3LG rilYsloU'i.Y 01 MUSCLES AM> NERVES. 



far from being understood. I'.ut at any rate it is impossible 

 to conceive tin- matter, as though the currentleB8 condition of 

 the muscle--- tliat is to say, the same tension on the longi- 

 tiulinal and traiisver.se sections wen- iidiinal, and as if every 

 negati veness on the transverse section were the result of 

 injury. For all possible degrees of parelectronomy are to be 

 found e%e:i the reversed order, in which the cross-section is 

 more positive than the longitudinal section in uninjun d 

 niuseles ; \\hile in other cases the ordinary muscle-current 

 is found powerfully developed in quite uninjured muscles. 

 Mon -over, as we have stated in the text, the question whether 

 ditl'eremvs of electric tension occur in uninjured muscle has 

 110 bearing on the question whether electromotive forces are 

 present within the muscle. "We declare ourselves ill favour 

 of this hypothesis, because it most simph and easily explains 

 nil the phenomena. Wo also apply it to structures on 

 the outer surface of which it can be proved with certainty 

 that 1:0 dill'erences of tension are present, as in the electric 

 plat' s of iishes. For this assumption ^e have the same 

 grounds on which physicists rely in claiming the existence of 

 molecular magnets in every, even quite uniuagnetie piece of 

 iron. Whatever, therefore, may be the true explanation of 

 parelectronoiny, it cannot essentially affect our well-founded 

 conception of the electric forces of muscles. If, however, 

 dn Bois-Reymond's supposition is confirmed, thai the puUi 

 tioiis which occur during life leave behind them an after 

 etleet on the muscle- ends, which niaki s the latter less neira 

 live, some approach wou'd be made to an ex[)lanation of the 

 phenomenon. 



l.'i. |)isi iiAia.r. lhro-|iii>| S ANP [SOLATED TKANS.MISSK.N 

 IN TIM N i i > I:-|MI:KI: (p. L' I'.t). 



'The explanation of the fact that the processes of r\ 

 citeinent remain i>olattd iii a nerve lihie without passing 

 into adjacent liel ve libres. appears tlie more inexplicalile. if 



