UPON THE

ADMINISTRATION OF GALVANISM

AND

ELECTRO-MAGNETISM.

THE difficulties which galvanism, as a therapeutic agent, has had to contend with are not a few; the chief being, that the theory of its application and administration has not been clearly defined upon true physiological reasoning; and the apparatus which has been supplied to the profession has been clumsy, inefficient, and unmanageable. These objections have been removed, and I trust in the following pages to be able to prove, not only that galvanism is theoretically the most powerful agent we possess for the cure of many diseases, but that, through the great improvements lately effected in the apparatus for its administration, it is also practically so.

Galvanism is electricity generated during chemical decomposition, and is a force which has hitherto been locked up

B

within the ingredients from which it is now set free. The amount of electricity liberated depends upon the quantity of chemical decomposition, and, as this is a comparatively gradual and slow process, the electricity, although constant, is of a low degree of tension; that is to say, the atoms of electricity are divided and separated from one another, whereas in static electricity the atoms are in a much more compressed condition and have far more energy. Electricity is one of the great forces which rule the universe, if not THE force, of which all the others are but modifications. Electricity is light, heat, expansion, attraction, probably even gravitation; it is the force which excites the growth of the vegetable world, and is the vitality of the animal creation. The so-called correlation of physical forces (a great step in the simplification of the study of science) is but the various forms taken by electricity in its modifications undergone during its passage through matter; or, in other words, the physical forces are the resultants of the reaction of matter upon electricity. Electricity, active, acts upon matter, passive; the result being a force differing from electricity in its properties, but reconvertible, under certain circumstances, into that agent.

Light, heat, and electricity, what are they? Imponderables. Is coal imponderable ? I think not. And coal carbon is but solid light, and may be converted into light, heat, and electricity; and light, heat, and electricity may and have been converted into carbon. The great chemical laboratory of nature for ages, millions of years, collected and stored up

light, carbon, within the tender shoots and leaves, to be dug up by man, to afford him that warmth without which he cannot live.

Light, heat, and electricity may be likened to oxygen, ozone, and the state in which oxygen exists in an oxide,—they are all oxygen, but modified by the condition in which they exist in different states, thus, ozone is oxygen in an active state, prepared to combine with bases; it is most probable that oxygen, before combining with hydrogen to form water, passes through the stage of ozone-hydrogen must also pass through some similar condition-they then combine, the hitherto repellant atoms are attracted one to another, forming water.

The quantity of matter in the atom of hydrogen is the smallest (as yet) known, and is set down as unity 1; the quantity of matter in the atom of platinum is 99 times that of hydrogen. The self-attractive force in the atoms of matter is in the same ratio as their quantity is minute; consequently, the atom of hydrogen has the most powerful attractive force within itself. It may be now understood, as the atomic attractive force in hydrogen so far exceeds that in platinum, how great must be the attractive force within themselves of the atoms of the so-called imponderables. Davy says, that "if matter should exist as much lighter than hydrogen, as that is lighter than platinum, its actual density could not be ascertained by our present means." Granted; but that does not mean that there will not a man arise

who will weigh even the present imponderables. The great Newton believed that light is material; and if the atoms composing it be intensely small, and their internal attractive force intensely strong, this view is quite practicable. But to return. Platinum, hydrogen, light. Platinum, the atoms of which are large and heavy; hydrogen, the atoms of which are minute and the lightest weighed; light, of which the atoms are (hypothetically) intensely small and light; but however small an atom may be, and however far apart the atoms may exist, still it is possible to compress those particles so as to produce a solid; this has been done in the instance of carbonic acid gas, where it has been solidified by pressure. Now if what I believe to be the fact be true, that carbon is the result of the atoms of light so brought together and compressed as to become a solid, here we have a stage of the process which much simplifies the argument, because carbonic acid gas is to the unscientific mind imponderable; and, in fact, it is but a very few years since by all it was considered imponderable; therefore, if this gas can by pressure be converted into a solid, by a little further stretch of the reasoning faculties, light might also be weighed, measured, and solidified.

That light is material and may be absorbed and exhaled, has been proved lately by some most interesting photographic investigations, in which engravings, having been exposed to a bright solar light, have been removed to a darkened room, and there photographed from the light which they had pre

viously absorbed and are now exhaling; this is the test experiment proving the materialism of light, and that it is a positive force in our world; and that it is not a mere result of the undulations of ether, but matter, and nothing but matter, most minutely divided, beyond human ability to condense and handle, is true, but material for all that.

Is light the force? I believe not; merely a modification of it, a correlation. Is heat? Certainly not. Is electricity? Not as we know it, and experiment with it; but as it exists in the sun, the spheres, space, and in our system generally— yes.

Light, heat, and electricity-three conditions of the same. force; they can be converted into one another, and it is the effects produced upon them in their passage through matter, which makes the difference men of science have recognised. Forces there is but one force, which in its travels takes many shapes to different observers; it passes in and out, up and down, always changing, and apparently disappearing, but never lost. Force cannot be lost; it acts and reacts, it lies dormant and locked up for centuries, but there it is, some day to reappear, resistless, triumphant.

The idea I wish to convey is, that electricity, one of the embodiments of the force, is convertible, under certain conditions, into every other force; and that, according to its application, it may be made use of to any purpose in which a force is necessary. Thus, suppose heat be required, electricity may be converted into heat with the greatest ease. Suppose we