2,58 PHYSIOLOGY OF MUSCLES AND NERVES. 



one poisoned with curare. Nor does it make any dif- 

 ference whether a strong ascending current is passed 

 through the nerve of a sartorius thus conditioned, thus 

 inducing strong anelectrotonus in the intra-muscular 

 nerve-branchings, so as to disable it. He sees in this 

 a proof that the nerves which spread through the muscle 

 do not share in this form of irritation. He has, more- 

 iver, discovered that the nerves are not equally dis- 

 tributed throughout the sartorius. They enter at a 

 point somewhat below the middle of the muscle, and 

 distribute themselves upward and downward between 

 the muscle-fibres; but they cannot be traced to the 

 ends of the muscle, and there are at these ends retnons 



7 O 



of from 2 to 3 m. in length, in which at least tin- 

 larger muscle-fibres are wanting. (Whether the nerve- 

 in-t which, according to Gerlach, lies within the sarco- 

 h '1111110, extends to these regions, is another question 

 with which we have nothing here to do.) The specific 

 muscle-irritants affect these regions exact !v as they do 

 the rest of the muscle ; while the specific nerve-irritants 

 (concentrated lactic acid and glycerine) are never able 

 to affect these ends, though they elicit single pulsa- 

 tions in the parts containing nerve-. These nerve- 

 containing parts are also more electrically excitable than 

 are the ends; by curare and by anelectrotonus their 

 excitability is decreased, though that of the nervel- - 

 ends remains unaltered. 



Many objections have been lironid.it forward again* t 

 the-e conclusions. For my part, ill the very insiniilti- 

 eaiice of the differences between nerve and miir-de in 

 this point a l-o. I am inclined to sec new reason to 

 lu-lieve that these t wo organ s. -,, similar in all points 

 (:\- vet \\c know only two important differences, which 



