence may be somewhat multiplied and perhaps greatly extended; whilst the common centre remains undisturbed.

A learner for nearly forty years, I know how difficult it is to gather up the tangled threads of successive discoveries, and so to arrange and combine them as to get even an imperfect outline, much less a complete embodiment, of this branch of science. It is not my intention to attempt what is nearly, if not quite, an impossibility. Nor is it necessary. Limiting the illustrations to one department only of electrical phenomena, that is, those immediately connected with, and developed by, the human body, I think there will be less risk of wearying, or, what is perhaps still worse, bewildering the reader. Occasional references to elementary principles, and to simple and well-known conditions, cannot be dispensed with. They will be as few as possible : only such as are really important to the proper understanding of some other experiments.

Nothing new, or extraordinary, is promised. All that is intended, or that will be attempted, is to put together, it is hoped in a readable form, some curious, isolated, and, to some persons, probably unknown, facts relating to a subject which is not now for the first time attracting attention. It deserves all the care,

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and thought, and examination, the most careful and thoughtful can bestow on it. Experiments which are so easily performed, and which are so closely connected with the laws of our physical organization and mental constitution, cannot fail to be interesting, merely as experiments. When, however, the electricity of the human body is viewed in its relations with external causes — such as temperature, moisture, climate, seasons, the direction of the wind, and other meteorological phenomena; when it is known that locality, occupation, clothing, the structure or situation of the dwelling, or the articles of furniture it contains, are among the conditions which have something to do in determining a state of health, or disease, a joyous life, or an uncomfortable existence ; is it too much to hope and expect that, when these things are better known, they will receive proper attention from those who profess to be, and whom we so readily consult as, our guides and helpers ? Under various aspects, and by different names, animal electricity has for many years been talked about, written about, and studied; hut it seems never to have received that kind and degree of attention which its importance demands.*

* It is not intended here to enumerate even the names by which it has been designated ; much less is it part of my plan to occupy

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The facts connected with this branch of science are exceedingly numerous, scattered oyer a wide surface, and only lightly touched upon in popular treatises. They continue to furnish materials and occasions for disputation* — that kind of disputation, however, in which only a very few persons, and the fewer the better, are likely to be interested. To try and separate what can be made agreeable, and, I hope, instructive to ordinary readers, although they may not be acquainted with all the laws and conditions of electricity, from that which only commends itself to those who by education, attendance on lectures, these pages by anything like a history of the origin and progress of a controversy which, in no one of its phases, has been very creditable to those who have engaged in it. The sciences, and arts, and manufactures, would have made but little progress if every new discovery and invention had been the subject of fierce and undignified contentions. Numerous as have been the mistakes of many of the advocates of Animal Electricity, I believe its opponents have done very little towards correcting those mistakes. Calm and earnest investigation would have been more effective in exposing error, and establishing truth, than volumes of conjecture or dogmatical abuse. — Additional Note A.

* The latest example is furnished by a pamphlet (August, 1853) entitled, “ On Signor Carlo Matteucci’s Letter to H. Bence J ones, M.D., E.R.S. &c., Editor of an Abstract of Dr. Du Bois-Reymond’s Researches in Animal Electricity. By Emil Du Bois-Reymond, Member of the Academies of Sciences of Berlin and Vienna, &c. London : Churchill.”

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or other means of information, may, in these matters, be a-head of their neighbours, is all I have undertaken, or desire to accomplish.

It is too much to expect that everything contained in these pages will receive immediate assent and approval. That which may appear doubtful, because of the difficulties in the way of the kind of demonstration required, forms but a small portion of the subject. It takes its place among other illustrations, because to me the evidences are, and always have been, perfectly conclusive. Moreover, I feel that whatever deserves the name of illustrations of human electricity would be incomplete without some account of the curious manifestations of a power, closely allied to electricity, to say the least of it, which are supplied! by the Magnetoscope.

During the last two years, no opportunity has been missed of endeavouring to profit by the advice, and many valuable suggestions, which have been offered me on this subject. So also have all kinds of objections, which have come to my knowledge, been carefully and candidly examined ; as well as the numerous attempts which have been made to explain, (?) or rather, as it has often appeared to me, to mystify the phenomena. The difficulties, be their nature what it may, are not of my making. What some consider

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difficult is to me perfectly easy. Without any fanciful theory of my own to establish, my chief concern has been to make sure of the facts. These are plain and intelligible. A great deal more, undoubtedly, remains to be done ; but I see no necessity for being in a hurry. Many extraordinary effects are easily produced by the magnetoscope, and with a constancy and uniformity which imply, if they do not prove, the existence of a principle. When the effects are better known, and the conditions understood, there will be less perplexity about the cause. Those who settle everything by a movement of the hand, a shake of the head, or a dash of the pen, are not the most likely persons to make wise counsellors, or impartial judges. There are others who find It easier to object than to reason ; for knowing nothing of a subject is certainly not the best preparation for reasoning upon it. Find-fault people never allow themselves time to examine witnesses or hear evidence. More than half their favourite occupation depends on hasty decisions. By some, the experiments with the magnetoscope have been misrepresented, and by others abused. This can do no harm ; simply because the experiments themselves are true.

If it had been considered necessary to take shelter behind others, nothing could have been easier. I

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might have quoted the names of persons, eminent in their respective departments of knowledge, whose good opinion and encouragement, and whose concurrence in the views here ventured to be expressed, would have justified such a course. Truth is strong enough without any such supports. At present, the light it emits may he only like a feeble and far-off glimmering ; so feeble, that it is not perceived by unpractised eyes. Wait a little. It will be brighter by-and-by ; so much brighter, that it will be seen by all who look for it in the right direction.

Claiming only the same liberty for myself, which I freely admit to be the right of others, I have intentionally abstained from referring, by name, to opponents and objectors to the experiments with the magnetoscope. If they acquire either enviable, or unenviable, notoriety it shall be by their own seeking. Let them not praise or blame the wrong person.

There is one class of objectors so difficult to please that it is waste of time to say anything to them. They speak, and write, and act, as if all the laws and conditions which govern natural processes were known to them by a kind of intuition. So easily do they pronounce an opinion upon the possible and the impossible ; so promptly, and with such little effort, do they profess to separate truth from error

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that, whatever be not in agreement with their stereotyped notions, must, of course, be a mistake, a delusion, or a violation of so-called first principles. With such enlarged views of natural operations, such facilities for appreciating what is true and rejecting what is false, is it not surprising that these extremely clever persons should be always lagging behind the rest of the world ? Somehow or other it happens that, in the realities of life, the men who thus profess to know everything are distanced ; and not only distanced, hut fairly beaten by others who make no pretensions to being instructors, but are always willing to be learners.*

Many real difficulties have attended the subject here proposed for consideration. It would be wrong to understate, or affect to conceal, them. What is there really valuable which can be had without labour, disappointment, and occasional failure ? We prize a thing the more highly, just in proportion that the difficulties have been great, and the exertions arduous ; and especially, when profiting by the mistakes of others, we have attained what they failed to accomplish. Some who are identified with the most brilliant achievements in science, and whose names will be had in remembrance as long as there are any

* Additional Note B.

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scientific records, have devoted their time and their skill to animal electricity. The movements in this branch of research have been anything hut steady. In some respects they have resembled the celebrated discovery of spasmodic action in the limbs of a dead frog, and in which they originated. At one time there has been more guessing than experimenting ; hastily-formed opinions instead of patient efforts at demonstration ; and again, just as everything seemed to be settled satisfactorily, the subject, as by common consent, has been laid aside until it was almost forgotten. At every revival of the discussion something has been gained. Step by step, more especially during the last thirty years, new forms of, and important improvements in, apparatus, have led to equally great improvements in manipulatory processes. Various sources of error, not formerly suspected, are now understood and avoided. Everything has been simplified. Experiments which required unusual skill, and care, and caution, and which could be witnessed only by those admissible to privileged circles, are now so easily performed as to be an eveiy-day occurrence.

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Chapter II. What Is Meant By Animal Electricity?

What the precise nature of the difficulties, connected with animal electricity, have been, it is unnecessary here to particularize. They can scarcely he understood by those who are not tolerably familiar with the progress of the experiments; extending over a period of more than sixty years. It is especially deserving of notice that what was asserted by Galvani * and his friends, but denied by Volta f and his followers, we now know was incapable of proof by either party. Galvani was partly wrong in assuming that spasmodic contractions in the muscles of a frog, as produced by him, were due to inherent electrical action, and which manifested itself irrespectively of metallic excitation. Volta was also partly wrong in affirming that the whole of

* Additional Note C. + Additional Note D.

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the phenomena, — so new and startling, — were the result of mere contact of dissimilar metals.

Looking back oyer the long period already mentioned, and with all the advantages now possessed by after -knowledge and experience, the wonder is that Galvani and his contemporaries knew and did so much. By the greatest effort of imagination, it is. impossible to place ourselves so near to them as to enter into the feelings of amazement, or rather of awe, with which they witnessed what they believed to be one of the conditions, if not a primary law, of vitality. That which, for want of a better term, we too often call chance, or accident, had done its part ; but it had done it so quickly that, like sun-rise within the tropics, there was no preparatory period of twilight. Everything was so strange, so wonderful, so far beyond the range of then existing thought or vision; that one may readily forgive the mistakes which were made, and cease to express surprise at the difficulties which presented themselves.

Much better skilled in anatomy than in electricity, what more natural than that Galvani should turn his thoughts in the direction whither his professional, no less than his favourite, pursuits would first lead them ? There is, however, reason to believe that, previous to the discovery which immortalizes his

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name, he had been engaged in experiments which led him to entertain the idea that the contractions of the muscles of animals were in some wayproduced by, or dependent on, electricity.* His newly -discovered experiments greatly favoured this theory.

The existence of a “nervous fluid” — something which, if not the principle of life, was considered inseparable from it — was a commonly-received opinion by the learned of that day. Electricity now became the source of vitality : the nervous fluid was hastily dismissed, and both mind and body were supposed to be under the dominion of the more active agent. Pursuing the subject, which, like a new world, had thus been revealed to him, Galvani in the course of his experiments, either by chance, or as a necessary result of some of his manipulations, made the further discovery that an electrical machine was not required to produce convulsions in a frog ; exactly the same effects being apparent when the muscle and nerve were made to communicate by contact of dissimilar metals. Here was another new fact ; a step greatly in advance of all that had preceded it, and to be speedily followed by still more important disclosures.

* Dr. Roget, Art. “ Galvanism,” Lib. of Useful Knowledge, 1829.

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Wherever these discoveries became known, they excited the most earnest attention. Philosophers of all nations, and others who made no pretensions to the title, were set to work repeating and varying the experiments, and inventing theories for the explanation of the extraordinary phenomena. Accepting the hypothesis which Galvani had himself adopted, there were many who concurred in his views, and Animal Electricity immediately took rank as a new branch of science. But there were some who doubted, and others who openly expressed their dissatisfaction. They contended that Galvani had too readily yielded to first appearances, and, in common with other physiologists, in his eagerness to find what was then so anxiously sought after — the vital principle — he had not sufficiently examined the variable conditions of either of his great experiments.

At this distance in time it is difficult to understand the precise character of the events thus briefly narrated. Let it be remembered that, what is now familiar to the thoughts of children, was then unknown to the greatest philosophers. Most of the laws relating to common, or as it is often termed frictional, electricity had been investigated. That form, or kind, of electricity which is known to us as

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Galvanism had not then been discovered.* This may seem a strange statement; hut it can very easily be explained.

The experiments with recently-killed frogs had excited great attention, and had been repeated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times ; but the cause of spasmodic action still remained a mystery. According to their fortunate discoverer, the convulsions were due to inherent electricity, that is, electricity peculiar to, and constituting a part of, the animal economy. This was supposed to be generated, and, indeed, accumulated in the muscles, transmitted by the nerves, and discharged with the violent agitations witnessed in the former, when these two organs were made to communicate by good (metallic) conductors. This was one view — at the time extensively promulgated, very generally believed, and the more readily because it so exactly harmonized with previouslyexisting opinions.

If the advocates of the new doctrine reckoned upon a smooth course, and an easy triumph, they were soon undeceived. Opponents multiplied quickly, every inch of ground was disputed, and among the many eminent antagonists of animal electricity, the most resolute, and, it must also be acknowledged,

* Additional Note E.

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the most successful, was Galvani’s own countryman, Volta. Distinguished no less for his amiability in domestic life, than for ability and kindness in the discharge of his professional duties (surgeon and accoucheur), we never can think of Galvani but with feelings of admiration and respect. His fame as a lecturer in anatomy had long been established. In his method of teaching, there was an earnestness — a touch of enthusiasm — which attracted whilst it impressed his hearers. Wliat he believed and knew, or thought he knew, himself, he had no difficulty in imparting to others.

Volta’s mind was cast in a different mould. In the practical departments of experimental philosophy he was greatly superior to Galvani. Habitually cautious and thoughtful, the former examined everything as he went along, and, however great the sacrifice, he had sufficient courage to cast away as useless whatever seemed to him unsupported by the test of fair experiment. In him were combined the rare qualities of originality of invention, with patient, or, as it might with equal propriety be called, selfdenying investigation. There was the faculty of looking a-head, which enables a man to see a thing more than half finished before it is begun, and yet the movements were not impulsive. Volta reasoned

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before lie acted. A skilful manipulator, but too honest to coax an experiment, he was looking only for truth where others were trying to find materials to support a favourite theory.

If it be asked — why say so much of men long since passed away, and who are identified with that discovery in science which bears their name, chiefly on account of the contentions it occasioned between them ? I answer — because it is impossible to obtain an intelligible view of the science itself, without knowing a great deal of those who were the first workers in it. As when shown a specimen of embroidery, we naturally inquire about the head which designed, and the hands which executed, the forms and figures, the lights and shadows ; and, scarcely content with this, we even examine the back, that, by contrast, its confusion and entanglements may help to make the picture appear more beautiful — so, whilst searching amongst the motives, the opinions, the discussions, and even the disputes of Galvani and V olta, we must know as much as possible of the men, before we can properly understand the extent, or the value, of their services to the world.

By his own confession, Volta, when he heard of, and had repeated, the famous frog experiment, received at first with his usual caution, but soon afterwards

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adopted with undisguised approbation, the explanation of the phenomena as given by Galvani. This was of short duration. Doubts were soon succeeded by disbelief; and then commenced a controversy which, outliving the original disputants, has, under various forms, continued to the present day. Animal electricity justly deserves to be designated — a vexed question ; much of the vexation so long associated with it having been imported from a totally different subject. It is the bug-bear animal magnetism , which, intimidating some and disheartening others, has operated as a serious discouragement to those, in other respects, qualified to decide justly on both subjects. Is it not a strange infatuation in supposing that, by suspending the judgment, refusing to examine phenomena, forming no opinion, shutting the eyes and stopping the ears to all kinds of evidence, and denying what it may not be convenient or agreeable to believe, we thereby increase our knowledge, confer a blessing on the world, and give proofs of our good sense ? Is this the way in which we ought to try to elicit and establish truth ?

V olta went to work in a different way. He never calculated before-hand what the consequences might be to himself or others. Ready to subject his own opinions to the test of experiment, he showed only

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the same degree of tenderness for the opinions of others. Galyani was over-matched. Gentle in manners, he was unfitted for polemics ; least of all on a subject so dear to him, and with an opponent hold in assault and fearless of danger. The controversy lasted long and excited intense interest. Galvani and his friends did their best ; but to little purpose.

By successive experiments, as beautifully conceived as they were convincingly executed, Yolta showed that in Galvani’s experiments with the electrical machine, and with metals alone, spasmodic action in the limbs of a frog was not, as had been supposed, the result of an inherent current, made apparent by conduction between the muscles and nerves. Two dissimilar metals in contact, applied to the muscle, without touching the nerve, produced the convulsions. Here was a proof, as Volta maintained, that the animal electricity theory was wholly untenable. Galvani struggled hard to keep his hold on the ground which was slipping from under him. Varying the original experiment, he replied to his opponent by using only one metal, as the connecting link between muscle and nerve, and which had the same effect as both metals.

At the very commencement of the inquiry, Volta saw, or thought he saw, the true cause of the con-

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vulsions. He said it was electricity — not animal nor ordinary electricity ; but something, in its effects, very much like the latter, and produced by contact of metals. Galvani seems to have had a somewhat indistinct perception of the same important fact. If he had — by not following up his first impressions, and keeping to the track whither they must have led him, he missed much of the honour due to his own discovery. Advancing again, Volta showed by further experiments that although one metal caused the convulsions, the effects were due to a want of homogeneousness in the metal itself ; that when one metal only was used there was less certainty as to the result, and that the organs of the animal required to be in the highest possible state of excitability ; whilst with two metals the convulsions always occurred, and could be continued for a longer time.

The disputants were not left to work single-handed. Each had an effective staff of partizans. Some of these did good service to science, although it is to be feared their efforts were not directed to that object alone. But a change was approaching. Sorrow for the death of his wife, a long continuance of ill-health, and the harshness with which he was treated by the Cisalpine Government, incapacitated Galvani for the further prosecution of his researches. Leaving his

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opponent still occupied by the subject which was becoming every day more interesting, and which eventually was to set its mark on one of the great eras in physical science, the Bolognese philosopher passed away from earth. But his name and his labours will never be forgotten.

The controversy did not end here. Another effort was made to sustain the cause of animal electricity. Once more varying the frog experiment, Valli, a friend of Galvani’s, surprised and, for a time, confounded Volta by showing that convulsions could be produced without the aid of metal. This was done by simply placing the nerves in contact with the muscles. Volta was again ready with an answer; which was in effect that, the conditions just mentioned so far from proving anything against his theory, in reality supported and generalized the law he had announced. As in the action, by contact, of dissimilar metals, so was it with the organs of the animal — they required to be heterogeneous ; a third substance (moisture of some kind) being interposed.

Other and more important occupations awaited Volta. He was steadily advancing towards that important period in which his great discovery — the battery — was to be proclaimed to the world. This happened in little more than a year after the death

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of Galyani. Animal electricity was now comparatively forgotten. The wonders of the Voltaic battery engrossed so much of the time and thoughts of scientific men that everything else was laid aside. Here was Galvanism in its reality. No longer involved in doubt or mystery, this was the electricity which Volta had been searching after for more than ten years. The frog experiment, after all the contentions about it, proved to be of immense value. If it began in something like accident it ended in an effort of genius — an effort, as we have seen, often prompted and strengthened by the conflicts of opinion, yet guided by such consummate skill that we always hear the voice, and see the hand, of a master.

Turning back to the commencement (page 10) of what by some readers, I fear, will be considered a long story ; it will be noticed that I have said Galvani and Volta were both partly wrong in their conclusions about the frog experiment ; and yet no means then existed for proving their error, or showing on which side the greatest amount of truth existed. Let me try to explain this. An instrument was required for determining the actual existence of an electrical current, or force, independently of its development by the limbs of a frog. The animal itself was sufficiently sensitive to give indications of the presence of a power

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which was rightly judged to be electrical; but its source had yet to be discovered. Galvani said it existed in the frog. V olta said it existed in the metals ; the convulsions of the frog being nothing more than manifestations of its presence. These were the views with which each party set out. Galvani maintained his opinion to the end of his life. Volta’s views were modified by after - experience ; although the great principle of metallic electricity, as first announced by him, was finally established. The galvanometer was then unknown. Twenty years passed away, and they were eventful years for science. In our own country, as well as on the continent of Europe, the new power, so recently revealed by the voltaic battery, during this period was wielded with wonderful dexterity.

In 1819, Oersted* announced his great discovery. This was electro-magnetism — the power possessed by a current of galvanic electricity to disturb (deflect) a magnetized needle placed near the wire which connects the poles (extremities) of a voltaic battery. Where each successive step has been so greatly in advance of that immediately preceding it, the most we can do is to mark the epochs, and then try to understand some of the practical benefits.