DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70267#0052
36
EXPERIMENTS ON THE BODY
From a perusal of the account of these late experiments
(lasting seven hours and a half), published by Professor
Aldini; it appears, that a hand of the deceased, was made
to move, lift up, and clench the fist, and an eye seen to
open, the legs and thighs set in motion; and all this, some
hours after his death had been inflicted. It is also to be
noticed, that these were the first experiments of Galva-
nism ever tried in this country, or upon the body of any
person that had been hanged. Nor were Mr. Aldini’s
experiments begun till the body of Forster bad been ex-
posed for a whole hour in a temperature, two degrees be-
low the freezing point of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; at
the end of which long interval, it was conveyed to a house
not far distant, where Mr. Aldini was in waiting, to com-
mence his operations.
In the course of this process we find, that, to assist the
Galvanic conductor^ volatile alkali was applied to the nostrils
and mouth ; incisions made in the wrist; the short muscles
of the thumb dissected, and lastly, the thorax, or stomach,
and the pericardium opened, and the heart exposed. But
here the endeavours to excite action in the ventricles were
without success. Salt-water was also applied by the Pro-
fessor to several parts of the body, as a stimulant, but the
longer the experiments lasted, the weaker they became in
their effects; though Mr. Aldini had no doubt, but that if
his apparatus had been stronger, the muscular motion of the
dead body might have been much longer continued, and
from the whole of the process upon Forster, he concludes:
1st. That Galvanism, considered by itself, exerts a con-
siderable power over the nervous and muscular systems, and
operates universally on the whole of the animal (Economy.
2d. That the power of Galvanism, as a stimulant, is stronger
than any mechanical action whatever. 3d. That the effects
of Galvanism on the human frame differ from those pro-
duced by electricity communicated with common electrical
4 machines.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE BODY
From a perusal of the account of these late experiments
(lasting seven hours and a half), published by Professor
Aldini; it appears, that a hand of the deceased, was made
to move, lift up, and clench the fist, and an eye seen to
open, the legs and thighs set in motion; and all this, some
hours after his death had been inflicted. It is also to be
noticed, that these were the first experiments of Galva-
nism ever tried in this country, or upon the body of any
person that had been hanged. Nor were Mr. Aldini’s
experiments begun till the body of Forster bad been ex-
posed for a whole hour in a temperature, two degrees be-
low the freezing point of Fahrenheit’s thermometer; at
the end of which long interval, it was conveyed to a house
not far distant, where Mr. Aldini was in waiting, to com-
mence his operations.
In the course of this process we find, that, to assist the
Galvanic conductor^ volatile alkali was applied to the nostrils
and mouth ; incisions made in the wrist; the short muscles
of the thumb dissected, and lastly, the thorax, or stomach,
and the pericardium opened, and the heart exposed. But
here the endeavours to excite action in the ventricles were
without success. Salt-water was also applied by the Pro-
fessor to several parts of the body, as a stimulant, but the
longer the experiments lasted, the weaker they became in
their effects; though Mr. Aldini had no doubt, but that if
his apparatus had been stronger, the muscular motion of the
dead body might have been much longer continued, and
from the whole of the process upon Forster, he concludes:
1st. That Galvanism, considered by itself, exerts a con-
siderable power over the nervous and muscular systems, and
operates universally on the whole of the animal (Economy.
2d. That the power of Galvanism, as a stimulant, is stronger
than any mechanical action whatever. 3d. That the effects
of Galvanism on the human frame differ from those pro-
duced by electricity communicated with common electrical
4 machines.